666 : The Great Showdown : Sleep Token

Still 666 words but this time the guys battle it out! What is Sleep Token? Who’s side are you on?

Stewart:

I want to love Sleep Token. They channel all that I love about Metal. The pomp, the theatrics, the narrative, the mystery and most importantly the ability to pillage influences from all over the shop. Metal is the great musical magpie genre, sustaining itself over the decades by picking on the carcasses of lesser musical genres. I’ve no issue with bringing pop into our world, in fact I welcome its sugar-coated saccharine goodness with open arms. The issue for me is that Sleep Token have purloined the wrong type of pop. They have hooked themselves up with the same maudlin, down-tuned off-kilter pop that saw me abandon indie around a decade ago. This is the plodding, auto-tuned, miserable version of pop purloined by Alt-J, Bastille and Rudimental amongst others. I want my pop to be the joyous explosion in a Haribo factory pop of Abba, S-club or Take That. I just cannot engage with this forlorn version of pop full of faltering vocals, quivering synths and fluctuating frequencies. It may aim to be worthy and emotionally engaging but instead it comes across as limp, inane and bland. This is the pop that Sleep Token are smuggling into our world and frankly it grates against my soul. I’ve no problem with high octane Metal and I have no problem with quite subtle Metal. Where I do have a problem is when it becomes dull and insipid and this is why I just can’t connect with Sleep Token. The melodies are so paper thin and dialled down that they might as well not have bothered being there. And his voice, it’s meant to be full of pain and conviction but instead it just comes across as half-cooked and boring. It lacks any oomph, any fireworks and any sense of joy. Maybe this slight lo-fi approach is the future and maybe I am a dinosaur waiting for my extinction event but I demand passion and flare in my music and with Sleep Token I find neither.

Matt:

I love Sleep Token. But when I first saw them I didn’t ‘get’ them. It was their secret performance at Tech Fest and I simply didn’t know who or what they were. But following that performance I was unknowingly changed and couldn’t stop thinking about them and their music. Like a parasite attached to my musical soul I started to hunger for them more and more. Emotional connections formed to songs and their vividly affecting lyrics the more I listened to them. They became part of me and my musical world. The melodies often begin delicate and intricate, they are at times simple and others effortlessly layered like some of the best Depeche Mode tracks. In Vessel they have a singer whose voice is at once both hauntingly exposed yet also luxuriously warm. The vulnerability of the melodies and his voice at the same time can be disconcerting, possibly mistaken for unpleasant, but the manner in which they can burrow away into your mind and heart is astounding. Those songs that embrace a more traditional prog or tech-metal aspect are luscious in their use of passionate almost gravelly vocals alongside crisp staccato snare hits, deep rumbling bass and gnawing guitars. The fact the moments that provide force and aggression are not ten-a-penny means the sense of joy is only amplified once they are delivered. Maybe I’ve been dragged in by the pantomime and romance of the enigmatic performances and social media campaigns, but the vulnerable and tortuous fragility of the music owes nothing to these elements. Not all the songs are landmarks, but when they get it right such as with The Offering, Atlantic, Hypnosis and Alkaline then they are some of the best songs I’ve ever heard. Experience the gentle piano giving way on one of these tracks to syncopated drums and thundering down-tuned guitars and enter a special place. I demand passion and flare in my music and with Sleep Token I find it in abundance. Yes, I guess I worship.