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

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.