#sleep token interpretation

[magefeathers]

Sleep Token Analysis: ONE

To my continuing surprise people seem to like my Sleep Token thoughts, so I guess I should start posting my song interpretations. 

I wrote about my interpretation of Sleep itself here, and while I'd love for you to read that as well, it isn't required reading for my song interpretations. The only really important thing to know is that I don't interpret the music as being about Sleep, regardless of what you personally view Sleep as.

I have a very grounded/realistic/logical way of interpreting things, because that's just the way my brain works, but I want to make it clear that I'm not trying to analyze or decipher anything about Vessel's actual human life in the real world. I think there's a narrative being told, that is shared primarily through emotional responses to events rather than events themselves being portrayed, and the narrative composed by any interpretation of these emotional responses may or may not be an actual reflection of any real events that may have inspired them. I have no clue, and I have no desire to find out. So, for the sake of remaining within the narrative, I will refer to the person singing as the narrator, and the person being sung about as the subject. If I use the name Vessel, I'm referring to him as a third person writer – best way I can explain how I think about it is, the narrator is Lemony Snicket, while Vessel is Daniel Handler (the real author). No part of this is meant to be dissecting his actual life, only the characters in the narrative.

Disclaimer aside, onto the analysis! 

THREAD THE NEEDLE

Bury me inside this Labyrinth bed We can feel that time is Dilated

There are a number of instances across the discography where the context in which something is presented and the tone in which it's sung doesn't quite match the implication of the actual words. It's harder to pick up on than more blatant lyrical dissonance (as in the original version of Hey Ya) because a lot of the lyrics are so cryptic to begin with, so you have to really think about what he's saying to pick up on the dissonance. 

Saying you want to be buried somewhere seems like a positive thing (I want to spend eternity here), but labyrinths tend to symbolize confusion and struggling to find your way, searching for the right path. So in saying ‘bury me inside this labyrinth bed’ he's asking… to spend forever in a place that causes confusion and uncertainty? 

Likewise, to say that time is dilated in this seemingly complimentary context is an interesting choice, because when something is dilated that means it's been expanded, and normally it's a negative thing when we say that time feels like it's just stretching on and on. But if the narrator wants to spend eternity here, it must be meant to be a good thing, especially if the narrator and the subject are spending the night in fascination.

One possibility is that he was thinking about it in a less literal sense and more in the sense of your pupils dilating when you look at someone you love, but I tend to lean more toward believing this dissonance is intentional. Perhaps it's because time feels dilated in this place that he's resigned to spending eternity here: he already feels trapped, so why not simply choose to stay? Regardless of the reasons why the narrator might want this, the dissonance tells us that what the narrator is idealizing isn’t actually healthy, or as good as he thinks it is.

It might seem like a bit of a jump for the first set of lyrics, but when taken in the context of the rest of the discography, I feel like this is about the tendency to wallow in one's own misery, to make your depression and trauma a fundamental part of who you are and revel in them, rather than trying to heal. Change is hard; the confusion and uncertainty and the pain they bring are all familiar and comfortable, and that's why the narrator wants to stay with them.

We can spend the night in Fascination You can thread the needle Time and time again

I had only ever heard the phrase ‘threading the needle’ in a mostly literal context, referring to anything to the effect of navigating through a narrow opening. So I googled the phrase to make sure I understood it fully, and apparently it can also mean, “to find harmony or strike a balance between conflicting forces, interests, etc.” 

So with the phrasing of this – we can spend the night in fascination, you can thread the needle – it makes me wonder, if the subject is the one finding this harmony, what are the conflicting forces at play here? Again taking the rest of the discography into context my most realistic assumption is that the subject is bringing peace to the conflict the narrator feels within himself, between his mind and his mental illness. As I personally read a lot of signs of pre-existing familial trauma in later music, it could also be that the subject feels like a safe haven from the conflict of the narrator's home life. 

You turn the lights down Come on and find out

An invitation extended to the subject; he's already said I want to spend forever here, now he's saying I want you to join me. Come and spend the night in fascination with me. I want you in this labyrinth with me because you bring me peace. If I'm going to be lost forever, I want to be lost with you.

Now. It's perhaps worth mentioning that the narrator inviting the subject to turn the lights down and join him in a labyrinth bed to spend the night in fascination can certainly be read in a suggestive manner, and I want to clarify that although I see the innuendo there, and I do think it's an intentional innuendo, I don't actually think any of this is about sex. I think Vessel as a writer sometimes uses very sensual or suggestive phrasing to convey a level of intimacy that many people instinctively associate with sex, even though he isn't talking about sex. There's this ongoing theme across the discography of the narrator wanting to know the subject inside and out, including the parts of themself that they hide from the rest of the world, and I think there's an intimacy to that level of allowing someone into your inner world that goes deeper than just sex. I think he's just using the trappings of sexiness to set this stage of intimacy, because, y’know, sex sells and whatnot.

Something to confide in Something to erase Just look at where we're lying An invisible space

Not someone to confide in, but something, steering away from the more common usage of the word. I feel like the narrator is still trying to convince the subject to join him in this invisible space, this metaphorical labyrinth – which is probably the fields of elation from the next song. There's a lot of similarities between Thread the Needle and Fields of Elation that lead me to believe that they're sort of different versions of the same song, or different songs telling the same story, however you want to think about it. So I think these lines are telling the subject what this dreamscape has to offer: it's something they can believe in and have faith in, something that can erase the woes of the real world.

We can spend the night in Fascination You could thread the needle Time and time again

Also worth mentioning is that in the original myth of the labyrinth, the only way the hero of the story, Theseus, could find his way out of the labyrinth was by using a ball of thread given to him by the Princess Ariadne, who had fallen in love with him. So between you can thread the needle and nobody else can pull me out hopefully you can see why I think this figurative ‘labyrinth bed’ and the ‘fields of elation’ are one and the same. The fields of elation, most commonly interpreted as some sort of dreamscape and the domain of the deity Sleep (although you’ll know how I feel about that if you read my interpretation of Sleep), are the narrator’s personal labyrinth, one he wants to get lost in and is inviting the subject to wander endlessly with him, but… does the subject want to?

It's at this point that the music gets louder and arguably quite tense. I'll be the first to admit I know nothing about actual music theory, but I am generally able to recognize when the sounds being used are meant to make the listener feel anxious or tense, and that's the impression I get from the music here. This is just an assumption, of course, but given how prevalent this dichotomy is on One – between dreamy, ethereal lyrics with sparse and gentle music behind them and then wordless sections with heavy, intense, music – I feel like it's an intentional choice, perhaps to show the contrast between the peace the narrator feels with the subject and the anxiety/depression/abuse/etc that permeates the rest of his life. Or, perhaps, this tension is indicative of the confusion and uncertainty found within the labyrinthian fields of elation, and the whole reason the narrator wants the subject to join him there is to quiet or calm this storm.

If I’m following my interpretation from earlier of the narrator’s wish to stay in this dreamscape being a metaphor for choosing to wallow in one’s depression, perhaps these invitations to the subject are a request to be met where he is rather than forced outside of his comfort zone? It could also relate back to the recurring theme I mentioned earlier, of the narrator wanting to know the subject inside and out, even the parts of theirself they hide from the rest of the world. Maybe these invitations for the subject to join him in this dreamscape – arguably his inner world, whether you look at it as a literal dream world or a metaphor for his depression – are a way of offering to let them in, and share the parts of himself that he hides from the world. Regardless, it’s a request which I don’t think goes over well, judging by how the song ends.

You turn the lights down Come on and find out You turn the lights down Come on and find out

The repetition of this line, these invitations to the subject, leads me to believe the subject has not taken this invitation. The narrator wants to share his inner world, his dreams, his life, with the subject, but his repeated invitations seem to fall on deaf ears. The way the tense music cuts out very suddenly into this repeated line, and then goes straight back into the heavier music with steadily growing tension makes me believe the narrator's first invitation was likely ignored. After some time away from the subject, dealing with whatever conflict exists in his life outside the subject (the tension in the music), he eventually decides he can't take it on his own anymore and comes back to offer his invitation again, only to be either ignored or rejected once more. The way the music simply fades out at the end of the song rather than coming to a concrete end makes me lean more toward the invitation being ignored – there is no closure, no solid answer.

Nothing about this song leads me to believe that the narrator and the subject are actually in a committed relationship. I have mixed feelings about the common belief that the whole of the discography is about one singular toxic relationship, but I tend not to get into it because it doesn’t really matter much in the grand scheme of things. Whether the subject is one toxic partner (or romantic interest) that the narrator keeps going back to or there are multiple subjects signifying multiple toxic relationships over the years, the narrative remains the same: the narrator is stuck in a cycle of abuse. As mentioned before, I’m not trying to analyze Vessel’s actual life in any way, so I generally think it’s worth assuming one subject for the sake of The Narrative. However, it is difficult for me to align my interpretation of One with the rest of the discography because it reads so distinctly like a relationship that never was, to me. I feel like the relationship explored within One is either entirely self-contained within the EP, or takes place very, very early in the relationship with the subject of the album trilogy.

FIELDS OF ELATION

The daylight recedes in unison, this room Buries the hours like death, in motion Nobody else can pull me out The fields of elation, quiet and loamy

The opening of this song is very reminiscent of the opening of the previous song. The daylight receding is obviously a reference to nightfall, and burying the hours I assume is either referring to killing time, or referring to sleeping as being like a temporary death. Either way, I think it's safe to assume the first two lines are referring to passing the nighttime hours in one's room, probably sleeping/dreaming. It recalls bury me inside this labyrinth bed from the previous song, as well as the feeling of time being dilated. This is why I believe the two songs are connected, and these fields of elation are the same invisible place spoken about previously. Whereas the previous song had the narrator inviting the subject to join him in this dreamscape, however, this song says nobody else can pull me out. The subject hasn’t accepted his invitations, and the narrator has decided that the subject is worth partaking in the waking world for.

Your name is a sin I breathe, like oxygen Caught in the careless arms of lust, again Nobody else can pull me out The fields of elation, quiet and loamy

This reinforces my theory that the narrator and the subject aren't actually in a relationship, because the subject's name wouldn't be a sin if it were something he were allowed to indulge in. Whether he uses lust here in the more widely understood manner, or simply as a tool to further compare his feelings for the subject to something sinful and illicit is up to interpretation, but ultimately the message is the same: the narrator's desire for the subject is an indulgence he feels guilty about, but also feels like he needs – like oxygen – and it's a sentiment that's echoed in the refrain at the end of the song.

The heavier music kicks in here, but it doesn’t hold the same tension that ‘Thread the Needle’ did, not at this point, anyway.

And nobody else can pull me out The fields of elation, quiet and loamy And nobody else can pull me out The fields of elation, quiet and loamy

If ‘Thread the Needle’ was the narrator inviting the subject into his inner world, into his dreams, into his life, and receiving no response, then ‘Fields of Elation’ is perhaps a bit of coaxing. I read this as trying to express to the subject how much they mean to him, how important they are to him. If they won't accept the invitation into his dreams, then he insists that they're the only thing better than dreaming, the only thing worth being awake for. 

It’s after this section that the tension rises, and then the heavier music cuts out for the final refrain.

I'm losing my faith in our lives apart I'm losing my faith in our lives apart I'm losing my faith in our lives apart I'm losing my faith in our lives apart

This refrain breaks my heart, not only because of the words but because of how hopelessly it's delivered. It sounds like resignation, like he already knows he's going to need to continue on without the subject, even though he doesn't know how he'll be able to. And unlike the fade-out at the end of ‘Thread the Needle’ this song ends rather quickly after this, with only the gentle atmospheric music lingering for a few seconds longer, leaving us on that note of hopelessness.

WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS

You could stay alive Just tell me that you notice Even in the dark The way I left you breathing

I’m going to hope that staying alive is just a metaphor for staying awake, as I hypothesized the opening of the previous song might be referencing sleeping as being a sort of temporary death. I’m assuming the narrator, by this point, has gotten a flat-out rejection of his invitations, and is now relenting that the subject can stay in the waking world. All he asks is some sort of recognition of what they shared; I’m assuming 'the way I left you breathing' is meant to say he, at some point, took the subject’s breath away?

Sometimes when we touch Everything we love resets It's only just enough Even when we run with death

It seems to me as though this part of the song is acknowledging some flaws in whatever their relationship is. Whether the touching referenced is literal or metaphorical, it seems that this connection is refreshing their love for each other, making it just enough for them to cope with their struggles. This is, honestly, the first time we’ve gotten any hint that the subject might feel the same about the narrator… which is why I’m going to give into the suggestive innuendo for just a moment and say that maybe the previous verse’s 'tell me that you notice [...] the way I left you breathing' is in fact a reference to them sleeping together and the narrator leaving the subject literally, physically out of breath. Perhaps the 'sometimes when we touch / everything we love resets' is meant to say that it’s only the physical aspect of this relationship that’s actually fueling their feelings for each other – or, at least, the subject’s feelings for the narrator. This kind of changes the context of the first part of the song and makes it seem like the narrator is asking the subject to at least admit he made them feel good, even if they don’t want to be in a relationship with him.

We could be released Flowing over sorrow days We could stay suspended Even when the bough breaks

This is what I believe is the core dilemma of this song. It reads to me like two opposing options, a decision that needs to be made: do we fall through, or do we stay suspended? I believe the ultimate meaning of ‘when the bough breaks’ is the moment in a relationship where you realize that it isn’t going to work out. You’re then faced with a decision: do you end the relationship (or give up on pursuing the other person), allowing yourselves to be released and feel the sorrow, or do you choose to stay suspended despite the broken bough, and stay in the relationship (or continue pursuing the other person) when you know they don’t feel the same about you?

If we're going to assume, as most people do, that the entire discography is all about a singular relationship… It unfortunately seems that the narrator chose the latter.

Sometimes when we touch Everything we love resets It's only just enough Even when we run with death

I'm a really big fan of when lyrics change slightly over the course of a song to portray narrative development, character growth, etc. After a second repetition of this verse we get a whole lot of repetitions of the line 'Don’t lie to me,' followed by a slightly altered version of the same verse:

Everything we touch Turns water into blood You try to look away from Even when the bough breaks

Something has changed about the act of the narrator and the subject touching. In the original verse, it seems like the relationship might already be on the rocks, but sometimes their connection is enough – even if only just – to reset things, and remind them why they're together. In the altered verse, they're spilling blood and trying to ignore it – or at least the subject is trying to ignore it: you try to look away from, the narrator says. The repetitions of the phrase Don’t lie to me leads me to believe the subject has maybe been exaggerating their feelings for the narrator in order to keep him around. Maybe their denial of the narrator’s invitations to join in his dreamscape was what made it clear to the narrator that these feelings weren’t genuine, and now he’s asking for an honest answer. Tell me that you notice [...] the way I left you breathing. Whether the physical relationship was all the subject was interested in or not, that seems to be the conclusion the narrator has drawn.

You don't really love, you just hate to be alone You hate to be alone You hate to be alone

The previous verse and this one are repeated for the rest of the song, with the repetitions of 'don’t lie to me' overlaid with them. The repetition reads as insistence to me, as if the narrator is arguing his perspective and trying to get the subject to admit to it. The heavier section of music kicks in at the start of the third repetition, but similar to the middle of ‘Fields of Elation’ it doesn’t immediately give the sense of tension that I feel in other places, it’s just gotten busier and louder. After the lyrics fade out, however, it does get noticeably more tense, and this tension persists almost for the entire final minute and half of the song, with only brief moments where it eases up. 

The song ends by cutting out very suddenly, in one of the more tense sections. I'd like to interpret this as the final argument and an end to the relationship, as it was clearly unreciprocated and unbalanced. If we are to interpret the full discography as being about a singular relationship, however, maybe this is only the first of a sequence of break-ups and make-ups. If I'm right about the repetition of the accusatory final verses being indicative of the narrator arguing his point and trying to get the subject to admit to their lack of feelings for him, it's possible that he just pushed the subject away with his strong, internalized belief that nobody could or would truly love him.

We'll never know, and that is both the beauty and the tragedy of it.

If you read this far, I thank you for hearing out my thoughts 💖 The plan was for me to tackle Two next, but after the success of this post and my later realization of the connection between the songs on TMBTE and their inverted counterparts on Sundowning, I think that's the next essay I'm going to write, because I'm very excited about all the parallels I've found. After that I'll get back to Two, and then the stand-alone singles, and then I'll have to figure out how I want to go about the albums.

Feel free to add in the replies/tags if you think I should do the albums all together in one post (like this) or if I should break them up in chunks of a few songs at a time. I'd like to keep the full albums together but I don't want to make people sit through mile-long posts, so I might opt to just not analyze every single lyric and rather focus on the lyrics I have specific thoughts on. But I also might end up having thoughts on every lyric, so, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[vulcanette]

his eyes are longer !!! like he’s grinning !!!

[melit0n]

One of the lines that caught my eye in Emergence was "So tell me what you meant by 'living past your half life'?" In chemistry, a "half life" is the time it takes for a substance to decay to half of its original mass.

Further, half lives are also prominent in physics, specifically, nuclear physics. It has the same definition—amount of time taken for a nuclei to half itself—but is, as its name suggests, focused on how much useful energy is produced via the decomposition.

This also links in with the later lyrics of "space dust for your fuel rods." Fuel rods are used in the control of a nuclear decay reaction within a nuclear power plant. This could be interpreted as either Vessel's lack of autonomy, or Sleep losing dominion.

If it's anything to note, "space dust" can also be radioactive.

So, with this all in mind, living past a half life is, in its basics, working towards rot. Existing as a dead man walking and overtly aware that you are.

To me, this could be in reference to Sleep. It's been emphasised that, while Sleep is one of the oldest Gods, He is a forgotten one; kept alive by rituals and those who are beckoned by song to follow Him. Aka, kept alive and powerful by Vessel.

Sleep has long since lived past His so called "half life," and, in toe, He is, therefore "well versed in the afterlife."

While I don't think it works as well, mainly because I consider the majority of this song to be Vessel having a go at Sleep, instead of vice versa, this could be applied to Vessel as a mouthpiece, too, posing the question of; how long until your humanity disapears? How long does it take until you pass your half life, and begin to speak and see only that which bloodless and broken creatures do?

How long until you aren't even you anymore?

And, when that change happens, which it will, eventually, will you emerge and become "someone new," or stay as you were?

[bloodstainedloveletters]

i want to know you. every single part of you. i want to hear your voice, the way it changes when you get happy. i want to know what makes you laugh. i want to hear how you laugh, how you cry. i want to know every thought you have. i look at you, i see the color of your eyes, the shape of your nose, your lips. i see your skin, but i want to feel it. i want to melt into you. i want to remember every single thing about you. i want you to consume me. i want you to completely envelop my universe until there is nothing but you, and i want to stay in it. i want to show you what you've done to me.

[whataboutyouisamascot]

Cannot stop thinking about how there is something so playful, almost youthful in the way Vessel sings “Come on, come on” during the bridge. It reminds me a lot of a child trying to get their friend outside to play. It’s such a different energy from the rest of the song that it just sticks out to me

[fivewholeminutes]

EIA (the song) feels like preparing for a great battle to me. Is it vessel feeling finally ready and strong enough to fight sleep??

"Swing wide those gates" as in sleep being slowly closed off from vessel and vessel finally taking a stance and daring sleep to try to take control over him again?

"The gods we thought were dying were just sharpening their blades" - sleep being less and less invasive by the end of the trilogy just to sneak up on vessel again, but vessel is ready this time? (Alternatively: sleep and vessel having enemies in other entities, but that's for a different interpretation, the one where sleep is a tad more benevolent)

"Have you been waiting long for me?" being a dare and not a way to express longing, reunion. I imagine vessel behind the gates standing there with his bigass sword, asking sleep this when sleep opens the gates. You know, like a one-liner before an anime boss fight.

"I am the flood" - he used to be just tangled with sleep as branches in a flood, unable to set his own course, but now he is the force of the flood. Sleep's fucked

"And what was missing from those scriptures will be written in my blood" he knows this won't be an easy fight, despite him getting stronger, but he's willing to write that chapter, even if it costs him much to become free

"What good is all this talk of wings when there is nothing left above" deserves its own post tbh i am feral about the euclid references. I will just say that vessel went "fuck this, the glory is not worth it, it comes with pain, there's no great reward (heaven) in this deal, sleep lied, i won't get anywhere with those wings" (OH the icarus implications here)

The entire 3rd verse. Vessel sleep token when i fucking get you is2g--

"No matter how we feel" - they might fuck each other over, but they spent a good few years together. Codependent, i would even say (i don't wanna go into all my [often conflicting] interpretations of their relationship/deal rn, i just like to imagine sleep as one of those gods that will just disappear without any worshippers, so he was dependent on vessel too). So they had their ups and downs. Sleep did kinda give vessel the promised glory and they were there on that journey together. But it still doesn't mean sleep should stay with him

"We've got a taste for one another and a few good years to kill" listen. Listen i know this can be interpreted as romantic, but OHHH i see rivalry here. They've got a taste for each other's blood. For domination over the other in this tremendous relationship. But it will take time. Vessel can fight back now, but he's still up against a fucking deity. He's confident though, doesn't care fighting back might take years (hello mental issues allegory???), he is the final dawn. He is the flood.

"No matter what is real" - oh boy we're still fucking shit up in the dreamscape department, aren't we, sleep

"It seems that even in arcadia you walk beside me still" - okay yes i know this can reference to that someone walking beside him in all the other eia songs BUT here in this context i think of sleep still lingering in his mind. Vessel is safe in arkadia now, right? Sike! The bad things are still there with you, mate, you carry them in your heart (i'm sorry i might be projecting here) and this part goes so well with "i still need a dark side" from past self and "with the shadows longer to me than a lightyear" in look to windward.

So yeah. I see this song as the moment before a battle. One grand battle or just a first battle in the war? We don't know that yet. But it is going to be a tough fight either way.

[daredevils-advocate]

So I'm throwing this under the cut, tw: talk of abuse, Gethsemane (that needs its own warning no matter how you interpret it lbr)

So obvious disclaimer I don't know him or anything about what happens in his actual real life past or present but like- Gethsemane is the trauma and aftermath of abuse right? Like I'm not looking into that too hard, that's what's happening there?

Noting that I've never personally experienced abuse in a relationship context, but I have experienced it from people I loved and trusted, and while obviously the circumstances and outcomes are going to be different, the feelings of working through that and listening to this song feel similar.

To me this is a "Somewhere along the way we forgot what love is and you have marked me in a permanent way that will affect me for the rest of my life. I changed myself for you to keep us alive and you didn't care and hurt me anyway. There is little I wouldn't have done to earn your attention back then. Well fuck you, I'm learning to live with those scars and to exist as myself without you and I'm coming out better for it."

Healing requires sadness and anger and I feel like Gethsemane perfectly captures that

[synech-doche]

"Wash me clean again before I pull myself beneath the waves"

~ Vancouver Canucks + Sleep Token ~

[bubacorn]

[ancientbygone]

this is your irregular reminder that the lore of sleep token is ultimately what you make it to be. there isn't an objective truth. everyone's story is the right one for their own purposes. love wins

[magefeathers]

everyone else: haha The Summoning sexy

me: The Summoning's "raise me up again" is in direct contrast to Drag Me Under's "drag me under again" and shows an immense amount of growth between the two points in the narrative, for him to go from singing "drag me [...] deep into your love" to "take me past the edge / I want to see the other side" shows that he no longer wishes to drown and wallow in the toxicity of this situation and now wants to move past it and see what lies beyond and in this essay I will-

[herewithinthevoid]

some small part of me feels like despite the music box melody and upbeat rhythm this is a moment of mourning what used to be and a gentle plea to not be abandoned once the limelight fades and i can't explain the way that thought chokes me up

[tedzyrotten]

vessel should be able to start legally killing people who sexualize atlantic

[sleepanonymous]

Do you know what the beauty of Sleep Token lyrics analyses are? Literally any interpretation you have is correct because that’s the point. I love seeing how people break down Vessel’s phrases and metaphors in their own way because it’s all correct. There’s no right or wrong way to receive emotions and mental connections from Vessel’s lyrics. If Take Me Back to Eden is about your favorite video game character/love interest that is correct. If Atlantic is about being bored with life and feeling stuck/frozen that is correct. If Blood Sport is about your relationship with your abusive mother that is correct. 

That’s why he and the band have chosen to remain anonymous, we’ve had interviews explaining this. Vessel is a genius in that way. See these two excerpts from this interview that I transcribed:

There exists a considerable body of art that explores the deeper recesses of the human mind. Sleep Token serve as a means to explore this on an individual basis.

Art has become entangled with identity. The aim is to provide something people can engage with without being obstructed by the identity of its creator.

Sleep Token very literally creates music that is meant to be relatable to every person who hears it. With every song and lyrics interpretation, it feels like that’s exactly how Vessel meant that one particular person to understand him, and something about that is absolutely beautiful to me.

[sleep-token-on-drugs]

Nazareth: It's Intravenous

If any song in the Sleep Token discography is about drug use, it's Nazareth. Which I genuinely struggle to interpret any other way at this stage.

In this essay, I will...

No but really, this turned into an essay, so here's part one:

The basis of this interpretation is pretty simple; Nazareth is deeply rooted within the specific, real-world process of using intravenous drugs. (It even uses some very specific slang!)

The core evidence to back this up comes from the second verse of the song:

Let's load the gun Make her eat the tape in the bathroom mirror See if she can guess what A hollow point does to a naked body Let's fuck her up

Let's compare that verse with the process of actually shooting up (ketamine, meth, heroin, etc, pick your poison):

First of all, you need to load up your syringe with your drug solution (loading the gun).

With your syringe ready, if you're using intravenously you need to tourniquet above where you're going to inject. This usually goes put around the upper arm (unless you're a very heavy user). Since you're injecting into one arm and holding your syringe in the other one, the easiest way to keep your tourniquet in place is with your teeth ("eating the tape", which is an older phrase but it checks out).

Finally, inject. The best way to see what you're doing, and actually hit a vein, is by looking in a mirror during this step *. This is done using a hypodermic needle (a hollow point needle).

This will, as you might expect, fuck you up.

* Incidentally, this is why some bathrooms in nightclubs and inner-city spaces have violet lighting rather than normal lights; that wavelength prevents you from seeing your veins, so people can't easily shoot up.