(Sleep Token 2022)
On Sunday night, Reverence had the pleasure of seeing Sleep Token perform at the beautiful venue, The Forum, Melbourne. Surrounded by hundreds of likeminded fans there to see their favourite bands perform on the Northlane Obsidian tour, 19th June 2022. Sleep Token made a huge impression on the Reverence team and in our opinion, stole the show and that is a big statement because Northlane were, simply put, amazing.
(Trottman, S 2022)
Sleep Token, an alternative metal/progressive metal band from England, have been together since 2016 and have 2 albums under their belt, Sundowning (2019) and This Place will Become your Tomb (2021) and their latest single released in 2022, “Is it Really You?” Sleep Token have supported Northlane along with alt. and Plini throughout Northlane’s Australian tour and they blew us away as soon as they stepped on the stage. One could not help feeling chills when the haunting vocals from vocalist “Vessel” introduced their band to the Melbourne crowd.
The band are a collective of masked members, known for their gothic style.
They wear cloaks with their logo which is modelled after a very powerful energy rune, body paint to hide any distinguishable body markings to keep their anonymity on stage and of course the masks which also hold the logo. They have a creepy vibe, but they drew us in from the first note. Vessel’s vocals are melodic and beautiful, and Sleep Token have a mystical vibe within them and within their music, both live and recorded. But, boy, are we glad we saw them live last night because it was just amazing. They are one of those bands who mesmerise audiences, and their live shows are better than their recorded tracks (and we say that lightly because their albums are brilliant) but they draw you in with their presence visually. Their music went through us physically, the sound was encapsulating, and the experience was just transcendent. We are still in shock at their performance.
(Jess Drews Photography, 2022)
Standing there watching the band perform whilst absolutely captivated, it was clear they were to become frighteningly addictive. After their set, feelings were shared amongst the other patrons, and it was clear that Sleep Token made a massive impact on the audience including ours at Reverence. They opened their set with Alkaline and Reverence was in awe over a band never seen nor heard before but with 1.3M views on YouTube, it is clear they have a solid following. 4 individuals with masks, enchanting audiences with a different kind of show to anything we had ever seen before. We’ve referred to them earlier as ‘haunting’, but it truly was a haunting experience.
Sleep Token’s album This Will Become Your Tomb is evocative and one of the best albums we’ve listened to in a long time, and it has been on repeat since Northlane’s show. They also have an instrumental This Will Become Your Tomb album, which is equally as good, however Vessel’s vocals are missed. Their album starts out with the gorgeous sounds of a piano and Vessel’s unique and diverse voice. Their heavy vibe kicks in halfway through the track and it is a welcomed sound. Each song after this track is equally as good from the next and we could keep ranting about how good it is and how good they are, but you really need to hear it for yourselves.
Check them out below:
Comments