Sleep Token - Take Me Back to Eden (2023)^{Release ID: 44769}

Allowing some electronic and pop sensibilities into my metal has been a recent trend from the last couple of years. Starting with the completely unexpected success of Bad Omen’s last full-length release, I have flirted around with these once considered alien elements to little if any success. The fact is, there’s a dirge of such styled artists and bands around nowadays and the exploration is at best underwhelming despite the extent of the resource to run at. Sleep Token landed on one of my workout playlists that my streaming service devises with The Summoning, a six minute plus varied track with some killer riffs that initially piqued my metal interests.

Multiple playbacks of that track eventually brought me round to considering it worthy enough a gateway into Take Me Back to Eden, the band’s album from last year. Initial exploration soon taught me that the riffs of The Summoning were an isolated affair, and the more mainstream and commercial leanings of the album did not sit right with me at all. It has taken a few attempts (mostly during recent hotel stays on my own with headphones and my phone) but I now feel I am there with Take Me Back to Eden. Quite where “there” is takes a little explanation.

The heavier elements in the rhythmic structures of Sleep Token’s third full-length are more commonplace than I first believed. As big a draw as this is for me, they do also however lack variety and sometimes just feel like they are put in place for the hell of it. The fraught lyrical content gets a substantial and well characterised delivery in the unique vocals of Vessel. Sounding like some bastardised version of George Ezra meets metalcore, the vocals are complimented by various influences of music ranging from metal, through pop, through trap and even jazz. All are done with a panache that shows a skill and deftness for a varied musical palate.

For the first eight tracks, this fluid soundscape works well. For the final four tracks…not so well. This is because Sleep Token have far too many ideas but not enough quality structures to frame them in. The album sounds immediately tired to the point of exhaustion as soon as the dull tropes of DYWTYLM kick in and this marks the end of Take Me Back to Eden long before the title track even gets a chance to play. There are still catchy lines and hooks aplenty in the final parts of the record, but they are cast splattergun-like into songs that lack form and identity. Only on occasion do they surface for deserved recognition, but they are all too soon forgotten (even with repeated plays) and I find myself just listening to the earlier “hits” like Chokehold, The Summoning, Granite and Aqua Regia instead.

I've seen this band Sleep Token getting mentioned a lot lately in different sites. With their new album being this month's Gateway feature release, I thought it would be the right time to find out what the hype is about. And let me tell you, this is one of the best albums to combine pop and metal in my life!

Having just come back from headlining a tour in Australia, Sleep Token started getting ready for an immense comeback that is Take Me Back to Eden! Pretty much half of their album was released as 6 singles one by one in the 5 months leading up to its release. Apparently, this album concludes a trilogy that began with their first two albums. Mixing heartful melodies and reflective lyrics with metal guitars, Take Me Back to Eden breaks the boundaries of heavy music and pays off with graceful strides.

A true blessing was unleashed with first single "Chokehold", as the beautiful synths and vocals welcome you to Eden. What's incredible is the ethereal atmosphere that you just gotta hear! The next day, listeners get to hear "The Summoning", with heavier breakdowns leading up to a soulful bass/vocals ending. The song is highly popular on Spotify, and I can understand why. Next single "Granite" has some energy though in an R&B/trap direction. The lyrics have frontman Vessel standing up for himself, which fits well for the album's tone. "Aqua Regia" continues to descend from the dynamics with just a minimalistic instrument lineup of bass, drums, and piano, as Vessel continues rising with his vocals that are like Imagine Dragons but better.

"Vore" sharply turns into blackgaze. Vessel takes on vicious screaming while drummer II blasts through with rapid drumming which, combined with intense guitar heaviness, adds beautiful ambient darkness that sounds so killer. "Ascensionism" ascends through 7 minutes of sonic emotion. Melancholic piano and delicate vocals start things off before an atmospheric buildup. Then we switch to that electronic trap beat as Vessel takes on autotuned rap-ish singing that I would rather hear from him instead of T-Pain. Just listen to that personality! Things get tense as another verse builds, and finally, a heavy breakdown occurs, a little more touching piano, and then ground-pounding finale. "Are You Really Okay?" is worth some praise as a sad yet uplifting ballad with clean guitar. The lyrics head down in esoteric depths as they warn you about mental health and the dangers of self-harm. "The Apparition" is similar with more of the harmonic vocals, clean guitars, serene synths, and programmed drums, before the djent comes again.

"DYWTYLM" may be a fan divider, but the sparse instrumentation is something great to love. "Rain" will have people clapping along in live shows, especially to the infectious chorus, "Rain down on me". The 8-minute title epic really nails the structure. In a garden of birds, Vessel sings in tranquility before lyrics of mental state are semi-rapped. The ending climax has Vessel screaming in pretty much the heaviest breakdown of the album. "Euclid" ends it all in bittersweet hope with the last of Vessel's vocals here. The album and trilogy may be over, but who knows what's next in the future of this band?

Take Me Back to Eden shows Sleep Token experimenting in beautiful greatness, and in the end, we have a lot of emotional complexity to explore that will have you wanting more once you try it. I was given a chance to check out the hype, and it was well worth the ride!

Favorites: "Chokehold", "The Summoning", "Vore", "Ascensionism", "DYWTYLM", "Take Me Back to Eden"

I would have had every reason in the world to stay away from Sleep Token in 2023. When I listened to this band’s 2021 album This Place Will Become Your Tomb, I criticized as being another standard piece of cult-esque worship band. I could never deny the talent that was on display, but thanks in part to a lot of poorly executed songwriting techniques and formulas, that record did not sit well with me.

But perhaps we were only just getting to the meat of the Sleep Token cult. You see, ever since Bring Me the Horizon dropped That’s The Spirit in 2015, there seems to be an alarming attempt to “popify” metal in recent years (perhaps you could call a new wave of British heavy metal?). More acts like Bad Omens and Architects using electronics, but not in the traditional industrial sense; instead opting for electronic percussion and heavy bass presence. Hmm, isn’t there a style of metal music that focuses on rhythmic virtuosity and heavy bass presence?

It’s bizarre to see so many metal fans become enraged by a band like Sleep Token, when all they’ve done is take Animals As Leaders to its next logical conclusion. And on Take Me Back To Eden, I will admit this album is not a flawless attempt at bridging the gap between pop and metal, but it is the best representation of that tonal shift that I’ve heard from Sleep Token.

For starters, the albums first handful of tracks are some of the best of Sleep Token to date. In terms of composition for starters, “Chokehold” and “Vore” are not meant to be pop chasing songs. “Chokehold” in particular starts with ominous synths and eerie tempo mapping that reminds me of a Lingua Ignota record! What happens next (and for the rest of the album really) is the well-balanced tightrope as Sleep Token switch between heavy, djent infused riffing and soft, atmospheric pop and R&B.

It can be a hard sell since metal fans crave the sound of live, acoustic percussion, but since this album has no issues in subverting your expectations at the outset, I think the way in which the percussion is not only balanced, but also unique between the two tales is worth commemorating. “Granite”, “Aqua Regia” and “Vore” do an excellent job of this.

Unfortunately, the album takes a bit of a bump following “Vore” and is never able to fully recover afterwards. Part of the reasoning for this is that the rest of the album falls into a predictable pyramid scheme for each track; where the heaviest moments are not implemented into the tracks rather than just expanding upon a pop chorus formula but now with guitars and thick drums.

I think that the guitar mixing is very well done as there is some truly spectacular dichotomies between the heavier djent passages and the cleans during the bridge of “Vore” and “Are You Really Okay?”. Vessel’s vocals are more dynamic than ever before, and while the heavy-handed percussion is par for the course over this style of metal music and mostly okay, it still does not change the fact that some of it can become really disorienting during the album’s softer moments.

Sleep Token are going to get a lot of flack for bridging the gap between pop and metal as directly as this. And while it may not be the grand masterpiece that anyone asked for, I have yet to hear anyone do it like this before. A lot of past experiences have shown that getting swallowed by an Imagine Dragon forces the artist to lose their sense of identity in the process, but I still think that Sleep Token have their best years ahead of them.

Best Songs: Chokehold, Granite, Aqua Regia, Vore, Are You Really Okay, The Apparition