sleptokne

[sleptokne]

I'm sorry, but this looks like vess picking up a cat to catch a moth.

How have I not seen this?!

[sleptokne]

listening party with my sis and a friend. we are sitting on my sofa in silence, listening to the new album for the first time.

10/10 is the sleep token rating default. sorry, I don't make the rules.

Look To Windward: 17/10, a fucking banger and opener for a ritual. vessel sounds so angry, the whispering through his teeth? the breakdowns? II is a monster on the drums, his blast beats? perfect. the mix of genres?? gods, fucking hell. in awe.

Emergence: 14/10, we could sing along because it was a single. such a bop. interesting choice for a first single. the saxophone has such a cowbow bebop vibe.

Past Self: 13/10, weirdly nostalgic in a good way!? the vibe is so different, like a good 2000's R'n'B song. feeling the vibe to dance along, although he is dancing alone.

Dangerous: 14/10, Depeche Mode on steroids. the beat, holy shite. won't you show me how to dance forever? it has something soothing to it, but at the same time being led into a trap by a spider. it sounds dangerous if that makes sense. it's a wee bit off. the vibe is off.

Caramel: 15/10, could sing along and did it, close to tears the entire time. this isn't lore vessel, this is as personal as gets. fucks you up in the good and bad way (affectionately). bitter taste, can't listen to it without feeling bad. we hate why this song exists.

Even In Arcadia: 20/10, too short, holy shite. this fucked us up. we sat in such a weird silence here. heavy breaths, we needed a wee break. oh. like ... in cursive cursive. scared to see that live, we will leave be even more broken than before. if that's even possible. shattered heart, fuck you vessel (affectionately).

Provider: 19/10, smooth as fuck. what the hell. vessel flexing his vocals so much. pure sex. vessel lying on top of a piano with a rose in his mouth. is he gonna strip live?? the vibe... what the fuck, dude. SMOOTH. audio porn, lol. "even in the daylight" - the night belongs to you, but this time not only bodily desires? need more listens, fuuuck. sexy sadness. depeche mode passive aggressiveness.

Damocles: 16/10, real vessel is honest with us again, heartbroken as it should be. it sounds so hopeful but so sad at the same time. THE RANGE. close to tears as well. just with a lot of sleep token songs, the pain is real. fuck me up and leave me bleeding out in the snow, i guess.

Gethsemane: 19/10, maybe more?? Thread the Needle vibes at the beginning. you feel like you weren't supposed to hear it. like you caught a glimpse of trauma. of something so personal, you feel like a voyeur for knowing this song exists. Euclid part fucked us up. as did the entire song. weird experience. feeling uncomfortable... in a good way? like a dream where you are just stuck. you can't move. you can't run. you can't do anything. feeling... dirty. it feels disturbing. because he feels so calm and angry at the same time. it feels like he is telling you something personal, something traumatising, in a casual way and with a shrug. "i know it's traumatic, but it's whatever" kinda vibe. holy fuck. just like jesus, I've have been betrayed here.

Infinite Baths: 17/10, that fucking nasty breakdown, holy. shite. HOLY SHITE. sirrrr, is that allowed?? so many phases of the song, i am in awe. it has a weird touch, it's uplifting and melancholic at the same time. it doesn't make sense but also it does. in a sleep token way, it does make sense. there is a lot to unpack.

this was the first listening. there is a lot to unpack here in general. dang boi.

[sleptokne]

been listening to Damocles on repeat (just like I did with every other song...) and it just... hits hard. every time I listen to it, it hits harder.

as someone who deals with depression, it sounds like vessel telling us how it feels to live the life he always imagined through the tainted glass of depression:

"Come up for air and choke on it all

No one else knows that I've got a problem"

and of course a sudden rise to fame that no one could've expected when they started the band, hence the title Damocles.

the fear of doing something wrong, of becoming boring and eventually... forgotten. he loves making music, he is brilliant at it. but now, with so many people listening to the band, listening to what he creates, there is the overwhelming fear of not being good enough.

he even tells us that, yes, he should be touring - although that touring is what he and the rest of the band did all year last year.

he tells us that, in comparison to other songs, these chords are boring - although they aren't and the chords don't need to be extraordinary to give us this message.

it tells us that, no matter what he does, it is eventually not enough. because now, with their sudden rise to fame, which literally exploded, there are even more eyes on them. more people criticising them.

and it would take a toll on all of us.

sleep token doesn't communicate like other artists do. but vessel is trying to tell us what is on his heart and mind. and that things are different from what he wished and imagines them to be:

"And nobody told me I'd be begging for relief

When what is silence to you feels like it's screaming to me

Well, nobody told I'd get tired of myself

When it all looks like heaven, but it feels like hell"

the last line especially. he has been writing personal lyrics since the beginning of the band, but they were part of the lore and we were encouraged to interpret them how we wanted, vessel never told us that there is a correct or incorrect way of doing so.

but now, he is as clear as he feels comfortable with. and it shows us exactly how he feels. yes, he achieved all what he dreamed of. he achieved it through tearing his heart out.

and now people want him to do it all the time, but no one should have to.

because what if it all just ends? what if he is just forgotten?

depression, man. Damocles really hits hard, no matter its "simplicity". and isn't that what real art does?

fucking you up and getting stuck in your head forever despite its simplicity?

[sleptokne]

interesting how we had like. little to no clues for the release date of damocles yk. i mean ig it fits the whole “this can happen to you at any time” idea but at the same time i wouldn’t be too surprised to think vessel and the gang just had enough of the fanbase and said “ok here’s the release date. go on your merry way.”

[sleptokne]

since I've been listening to it on loop, please bear with me. because the line

"Terrified to answer my own front door"

underlines something very important that people who think it's their "right" to know their identities need to be reminded of.

it is fucking terrifying.

imagine you want to stay anonymous and someone just googles you. not just someone but a terrible amount of people. they just ignore your wishes and google you and tell everyone about you.

they tell not only their friends, they shout it out on the internet, so even those who respected your wishes get to see it. your name, your face, maybe even your past.

you are hurt, you are scared, and you feel betrayed.

because why did those people ignore it? ignored your wishes to stay anonymous for your own safety, your privacy, and your mental health. no matter what is behind those wishes, why did they invade and disrespect your personal boundaries?

it doesn't matter if you stand on a stage to earn your living. it doesn't matter what you do for a living, at that. you are a human being that has the same rights as everyone else.

and it is terrifying to think about how it affects you and your life if people just shit on that and do the stuff you asked them not to do anyways.

no, you are not entitled to know anything about them they don't want you to know. they deserve to feel safe like everyone else. and people managed to fuck it up to an extent that makes me speechless.

[sleptokne]

caramel hits like a truck.

vessel is clearly grateful for everything he achieved and the fanbase that came with it. but there is a bitter taste to it. there always is.

"I try not to talk about how it's harder now."

because he doesn't want to sound ungrateful, but hell. it feels like hell. instead of clearly stating that it's the toxic "fans" that are the problem, he projects the problem unto himself:

"I guess that's what I get for hiding in the limelight

Guess that's what I get for having 20/20 hindsight."

but this almost sounds sarcastic. because that's what people have been telling him and the rest of the band. "well, if you want to stay anonymous, people will get curious. it's your own fault that you think staying anonymous in a digital age is possible."

and that is the fucking point. people can just decide not to engage and not feel entitled to know everything about this collective and the mind behind it. people can just decide to respect other's privacy and not be arseholes about it.

but it never gets better. the breakdown just perfectly summarises the dilemma for him because he is a musician, he loves crafting the lore and everything around it. but at what cost?

"In these days of days

I wish it all away

I thought things had changed

But everything's the same."

success is sweet and feels great, you are high like from sweets. sweets like caramel. but it leaves a bitter taste.

like burnt caramel.

[sleptokne]

i spent way too long counting the lines to be sure that it's probably "even in arcadia". sadly, it doesn't add up to "kill my flamingo" because it has one letter more 😔

sleep token playing hangman with us in their new instagram caption. the flamingo gets hanged if you guess wrong

[sleptokne]

hearing the saxophone at the end of "emergence" paints a pretty vivid picture in my head of vessel listening to bilmuri live with his mouth open and thinking "i want this, too" while pointing at gabi rose.

and goddamn, he pulled through.

[sleptokne]

"come on, come on out from underneath who you were" messed with my brain chemistry.

mr. token the first, don't do this to me. I haven't even recovered from the other albums and probably never will.

[sleptokne]

I'm losing my mind, this is so beautiful, and the layering of the teaser music in the background....ugh genius. *chef's kiss*

From @_takeabite_ on tiktok

[sleptokne]

vessel lurking on social media be like:

sorry, but this looks like a smug face.

Y'all - I thought to myself "hey. I play the piano. I could play the new Sleep Token sheet music! "

So I do. And lo and behold, this is what i find.

Sir. I know you have freakishly large hands. But what is this??? Almost two octaves??? You can't tell me he plays this like how it's written. I refuse to believe.

(Yes obviously it is still playable by just using your right hand to play the notes but when I came across it - having been playing the melody in the left hand and suddenly being faced with the option of dislocating my entire hand I had to do a triple take)

So um. Yeah. Vessel's hands. Enjoy y'all.

[sleptokne]

Here it is, my interpretation of the score :)

Transcribed this in a 2hr frenzy so some parts might be inaccurate

I have also uploaded it to musescore, where you can download the file and mess around with the dynamics, instrumentation, tempo etc (if you wanna do this for free download Music Score Downloader on Chrome extensions). Feel free to use the file to make your own!

[sleptokne]

The social media manager who has to accept all the people on Instagram is probably having the worst day of their live.

And with social media manager, I mean either the unpaid RCA intern or even Vessel himself who keeps thinking that he underestimated the sheer amount of people flocking to this stuff like seagulls to a dead fish.

[sleptokne]

What i absolutely despise about the music industry nowadays is how artists must overpromote their new singles. I understand this is how they earn their living and are probably required to do so by their contracts + social media algorithms are shit, alright, so it's not a rant about the artists themselves, just the industry as a whole. You get flooded by posts/tweets/insta stories about the upcoming single almost every day for at least a month before; usually with the same 5-10s long sample, which you grow to hate even before you hear the rest of the song. Then the song is out, you're still harassed by posts about it. "Hey, we released a song, like, 3 hours ago, have you heard it??? Oh and the music video is out, so we're gonna show you glimpses of it in every configuration possible for another 2 weeks!! And here's 20 posts about the new single-related merch, by the way." It's just ONE song, leave me alone and come back when you have a whole album to offer!!

Which, of course, brings me to another thing i love about sleep token. Even if you learn they're gonna release a single, it's not from them directly and you learn it, like, a day before it drops. It's refreshing and makes social media experience a tiny bit less annoying in the world where you are constantly supposed to pre-save the new single NOW

[sleptokne]

quick, hide this before the RCA person responsible for merch sees this

the flamingo..... 🦩

[sleptokne]

thinking about the "show me how to dance forever" and the clues and stuff again and just ... that's Sleep Token. that's the band. that's the band making the whole fandom crazy, having us (jokingly...?) believe that we are cracking the code to the holy grail for them.

we're interacting. we're interested and engaging in the little bits of content we're getting, the mystery that is such a part of the band. interpreting and researching left and right.

and I just love it.

this is how you keep your fans entertained, not a soulless merch drop after another.

the last few weeks to months were pics and videos of the tours, which is great, but also a lot of (justified!) critique about the whole merch and comic situation. I saw it on my dash a lot and I agreed that this is sad and outrageous. because that's not Sleep Token.

it's the label that's currently trying to squeeze as much cash out of the fandom as possible. with very questionable merch items and prices... to put it gently.

and to see how much this small glimpse of what's to come this year has changed the vibe of the fandom (at least on my dashboard) is so refreshing.

you can literally see clear as day what the difference between a soulless label and a passionate band is, and it makes me believe even more that vessel put his foot down in terms of creative output and their music and everything it involves.

if the mystery isn't part of the merch, and RCA only sees a cash cow in the band, at least we can be certain that the band stays true to themselves.

and goddamn, let's crack the code to find the holy grail for vessel.

[sleptokne]

with the new cryptic drops of info, I really hope that Sleep Token stuff gets a bit more serious again. if I think about the amount of shitty merch (and even shittier prices), this seems like a pallete cleanser that was so desperately needed.

.

.

.

or RCA / whoever is responsible for the disastrous merch now wants to squeeze every drop of joy out of it and there will be black Sleep Token lawn flamingos in the next "obtain" mail.

I fear that there is no in-between.