37. Sleep Token – “Sundowning”

Metal loves anonymous mask wearing entities. It is the first genre to dive into the dressing up box and slip on a facial features obscuring garment. From Slipknot to Ghost there is a whole host of acts that have decided that jeans and band shirt is so passé’. Sleep Token’s identities are still shrouded in secrecy but the interesting thing is that they sound nothing like you expect. This is slow burning electronica as opposed to in your face Metal. And slow is very much the word. This album creeps. Musically it is a dense atmospheric cloud that inches its way through the duration of the record. The heaviness is there but it is just on the edges of hearing. What really stands out (aside from how intricately constructed it is) is ‘Vessel’s’ voice. It is stunning. Full of pathos, emotion and soaring beauty, there is something really interesting here. There are angular riffs but there are also passages that’s sound like Boys 2 Men (seriously). It just all shouldn’t work. But it does. In the end, you come away intrigued and there is no better way to leave a record.