On This Day: August 2 2018

Sleep Token posted about Kerrang!! Magazine’s article on the collective that was released August 1 2018 to their social media accounts. This rare interview features who we know as Vessel now as “Him”, something which has become a thing of the collective’s history and long out of use. [X]

Interview text below.

Words by Jake Richardson

“WE EXPLORE THE DEEPER RECESSES OF THE MIND…”
-HIM

GET TO KNOW
Your quick guide to SLEEP TOKEN…
THEY ARE: Anonymous, philosophical ambient metallers.
HEAR: The alluring power of brand- new single Jaws.
SEE: The simple darkness of the haunting clip for Thread The Needle.
MORE INFO: Facebook.com/ sleeptoken

Photo Caption: Sleep Token: not keen on identity, huge on birthday cake

AMPED UP

SLEEP TOKEN

Anonymous Brit metal cult big on peering down the rabbit hole…

Sleep Token are a band shrouded in mystery. The London metallers’ mix of high-tech riffs and dreamy soundscapes have earned them a good name for themselves since forming last year, but if you want to give them credit for it, you must do so to the masked, anonymous face of their enigmatic frontman, known only as Him. Him declines to reveal specifics about the ancient deity the band worship, Sleep, but he’s more forthcoming about his own artistic motivation.

“There exists a considerable body of art that explores the deeper recesses of the human mind,” he explains. “Sleep Token serve as a means to explore this on an individual basis. The music is a representation of one individual’s deepest and most fundamental emotions and desires. This is what people connect to. They see themselves in this individual, and the music becomes about them.”

Easy-going fare this isn’t, but there’s no denying it’s pretty captivating. Sleep Token have played fewer than 10 times (they refer to their gigs as “rituals”), but they’re already Download alumni. The industrial-ish thrust of new single Jaws, meanwhile, continues their philosophical, lyrical path.

“Our jaws are the tools we have to rend apart,” Him explains. “They show our concealed aggression, and take something once hidden and burst it apart. You don’t know someone until you have seen

them destroy something. Jaws is an exploration of the frustration which accompanies the sense that someone close to you is hiding their true self.”

But while Jaws looks to expose the darkness that lies inside us, when it comes to the band’s own identities Sleep Token are steadfast in their belief that art comes before aesthetic.

“Art has become entangled with identity,” Him says of the band’s anonymity. “The aim is to provide something people can engage with without being obstructed by the identity of its creator. The true identities behind Sleep Token are irrelevant. Our identity is represented through the art and music itself.”