Review by Saxy S for Sleep Token - Take Me Back to Eden (2023)

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