walking upstream…
Sleep Token
photo: excel23 · cc by 4.0 ↗Sleep Token
Formed in London in 2016, Sleep Token is a masked, anonymous project built around a fictional mythology of worship to a deity called 'Sleep,' with vocalist Vessel and drummer II (plus touring members III and IV) obscuring their identities behind robes and hand-painted masks. Their sound restlessly welds prog-metal riffing and blast-beat breakdowns to falsetto R&B vocal lines, piano balladry, and pop songcraft, a hybrid that carried Take Me Back to Eden (2023) and Even in Arcadia (2025) from cult metal curiosity to arena and chart success. The band rarely gives interviews, letting the mythology and the genre-blurring itself do most of the talking.
the sound in question
2023
The SummoningSleep Token
walk the tributaries ↓
Meshuggah2000s · Progressive metal / Djent / Avant-garde metal
Sleep Token has named Meshuggah directly as an influence, and it surfaces in the band's most extreme sections: polyrhythmic riffing, tightly locked odd-time drum patterns, and breakdowns that lurch out of sync with the beat instead of simply getting louder.
listen: upstream & here
1998
New Millennium Cyanide ChristMeshuggah
2021
VoreSleep Token
listen forPut Meshuggah's 'New Millennium Cyanide Christ' next to Sleep Token's 'Vore' — both ride a riff that keeps stepping out of phase with the drums before snapping back into a bone-crushing breakdown, the same polymetric tension-and-release Meshuggah made their signature.
Bon Iver2010s · Indie folk / Folk / Experimental
Sleep Token has named Bon Iver among its influences, and it comes through most clearly in the band's softer, piano-led passages, where Vessel's voice moves into a high, breathy falsetto closer to indie-folk balladry than metal.
listen: upstream & here
2007
Skinny LoveBon Iver
2019
The OfferingSleep Token
listen forListen to Bon Iver's 'Skinny Love' next to Sleep Token's 'The Offering' — both hinge on a fragile, close-mic'd falsetto over sparse instrumentation before the arrangement swells, the vulnerability doing as much work as the volume.
Deftones2000s · Alternative metal / Nu metal / Art rock
Critics and fans have repeatedly drawn a line from Deftones' soft/heavy dynamics to Sleep Token's own alternation between hazy, atmospheric verses and crushing choruses, with some specifically comparing the feel of Sleep Token drummer II's playing to Deftones' Abe Cunningham.
listen: upstream & heresource: The Sonic Collective ↗
2000
Digital BathDeftones
2021
TelomeresSleep Token
listen forCue up Deftones' 'Digital Bath' and then Sleep Token's 'Telomeres' — both drift through a cool, reverb-soaked verse built on mood rather than riffs before the guitars detonate underneath the vocal, the same slow-burn structure that made White Pony a template for atmospheric heaviness.