I’ve talked numerous times about Sleep Token on The Shield’s website. However, I never truly talked about what they, as a band, meant to me. You might be wondering, ‘Why am I talking about this?’ What does my opinion of Sleep Token—outside of the albums—have to do with their “greatest achievement”? Well, dear reader, Sleep Token has reached 100 million listens on both “Caramel” and “Emergence.”
It was no surprise that these two songs would do well, since they were the top trending tracks for a long time after their release. “Emergence” was on Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs for 21 weeks, and “Caramel” was on the list for 20 weeks.
So, how does this relate to this article? Well, I’m going to see them for the first time on Sept. 19. Thinking back on the album reviews I’ve done, I realized that I’ve never really delved into what they mean to me. I am, after all, according to the office, “Sleep Token’s No. 1 fan.”
Sleep Token has a long history, [redacted]—this is what I’m using to distinguish between the character and artist, who is from England and started his career young. [Redacted] had this to say in Metal Hammer Magazine back on May 19, 2017, “How we got here is as irrelevant as who we are – what matters is the music and the message. We are here to serve Sleep and project His message.” He later goes on to say, “Life is fleeting and this too shall pass. But for now, we praise Him.” These quotes alone say a lot about this band.
This band prides itself on being a break from the genre. They created their own genre by mixing and blending music to tell a story. This band is a story and when that story is done, they will vanish into the hall of artists who have changed the music industry forever.
I’ve discussed briefly my discovery of Sleep Token back in the “Take Me Back to Eden” album review I’d done with the previous Editor-in-Chief, Ian Young, but here, I’ll be going into depth on my discovery of them.
It was the summer of ‘23, and I was about to enter my senior year of high school. I was on TikTok and kept scrolling through videos using the last half of “The Summoning.” This audio snippet had been trending for over a week by that point and I was curious. When I first clicked on the music video, I was taken aback by how different it sounded. I thought that I had clicked on the wrong song, but I continued listening.
Growing up, I’d listened to a variety of music thanks to my siblings and parents. My dad and mom are 80s metal and rock fans, and my brother likes Nu Metal and alternative music. Meanwhile, my sister likes pop music. It was only natural that I’d find myself gravitating towards one or the other. But instead, I ended up loving all these genres. To this day, I listen to numerous bands that my siblings have listened to in the car.
Sleep Token’s blending and breaking of the genres I’d grown up listening to was something that immediately stood out to me. It’s something that I’d never heard of before. What do you mean that bands can just break the genres they’re playing? That’s a thing? I’d grown up knowing that the music industry can be brutal; I knew they’d only release the songs that they like and genres that fit their audiences, but this was different, this was new.
I went back, listening through the “Take Me Back to Eden” album. Afterwards, I went on Google to find more albums to listen to, but then I discovered r/SleepToken, an entire Reddit page dedicated to this band; the first post I clicked on was one discussing the lore. I was blown away; not only did this band break genres, but there was also a continuous story of characters. Even as a kid, I’ve always been drawn to elaborate storytelling. I immediately found myself falling down the rabbit hole of Sleep Token, their story and what it could mean. By the end of the week, I’d listened to their entire discography.
Flash forward to today and I find myself more in love with this band than I was when I first heard them. I didn’t just discover a band, I found a community. This community has opened doors for me that I didn’t even know were possible. Heck! This year, I joined a piano class at USI because I was moved by [redacted]’s playing abilities.
Love them or hate them, you can’t deny the impact that this band has had on the majority of the population. There is a reason why “Even in Arcadia” is considered “Album of the Year So Far” according to KNOTFEST.