Sleeptoken - TAKE ME BACK TO EDEN (ALBUM REVIEW)

Sleeptoken the hot new metal band that has become a fast rising sensation from viral videos on tiktok to youtube shorts. Sleep Token are a British rock band from London, formed in 2016. The group is an anonymous, masked collective led by a frontman using the moniker Vessel. They have been categorized under many different genres, including alternative metal, post-rock/metal, progressive metal and indie rock/pop.

Take Me Back To Eden starts with a slow build with Chokehold kicking off the precession, around the 2 min mark the instrumentals kick off sounding like a chainsaw has just started up, and then we go back mellowy with Vessel's sing-song lyrics which are heartfelt. When the "You've got me in a chokehold" hits the instrumentals swell to accompany the message being sent, love has got a chokehold on our singer and it's not letting go.

After Chokehold we are ushered straight into my fave prior to the album the viral mega hit The Summoning. Now the summoning starts with heavy instrumentals, but again we divulge into a slow melodic tempo with Vessel the singer delivering the words in a near sinister fashion, this one is so catchy, and I have been singing along to it since I was first shown it by my best mate James. James is obsessed with this band, and so he has made me go and check out SleepToken's latest album and here we are as I am typing my thoughts on the album live as I go. The heaviness of this song intertwines with catchy slow melodic laid back sound and one moment you will be headbanging, the next you will be slow bobbing moving side to side or on your knee's singing along to the sky giving your emotions all into this song. The screams performed on this one are also so good! Around the 3:25 mark we are hit with a groovy heavy breakdown that makes you want to stomp your feet and tip bins over BUT again we are quickly hushed away to calm down and chill with the music as it build's to a softer near jazzy like sound then. Sing with me now "Oh and my love, did I mistake you for a sign from god, or are you really here to cut me off, or maybe just to turn me on. Cause these days, I would be lying if I told you that, I didn't wish that I could be your man, or maybe make a good girl bad. I got a river running right into you, I've got a blood trail, red in the blue, something you say or something you do, the taste of the divine!" Oh my god this smooth as silk, erotic breakdown in the song is so mind-blowing, it's so different but so good! Had no idea that would work so well, Sleeptoken really knows how to mix genre's and sounds together well.

We get to Granite now a slow, pop, synthy melodic song. Vessel goes into a full rap breakdown in this one, and it is quite impressive I must say. It's yet another great mix of genre's and sound, and then we have rap like what? Damn, he got bars that can flow like water just so smooth. We have a breakdown around the 2:40 mark where we are hit back with the metal to get us headbanging in a groove again and Vessel smoothes things off accompanying the metal.

Aqua Regia starts with such a beautiful laid back synth sound and joined by a lovely piano piece as Vessel make's the lyrics flow flawlessly. Piano again is so lovely with this song, it's a softer song by its nature, the acoustic guitar blends that come in are also so stunning. Catchy and chill overall.

Vore is next, and this one is HEAVY! Full on screams are here echoing in my ears like a pig to slaughter. Sleeptoken really are a band for everyone, there are songs here for everyone to enjoy. Other than the screams Vessel is whispering along until we hit near the 2min mark where the song meets a chill and Vessel is clean singing along before more of the hard hitting drums and guitars come back at us like fireworks on the 4th of July. The high notes hit before the scream comes back in is amazing. This switch from aggressive to clean vocals is impressive. I feel for me this is one of their weaker songs, I am not so fussed on Vore as I am with the rest at this point, but that's not saying Vore is bad because it's not, it is good.

Ascensionism comes now, and it's starting slow and has the melancholy like feel with its minor piano notes. Beautiful soft sung lyrics, and then we get back into trap like beats following Vessel spitting bars yet again. This is one that will get you grooving moving your head and shoulders to, it's a great flow to be fair to it. We get some whispering vocals and then out of nowhere hit back with heavy metal like woah hang on Ves, I wanted to be more prepared before my flight or fight response kicked off haha. We switch back to the softer vocals with piano soon after my fight or flight response got me all geared up anyway haha. BACK TO FIGHT NOW AS THE METAL RETURNS IN FULL HEAVY SWING TO END THE SONG!

Are You Really Ok? Plays right now, and it starts slow and acoustically with a sweet laid back guitar tuning us into Vessel's soft lyrics. A very soft rock kind of song then the heavy instruments kick off around 3mins mark but don't worry it's still pretty soft and then around 4mins mark the heavy instruments get laid back, and we are bare witness to the soft stylings once more to close us out of the song.

The Apparition comes next, and it starts with Vessel isolated and then an electric, dare I say Spanish style guitar accompanies the vocalist. 1MIN mark we get some synthy keyboard and then drum and bass, what kind of experimentation lies in this apparition? Vessel continues to near rap with the flow of lyrics he delivers along with the drum and bass instrumentals. 2min 20 mark we go back to the heavy nature as Vessel pours his emotions into the lyrics, and then he delivers lines as quiet as a mouse and then the instruments close us off with synth and drum and bass.

DYWTYLM - A near laid back Caribbean like instrumental to start with like an autotuned Vessel singing along. Do You Wish That You Loved Me is the song here if you could not tell from the acronym anyway there's a weird like blend then of computerized sounds before Vessel carries on asking his question of love? This is lovely and laid back, I really liked the unique instrumentals in this.

Time for Rain, Vessel starts off pouring his emotions into the piano on this track. As usual with sleeptoken this one starts slow but builds to some metal rhythms as Vessel keeps his lyrics flowing like a fountain. I don't know how they do it, but I am sure glad I am hearing it work out so well for them. We go from the metal back to the slow powerful emotions poured out with the piano accompanying Vessel, and we quickly get that burst of metal to end the rain.

Time for the penultimate song on the album which is the title of this album, yes it's time for Take Me Back To Eden. Slow start now will this build or will it remain calm and soft. Of course the metal comes into play from 2min 30 mark only for it to leave again 30 seconds later. Vessel comes at us with his hard hitting flow as he raps the lyrics out, damn this vocalist can do anything he wants. When the rapping starts we get the piano and sound of like a rainforest with rain and birds tweeting until Vessel comes back soft with the tempo of the Piano picking up. 5min 30 mark the other instruments join back in until 6min mark where they stop for a brief moment then we get all the instruments back in harder once more. Screams close out the song with heavy instrumentals accompanying it.

Euclid is our closing song now, what a bizarre journey of music this has been, Sleeptoken really are the future, and they have a bright one from what I have heard here. Euclid starts with Piano and Vessel flowing the lyrics then we get this near robotic synth vocals before switching back to the same piano chilled tempo with Vessel flowing the lyrics like a running water tap and this switch happens a few times in this song, it's really quite something else. Lovely song actually and we do get rushes of the heavy instruments before the soft nature plays back and this happens on and off in this song a few times. Robotic vocals and synth and a piano closes this album off.

If this is the future of metal, we are in uniquely good hands. Sleeptoken are the hot new band we should all keep an eye on because the only way forward is going up past Eden now.

4/5

Top 10 Twenty One Pilots Songs

Now then, it is no secret at all, I LOVE TWENTY ONE PILOTS! 

Seriously! Their music is out of this world to me and a great source of happiness, fascination and inspiration. I love all of their albums, SERIOUSLY ALL OF THEIR SONGS TOO! BLURRYFACE is a masterpiece of an album for me.

Vessel recently hit 10 years old so what better time to do this list. 

This will be a tough task, BUT I am shocked that I have not already made a 21P list before, 

SO HERE WE GO!

Twenty One Pilots are an American musical duo from Columbus, Ohio. Initially a band, the group was formed in 2009 by lead vocalist Tyler Joseph along with Nick Thomas and Chris Salih, who both left in 2011. Since their departure, the line-up has consisted of Joseph and drummer Josh Dun.

#10 - Chlorine

Already at number 10 on my list, I am struggling to pick songs. Chlorine I am placing here because it's a strong catchy song with very memorable flow and instrumentals. This one is very much Tyler speaking out on his battles with mental health and with anxiety/depression/ocd. 

#9 - The Outside

OK we are on Scaled & Icy album now and man that album has some underrated bangers that need to be widely discussed more and this is one of them. This is pretty much a catchy chill but dance kinda vibe to it. The lyrics talk about being tired and taping one's eyes on a long drive because they don't want to sleep while driving. Maybe it's about the party lifestyle since when it breaks down into the rap part of the song maybe that's the trip happening and obviously this song sings about people nodding their heads and moving up and down and taking hits to join the club because you want to be part of the gang and not on The Outside as it were. Also not long after the rap part it seems like the lyrics no longer care because the person in question is happy vibin' on their own and nothing can stop them. 

#8 - Legend

Back to Trench with this absolute beautiful song dedicated to Tyler's grandad. I resonate strongly with the lyrics, this does and has made me cry as I think about my grandparents and basically putting myself in Tyler's shoes. It's a sad one but has a Cherie undertones because Tyler has accepted the grief and just know he will meet his Grandad in the future at the pearly gates. 

#7 - Guns For Hands

It's time to go to Vessel with Guns For Hands, beautiful and catchy and damn powerful. On the commentary for this track Tyler had this to say; "Guns for Hands is talking about I want to tell you that I know you have the ability to hurt yourself. You do. You have that ability. I feel like a lot of the older generation when they hear about someone struggling with it, their first reaction is like, “No, you’re not, you’re not struggling with that. Don’t think about that, you know, think about something else, you know, you’re just trying to get attention.” But this song was really trying to say like; “Listen, I know you have the ability to hurt yourself. I recognize that, but let’s take that energy and let’s point it at something else, let’s divert that, lets kind of shift that momentum and look at something like art, or something like this music specifically, or even point it at me, you know, just point it anywhere, but don’t point it at yourself.” And so that’s what that song’s saying and that song will always be important to me. And I’m not a professional when it comes to this topic, but I write songs, and I feel like someone should say something about it."

#6 - Fake You Out

Another Vessel track with this synth poppy sound with quiet gentle piano played in because this is Fake You Out. Again it's a great catchy song, and you can't help yourself join in with the "fake,fake,fake,fake" parts haha. Tyler said this about the track; "I was really excited about this one when I first started writing it. I think that the melody inside the verses is one of my favourite melodies where it goes to falsetto. I think that a lot of times I feel like writers slack on verses when it comes to melody. I feel like it’s like “these are my verses, this is kind of the part where people wait for the chorus.” And I’ve always felt like why not have the verses—the melody of the verses be just as infectious as the chorus? So I’m proud of this song in that way. Also, you know, it does the whole, you know, mash-up genre thing that everyone is freaking out about. Truly, I just didn’t know that there were rules to songwriting and, you know, so I just worked on transitioning from one genre to the next. I wanted to hear a song that did that. I’ve never heard a song do that before, I want to hear that, so I made that."

#5 - Shy Away

Fun fact this was my ringtone for the majority of 2021 haha. This was the first single released from SAI, and it delivered a new laid-back like sound to us fans which we were not really expecting after Trench but hey WE ATE IT UP AND LOVED IT AND DEMANDED MORE! The song was written by Tyler Joseph and mainly produced on his home studio as a form of tutorial for his younger brother, Jay Joseph, on how to operate all stages of a song during the recording process (writing, composing, producing). Tyler also explored elements of the electric guitar for the song, which was a barely used instrument by him, previously first used on "Level of Concern". When Tyler was first working on the voice memo of the song, his one-year daughter, Rosie Joseph, made a cooing noise in the background, which Joseph decided to keep in the very beginning of the track, for loving her being a part of the creative process in some way. The song was created while communicating virtually as the COVID-19 pandemic limited interaction between the band members. Specifically, this was the first time Josh Dun recorded his drums takes all on his own, with no sound engineers to help him or any studio assistance.

#4 - Mulberry Street

Ah-ah-ah yeah! Here we go with a chill laid back and catchy song which I adore. I always enjoy a sing and dance to this one. Tyler said this about the song; "There was a street in New York City where Little Italy is, and the first time that I ever kind of left Ohio. My manager, at the time, we had some meetings with like, record labels and stuff, and it was just a classic kid going to the big city moment. I took Josh and I, and a couple of friends to Little Italy, and we had this, you know, it was just like this, ‘I've never felt more out of place in my life being in New York City.’ Eat at some, you know, like we're going to go get some pizza. ‘This isn't the pizza I’m used to.’ You know, just something that simple, kind of really reminding you that you're not home any more. And so, this song to me was like, very, I wanted to imagine that feeling again."

#3 - Lane Boy

Alright top 3 time bay-bay and so my top 3 are from the same album *SPOILER ALERT* hehe. I cannot help myself this album is a masterpiece, I own 3 copies of the album because I have played 2 cd's to hell and they are so scratched up it is insane! Alright Blurryface so which one will take number 3? Well don't trust a perfect person and don't trust a song that's flawless. LANE BOY! Tyler is having none of it if you think 21P are going to stay in the same lane. Tyler & Josh attempt to explain a musical style that seems to change with every Blurryface single. The songs are intense and interesting, and this one, musically especially, is supercharged, a good match for the aggressive lyrics. The song describes the band's break from the direction of the music industry as well as a commitment to an entrepreneurship that doesn't focus on money. As you can hear, "Lane Boy" is unique among Twenty-One Pilots songs. The drums are still intense and, at times, a driving, reggae-style off-beat continues to come out strong. But otherwise, the BPM is faster than most of their songs, the vocal effects are fairly new, and the lyrics are some of the most pointed and aggressive they've written. The music in "Lane Boy" is unique, and so is the message.

#2 - Ride

Alright so I cannot state enough on how TOUGH this is for me to make but taking my 2nd place is Ride. The theme with this one even though it is pretty upbeat is that this about that time in your life where you feel down and out and like nothing matters, you have suicidal thoughts and anxiety and depression riddles your mind that is why the lines of "I've been thinking too much (help me)" repeats. I have been there. This song also about taking your time on this ride we call life.

#1 - Stressed Out

My name's Blurryface and I care what you think. Of course, I am going to put what is possibly my most listened to song of 21P as my number 1. The lyrics hit and connect strongly with me and I love the instrumentals, it's a chill song but has nostalgia sprinkled in along with a feeling of longing of that sadness of how far away we have come from being children and having that vast imagination and just knowing how good those old days were compared to adult life.

Alright and that's my list, it was incredibly difficult to put together given how much I freaking love 21P BUT hey what can I say? Right now these blurryface'd tunes are my current top 10 BUT this list will no doubt always revolve and change as we get new songs from the lads.

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