There are spaces in Western social life where a sense of humor is not welcome. I am thinking of politicians, for example: we are not going to allow humor or irony to a character who supposedly looks out for our interests. It is to be imagined that living under that condition must be depressing, but hey, after all, no one forces anyone to be a politician (or yes, but that is another discussion). All this comes from the fact that he doesn’t quite understand why a band with the musicality and the ability to do more interesting things like Sleep Token it seems to impose limitations in order to come up with an “original” proposal.
Despite the fact that we like his music more or less, it seems that Sleep Token is a band that must be interpreted and not only from the musical point of view: what if the masks, what if the anonymity, what if the conceptual lyrics that venerate an invented deity… All these elements add confusion to a musical proposal that in this “Take Me Back To Eden” it takes curves at such speed that, at times, it skids dangerously.
And it is that his famous (and commercially effective, yes) formula that combines post-rock, technical metal, prog and pop voices that gave good results in the past in songs like “The Way That You Were” o “Fields Of Elation”, It begins to look somewhat forced and taken to limits that are not for everyone. Neither for any listener, nor for any musician. Because successfully referencing Tool and Meshuggah in “The Summoning” to later approach Bastille and Nickelback in “Royal Water” It is a play that requires Vaseline to make things flow. So freshness is missing, what is the factor that Sleep Token they are ignoring so that a disk like “Take Me Back To The Eden” be a success in the creative and not only in the commercial? Well, perhaps spontaneity and what politicians, we said, cannot afford to use: a sense of humor.
A well-known American metal magazine recently promoted them as the “Ghost del Djent”. The comparison ends up being hateful because one of the things that makes Swedes great is their sense of humor, that precious ability to make what could be strictly tacky irresistible. Sleep Token They have other merits, but their solemnity kills them. It’s a shame that a group with the ability to launch a bellowing the size of “Vore”, a song in which they also develop an interesting harmony in the form of a choir over a beastly wall of sound, then falls for temptations like folkie “Are You Really Okey?”one of the several moments in which they inadvertently invoke the sad post-grunge that invaded everything after the death of Kurt Cobain.
Ultimately, it is possible that Sleep Token They’ve released the record that will secure larger audiences and a nice home for each of their members, but also the first to make us start looking elsewhere for our new favorite masked group.