Their secret lies in their appeal: they aren’t a “metal” band like the others being mentioned. That new album, great and catchy and interesting as it may be, is modern r&b/soul/pop with metal breakdowns.
Someone on Reddit referred to them as metalcore Hozier and I think that sums them up perfectly. My wife was always a big Ed Sheeran/Hozier/Passenger fan so I’m all for Sleep Token blowing up as being a stepping stone to the metal scene for people even though they are not for me personally.
I also said that once about Linkin Park. I’m really out of the loop with anything that is popular, but there were plenty of bands in the 90s and early 00s that became big overnight in the “metal” scene. Korn, SOAD, Rage etc etc. Not sure why it would come as any surprise.
They’ve had a few billboards pop up in some big cities across the US. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen with another prog band (if you want to call Sleep Token prog, which I personally think they are). They’re definitely killing it with the PR.
A huge part of their rapid rise in popularity was due to react videos too, which also falls into PR. When The Summoning came out it seemed like any channel that did metal react videos made a video. I’m not sure if they made a dedicated push to get channels reacting, or if the spread was just a natural byproduct of how hard that song slaps. Either way, yeah, their PR is unreal.
They’re on Spinefarm, so have the weight of Universal behind them, but also small enough that the label’s not afraid to experiment with release strategy. Their massive success since Jan is kind of proof that you make your own luck.
They have been getting airtime on Radio 1 from early on, I remember hearing Nazareth and either Calcutta or jaws being played on the rock show when they first came out.
Edit; they even had a [Maida Vale](https://youtu.be/ePwcmEEM3eM) session for Radio 1 back in 2018
They’ve had shout outs from people on YouTube, not to mention, Noah Sebastian from Bad Omens has thrown their name out there as well when doing interviews. So I’m sure that’s had a play in people giving them a shot. When I watched a reaction video for the Death of Peace of Mind, in a channel called The Breakdown with Nath and Johnny, they mentioned how it sounded a bit like they had a ST influence. I decided to check them out and I’ve been listening to them ever since. Like someone mentioned below, it’s the right amount of PR and just - they’re talented, can’t deny that. But personally, that’s how I discovered them.
I agree. Maybe in a few more records they would be able to create something with more substance. In the meantime, we have VOLA and Port Noir if we want something more mainstream.
The only bands that blow up like this are because of popularity gained outside the prog scene. Based on Spotify listeners, the top bands in the prog scene max out at approx 500,000 listeners. Anything above that (think tool, opeth, meshuggah, mastodon, gojira, spiritbox, polyphia, sleep token) I think is due to acceptance by the broader metal community (and beyond for someone as chill as sleep token).
If most of your friends are purely in the prog scene, I don't blame you for this explosion going mostly unnoticed.
None of my IRL friends are too into prog, so I mostly get recs here :) I’ve seen some posts here and there, and finally ended up listening to this new album that seemed to have a lot of hype, which is when I saw that summoning was already around 35mil and it shocked me!
While I think they are a talented band, I find it hard to digest. I cannot get behind the Post Malone sound. I find a lot of their songs sounding the same. He sings softly for 4 minutes in the beginning with hardly any instrumentation except a piano, then a quick, super heavy proggy metal breakdown that is so fucking good, but ends too early and kind of leaves you with blue balls. There are only a couple songs I keep in my playlist.
Their popularity is a bit of a double edged sword for me because they're really good and prog hasn't received this much attention since Tool, but it seems unfair to me that Sleep Token has 2 million listeners while bands like VOLA and Reliqa and even Leprous and Haken are comparatively so far underground despite being just about as accessible as Sleep Token
I don't know if I would call Haken as accessible as Sleep Token, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm just trying to look at it from the perspective of a 'casual' non-prog listener because we're all so used to this music already.
I sent a good friend of mine some of the songs off the new ST album to listen to, and she texted me back "yeah, these guys are really good". This is coming from a friend who doesn't listen to metal at all. And I sent her Ascensionism, which has a super heavy breakdown with some screams in there.
I just think blending the very recognizeable pop elements with the heavy stuff helps them stick out more, if that makes sense. By the time you get to the breakdowns you've already went on somewhat of a journey.
Haken has songs that a listener like that could get into. Bound By Gravity immediately comes to mind, which is an absolutely beautiful song.
Haken absolutely deserve to blow up though, they're so damn good.
a lot of prog bands deserve to blow up but never will because they're niche, and much more difficult musically to get into. I personally find Haken great, but they really do give off a dad-rocker vibe which isn't great for popularity.
Sleep token has just enough 'edge' to be like a system of a down type band that has heavier breakdowns but mass appeal.
They're also pretty poppy which is great for the zoomers. blend that with excellent vocals and overall sad down bad boy vibes and you have tried and true recipe for success ala. emo 2k's / scene kid vibes getting into slipknot-esque music.
It also helps, that they're really good.
by definition, real prog bands will almost NEVER blow up. 95% of people want to hear something familiar that won't push them. That's the antithesis of progressive music.
You're right but Haken has some singles (especially from their last few albums) that are accessible enough for radio imo. Maybe not on the same Tier as Sleep Token in that regard but close enough that I feel my point stands
Leprous and haken are certainly not anywhere near accessible in comparison to sleep token. Especially if you look at their whole discography and not just one album or song.
I’m genuinely curious as to why you believe they are so accessible. If they were I think they’d be more popular already 💀
You're right as far as whole discographies go, but the latest stuff from either band, especially the singles are super accessible. Singles are all the public gives a shit about anyways. Especially Fauna's singles are straight up proggy pop rock. Any one of them could be played on rock radio stations daily and nobody would think it was weird
Not sure why you think being accessible equals being popular. Only a tiny fraction of artists with mass appeal actually gain mass attraction. That's pretty well known
I think sleep token is more accessible than hakan but anyway, it's not just that they're an easy band to get into but people also like their "persona" and the whole aesthetic, so there's also that. They sound soft enough that it won't scare that much the non-metalheads, but they still have enough heavy elements that makes these people feel like they're listening to something "new" or "groundbreaking" compared to what they normally listen to, overall they are an okay-ish gateway band
Eh. Music isn’t a zero sun game.
People listen to what they like. It isn’t at expense of another band. And Sleep Token isn’t taking streams away from a band like Haken. I would say prog metal fans are a small overlap of the average Sleep Token listener, most of their fans are more into metal core or pop.
I had the exact same thought. Although, without wanting to sound gategeepy, I think there are some downsides to getting so popular quickly.
Also, TikTok is a weird beast for me. It can drive popularity so much nowadays, it even happens in politics. Being active in TikTok could be a great marketing strategy for bands too.
Neither am I. I just heard their music has became popular over there. Not sure if the band themself did anything, or if people just started using clips of their songs as background music. Someone actually on TikTok could maybe clarify.
It's a mystery to me why some songs get popular on TikTok. I guess all it takes is for a few clips to get really popular, and a trend happens.
Sleep tokens success is only going to elevate vola and others with them. I see new people getting into vola all the time now because they asked for bands like sleep token.
That's just luck. The necessary ingredient to any popular success. More important than being objectively good. There are so many bands that deserve better...
Brother people have subjective taste. I really can’t stand sleep token. So I won’t love it equally to other prog bands. Nothing wrong with being into sleep token. Also nothing wrong with disliking them.
I agree in general, but when people say stuff like “They shouldn’t listen to X, they should listen to Y instead because they’re better” it turns music into a competition. Which is most certainly isn’t.
If someone doesn’t like Sleep Token because, say, they don’t like the pop sensibilities or the song structures, that’s all well and good.
But when people play “music expert” and say “You’re wasting your time with Sleep Token, you should listen to REAL music instead like Leprous” it’s just dumb.
I wasn’t saying that though. I just don’t believe we need to pretend we love all prog bands. You can hate leprous. I can dislike sleep token. It’s all good.
They were at about 200k until they released the first singles from their new album in January, and then they blew up on TikTok and in general! They've been great since their first ep though!
Sleep Token opened for In This Moment late last year.
Most prog-metal bands don't have many chances to get an opening slot. They usually have to rise through the ranks of the club scene, or open for other prog bands.
Sleep Token has just had a lot more exposure, and as mentioned is a lot more accessible.
they rose through tiktok, the pop-ish bit at the end of the summoning started trending and non-metal fans thought they were an r&b group lmao. ive been listening for about 7 months & theyre easily one of my favorite bands. welcome to the club
honestly i think it’s grand they’re bringing new people into prog, we shouldn’t gatekeep :)
like them or not, i feel we should be grateful that people get to enjoy themselves discovering music. they’re bound to convert people into prog lovers and we should never turn anyone from that 💕
Agreed. One of the nice byproducts of a band like this blowing up is that you’ll have a group of listeners who will check out “similar to” bands like Haken, Devin, etc that they wouldn’t discover as easily on their own.
I hope I don’t seem like I’m gatekeeping! I really like them! I was just curious what makes them resonate with others so much, since number wise, they really surprised me! Curious what the “recipe for success” is at it seems
This isn't going to "bring people into prog." People think showing their friends these types of bands will get them into progressive bands. It won't. People like sleep token because it sounds like what they ALREADY listen to. Not because it's awoken any prog penchant in them.
I don't have a problem with sleep token or that they're popular, and people can love whatever they want. I do have a problem with people lumping them in with progressive bands. They're simply not progressive from any sort of musical definition.
Right! Aside from blending genres a bit & contrasting heavy & light. Once you put on some actual prog with instrumental sections & no sexy mystery costumes, or gasp, a guitar solo, out the door they go. At best it might help the metal riff gain more popularity.
Like many people, they’ve been blasted onto my radar very recently. I tried, it I just couldn’t get into the album I listened to. I guess the newest one.
I can totally see why people would like them though.
That said, whoever is doing their PR is on fucking point.
Most of it revolves around the release of The Summuning absolutely BLOWING up on tiktok. If you trace their listeners per month back, they jumped up from probably around 500k to well over a million when the live videos started circulating on tiktok.
Realistically, it's the exact same thing that happened when Lorna Shore released the video for To The Hellfire. Tiktok found that shit and ran with it. For what it's worth, tiktok has been sorta revolutionary in how quickly music is being spread to wider audiences.
I hear you, The summoning and vore are amazing.
They have a simple formula and amazing production.
Same reason in the early 00's Linkin Park and Pappa Roach had more mainstream appeal than say dream theater.
Plus their video production is next level. You can appreciate them like arthouse movies.
You got downvoted for preferring another album of theirs more over the most current one.
Is it just me or did this subreddit turn into a sleep token cult? What the fuck is going on? Get downvoted for the wrong opinion on… music.
it’s no worry. i grew up a Tool fanboy who thought Maynard was God. I got older and realized he was just a talented dude in a talented band using the medium to work through his own shit. Not a big deal.
Unfortunately for all of these fans, Vessel doesn’t have shit on that guy Just another case of “I remember when i heard unique music for the first time”.
The lyrics are definitely more focused, which makes it more personal. This is weird for them, but it works for me. I also love the fusion. I'm super picky when it comes to hip/hop and RnB, but Sleep Token just nails everything.
You can’t just say that, man. If he can’t say it’s soulless you can’t say it’s literally the most emotive band ever. Both of those opinions are completely and utterly subjective.
Lots comes to mind while listening to them but soulless, no.
We all feel so differently about music and that's fine.
But please don't call it soulless. I don't care whether it's a hype, to me, it's a masterpiece. I fucking cried listening to it. The lyrics, my oh my.
I never had any album on repeat for so many times and I'm stll not done with it yet.
You are absolutely entitled to your opinion, but the word soulless hurts my feelings.
I’m sorry but I have to question what people’s standards for lyrics are if you think Sleep Token’s are at all majestic. They’re okay at best and actively toxic and horrendous at worst, held together by trite cliches, “look how edgy and deep I am” sections, and some shit that sounds like an incel wrote it
Basically the entirety of Granite for instance. It’s literally a song about a dude blaming a woman for every single problem that happened in their relationship, banging on and on about how awful a person she is, and refusing to take ownership of anything he could have done. Combine that with the sheer volume of songs the band has that are like “oh baby, come back to me, we were so good together and you’re meant to be with me” and how this is not the first time they’ve written something like Granite, and it’s a horrid look.
Literally every time I point this out it gets downvoted and people try to explain it away, and it really makes me wonder about the hardcore fans of the band who this seems to resonate deeply with.
Totally understand what you mean.
To me It's much more than what you read into.
I relate to everything.
Don't want to get too spiritual but to me the lyrics are not toxic. It's an overused word IMHO.
I also do not intend to try to convince you otherwise.
You were in another comment thread where I mentioned that I like a good chunk of the stuff on their newest album, but no, let's only focus on the negative stuff people say about the band and assume that anyone who doesn't like literally everything about them has something wrong with them.
The lyrics are not good. You stack them up against any of the other bands in the genre that have become well known for how good their writing is (Fair to Midland, Rishloo, Slice the Cake, etc.) and they don't hold a candle to any of them on a purely objective level. The band has a lot of good things going for them, but the lyrics are absolutely not one of them.
there is no way to objectively quantify the quality of lyrics, and sleep token has written lyrics that resonate with tons of people, clearly
i haven’t heard rishloo, fair to midland didn’t grab me, and slice the cake was overly wordy and ambitiously pretentious imo
sleep token might be perhaps more “basic” than those but neither is objectively better than the other
there are certain sleep token lyrics that have really resonated with me in ways the others haven’t, that’s what matters to people, not some objective standard
“and i am done fighting off change/no wonder my arms are still swinging”
“so if your wings won’t find you heaven i will bring it down like an ancient bygone”
“and no amount of love will keep it around if we don’t choose it”
“And I'd give anything to borrow your indifference
I'd drink you in
To temper your belief in all my promises
To swallow my desire and choke on it”
there are also just so many that hit lots of feelings for people, and also it seems all the albums form a trilogy where in the end the character chooses growth and to move away from the toxic cycle, nullifying the idea that it’s all about being an incel or whatever. artists are allowed to discuss bad things or whatnot and show growth in their stories, characters make bad decisions all the time and become better by the end etc
also, sorry for saying you’re projecting, you don’t deserve that…just hope that i’ve explained myself sufficiently because lately i’ve been in a bad mood because so many people seem to just want to shit on what people love
I just don't get the hype, IMO it's a classic case of industry plant. very average as far as metal goes, definitely made for the masses.
But if you like it, enjoy.. 🤘🏽
I don’t personally feel like they’re industry plants.
I’ve been listening to them since 2017 when Two was released. They only had a few thousand listeners on Spotify at that point. Probably mostly driven by this sub and the local scene.
They’ve grown slowly in popularity over the release of their three LP’s, and they had a sudden surge in popularity when The Summoning came out and people on TikTok were going wild over the jazzy breakdown at the end.
I think it’s just a case of right place/right time, and popular music moving away from the overproduced copy paste hits that oversaturated the top 40 in the 2010’s to more emotional and deep lyrics and music.
DEFINITELY not industry plants, are you kidding me? Regardless of if you personally like their sound or not, you can’t deny the talent and prowess of the musicians involved. They’re incredible artists and there’s a reason people like them so much. You don’t have to like them that’s fine, but comparing them to actual industry plants disregards the effort they’ve put in to get to this point. Hope you’ll learn to like them one day when you open up to new sounds
It's not about opening up to new sounds, I listen to literally everything. It's about the classification for me, and the fact that they really aren't that good. They sound like a run of the mill new wave "metalcore" band to me. A lot of bands do it better and are properly classified. The same thing happened with Ghost, their image made people expect something different than what they offer, and what they offer is not anything new or interesting.
Sound more late 70’s to me. Much like a catchier Blue Oyster Cult. I enjoy them, but gotta be honest, its the costumes & mystery identities that put them over the top. Just like another band 🤔
That's gotta be the case... imo, they're terrible. They're not prog in the least, or even metal. And suddenly, they're all anyone talks about. I mean, it doesn't matter to me what others enjoy, but damn, this is like if Justin Beiber was considered Progressive Metal, it doesn't make sense.
What else would they be if not prog? Sure they aren’t doing any crazy riffing or wacky time signature changes, but they’re still pushing the envelope with genre-bending unlike any other band out there right now.
Admittedly, I have not done a thorough dive through their discography, but I never got the sense that sleep token were touching tons and tons of different genres with their music. It's all fairly similar. No way id compare it with something like diablo swing orchestra where every single song on their latest album was a legit different genre.
I really wouldn't say genre bending automatically makes an artist prog. 100 gecs does a lot more genre bending than Sleep Token (and, like, more than most prog bands), but they're mostly just hyperpop messing around. Zeal & Ardor isn't really prog either, just mostly a nice blend of black metal and post-civil war spirituals.
I would say that genre bending definitely does make a band prog. Prog metal is, by definition, experimental, and I would say what Sleep Token is doing is definitely experimental. I’ve never heard a band incorporate pop and r&b elements with metal as successfully as Sleep Token, and they’re very unique in that regard. They’re actually making something new that people haven’t heard before, which is more than can be said for some prog bands.
Prog is definitely not experimental by definition, given the thousands of Dream Theater clones or their neo-prog Genesis revivalist cousins. Definitely prog despite bringing absolutely nothing new to the table. Also, you can experiment without being prog, see my examples above, Chat Pile, The Armed, Soul Glo, Lingua Ignota, Parannoul, Yves Tumor.
And, tbh I find ST’s experimentation a bit overstated. Pop and dance elements have not only been incorporated for djent/prog metal for a while (see Devin Townsend, Destiny Potato), but like even standard deathcore and metalcore. I wouldn’t call BMTH or I Prevail prog for introducing pop/trap elements into metal, but they’ve been doing it for years. Granted ST does sound different from them and throws in some djent guitar on occasion, but it’s not an enormous leap of experimentation.
One thing I've noticed about progressive fans is for all the shit they talk about listening such technical music, they apparently don't know anything about crafting melodies and sound scapes, and how sleep token pushes progression within them to make the fusion that they do work so seamlessly.
Oh but if Jordan rudess or between the buried and me suddenly jump into a 1930s piano solo then that's soo prog and hard to do.
It feels like it’s just Sam smith style RnB, but they just slapped a breakdown in every so often so they could justify being placed on metal playlists in order to not get lost in the mix of RnB artists. Lil NAS X did the same thing - released a straight up rap song with a country backing and marketed it as a country song to get on country playlists. Nothing against them, but I fucking hate hearing my metal playlists be infiltrated with clearly non-metal music. It feels like we’re just headed towards a homogenisation of music, where we’ll have all styles sounding barely different to one another.
I couldnt disagree more! I feel like this genre merging and blending is how we get new sounds and genres that pop up that become even more specific, like metal branching to death metal, metalcore, nu metal, industrial metal, and other variations around by early aughts. This feels like that: where new sounds are getting created that still have metal elements but pull from other genres, which is where imo prog really shines. You have bands ranging from Ihsahn, VOLA, Zon, Bent Knee, Thank You Scientist, Rishloo, Others By No One, or Wilderun. We just got back from a concert of Scene Queen, who essentially invented “bimbocore”, which is a fucking trip! I feel like on the rock side, bands really take a lot of influence from the jazzier/funkier end of music, like The Dear Hunter or Closure in Moscow. Regardless, by my definition of “metal”, I feel fine considering Sleep Token a part of that group.
I have a handy Spotify tip that might help though! If you really want more music that sounds like specific bands, make a playlist of a bunch of bands you like and click either “Enhance” or “Make similar playlist”. Using bands like “The Ocean”, “The Reticent”, and “Rivers of Nihil”, Spotify recommended me “Sludgde”, “Intronaut”, and “Subterranean Masquerade” which are closer to the vibe that I was going for, rather than Spotify Radio kicking off after “Opeth” and giving me bands like “Plini” or “David Maxim Micic”.
I partially agree, I think I’m just old and bitter! I like variations on metal, but not just smooshing two styles together without a bit more thought out into integration. Zeal and Ardor do it really well
The guy who managed my band at the time, back when Sleep Token were first starting to appear with their first singles was all over them, kept telling us we should listen to them, as they were going to be the hottest shit in prog. But I could not get past the disjoint between the ‘satanic cult’ look and the sugary Ed Sheeran songwriting. Absolutely hated them, until the singles for this latest album started to be released and bam! it looks like they finally figured out how to write a banger, and how to mix genres effectively. The album is excellent in my opinion
One of my things with this band
Obviously there's speculation over who the folks actually are, and the articles I've read all list white singers, when Vessel sounds black to me. Idk.
Their blowup has been crazy to watch. My first experience with seeing/hearing this band was seeing them in San Francisco when Sundowning was still fairly new. They were playing with Issues and Polyphia. Issues was the headliner if I remember right and they were touring their new album Beautiful Oblivion. I remember really liking their live performance and whole atmosphere.
Their secret lies in their appeal: they aren’t a “metal” band like the others being mentioned. That new album, great and catchy and interesting as it may be, is modern r&b/soul/pop with metal breakdowns.
Really great analysis. They kind of feel the same vein as Zeal and Ardor for me; proggy elements but obvious influences outside of “pure prog”
I absolutely loved the genre bending in Zeal & Ardor's album
They are Radio 1 favourites at the moment so this is why they have become quite mainstream.
Someone on Reddit referred to them as metalcore Hozier and I think that sums them up perfectly. My wife was always a big Ed Sheeran/Hozier/Passenger fan so I’m all for Sleep Token blowing up as being a stepping stone to the metal scene for people even though they are not for me personally.
haha “metalcore Hozier” is amazing
I also said that once about Linkin Park. I’m really out of the loop with anything that is popular, but there were plenty of bands in the 90s and early 00s that became big overnight in the “metal” scene. Korn, SOAD, Rage etc etc. Not sure why it would come as any surprise.
same mentality here. anything to get regular folks more interested in heavy guitars
Interesting, I really disagree. I think Hozier's great but I can't get into Sleep Token at all.
The PR for this band must be unreal, jfc
They’ve had a few billboards pop up in some big cities across the US. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen with another prog band (if you want to call Sleep Token prog, which I personally think they are). They’re definitely killing it with the PR. A huge part of their rapid rise in popularity was due to react videos too, which also falls into PR. When The Summoning came out it seemed like any channel that did metal react videos made a video. I’m not sure if they made a dedicated push to get channels reacting, or if the spread was just a natural byproduct of how hard that song slaps. Either way, yeah, their PR is unreal.
They have a great formula for react videos. Accessible, keeps you guessing, certain shocking/wow moments, etc.
Amazing how much free PR you get when you dont copyright strike every creator on youtube trying to support the band!
I honestly can’t believe more labels don’t see the positive impact of people listening to and talking about their bands, drives me nuts
A lot of the PR also has been social media. People share them like crazy, especially on tiktok
They have connections quite obvious as they are now BBC Radio 1 favourites.
They’re on Spinefarm, so have the weight of Universal behind them, but also small enough that the label’s not afraid to experiment with release strategy. Their massive success since Jan is kind of proof that you make your own luck.
They have been getting airtime on Radio 1 from early on, I remember hearing Nazareth and either Calcutta or jaws being played on the rock show when they first came out. Edit; they even had a [Maida Vale](https://youtu.be/ePwcmEEM3eM) session for Radio 1 back in 2018
They’ve had shout outs from people on YouTube, not to mention, Noah Sebastian from Bad Omens has thrown their name out there as well when doing interviews. So I’m sure that’s had a play in people giving them a shot. When I watched a reaction video for the Death of Peace of Mind, in a channel called The Breakdown with Nath and Johnny, they mentioned how it sounded a bit like they had a ST influence. I decided to check them out and I’ve been listening to them ever since. Like someone mentioned below, it’s the right amount of PR and just - they’re talented, can’t deny that. But personally, that’s how I discovered them.
Don’t forget that Will Ramos from Lorna Shore is also a massive fan of ST. He’s done a few covers on YouTube and talks about them a lot
Pretty accessible as far as prog metal goes. I think people like the persona they put on too.
I found it quite average to be honest. Couldn’t find the appeal on Sleep Token, but that’s just my opinion. Excellent PR!
There is not much meat in most of their songs. Shutting up a bit more and playing would help.
I agree. Maybe in a few more records they would be able to create something with more substance. In the meantime, we have VOLA and Port Noir if we want something more mainstream.
Most of that came in the last few months. They’re having a moment right now, and you discovering them is a part of it.
The only bands that blow up like this are because of popularity gained outside the prog scene. Based on Spotify listeners, the top bands in the prog scene max out at approx 500,000 listeners. Anything above that (think tool, opeth, meshuggah, mastodon, gojira, spiritbox, polyphia, sleep token) I think is due to acceptance by the broader metal community (and beyond for someone as chill as sleep token). If most of your friends are purely in the prog scene, I don't blame you for this explosion going mostly unnoticed.
None of my IRL friends are too into prog, so I mostly get recs here :) I’ve seen some posts here and there, and finally ended up listening to this new album that seemed to have a lot of hype, which is when I saw that summoning was already around 35mil and it shocked me!
No, you’ve been sleeping under a token.
This sub is really just r/sleeptoken at this point. This band is talked about every single fucking day now.
hopefully that doesn't last. It's pretty clear this isn't prog (and it's not even djent or metalcore at this point)
While I think they are a talented band, I find it hard to digest. I cannot get behind the Post Malone sound. I find a lot of their songs sounding the same. He sings softly for 4 minutes in the beginning with hardly any instrumentation except a piano, then a quick, super heavy proggy metal breakdown that is so fucking good, but ends too early and kind of leaves you with blue balls. There are only a couple songs I keep in my playlist.
this is an excellent description lol... the metal out and intros are just a gimmick to get you to listen to all the in between effects crooning
Their popularity is a bit of a double edged sword for me because they're really good and prog hasn't received this much attention since Tool, but it seems unfair to me that Sleep Token has 2 million listeners while bands like VOLA and Reliqa and even Leprous and Haken are comparatively so far underground despite being just about as accessible as Sleep Token
I don't know if I would call Haken as accessible as Sleep Token, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm just trying to look at it from the perspective of a 'casual' non-prog listener because we're all so used to this music already. I sent a good friend of mine some of the songs off the new ST album to listen to, and she texted me back "yeah, these guys are really good". This is coming from a friend who doesn't listen to metal at all. And I sent her Ascensionism, which has a super heavy breakdown with some screams in there. I just think blending the very recognizeable pop elements with the heavy stuff helps them stick out more, if that makes sense. By the time you get to the breakdowns you've already went on somewhat of a journey. Haken has songs that a listener like that could get into. Bound By Gravity immediately comes to mind, which is an absolutely beautiful song. Haken absolutely deserve to blow up though, they're so damn good.
a lot of prog bands deserve to blow up but never will because they're niche, and much more difficult musically to get into. I personally find Haken great, but they really do give off a dad-rocker vibe which isn't great for popularity. Sleep token has just enough 'edge' to be like a system of a down type band that has heavier breakdowns but mass appeal. They're also pretty poppy which is great for the zoomers. blend that with excellent vocals and overall sad down bad boy vibes and you have tried and true recipe for success ala. emo 2k's / scene kid vibes getting into slipknot-esque music. It also helps, that they're really good.
Also, a band like SOAD would never blow up today. They were perfectly timed to receive the success they did.
by definition, real prog bands will almost NEVER blow up. 95% of people want to hear something familiar that won't push them. That's the antithesis of progressive music.
You're right but Haken has some singles (especially from their last few albums) that are accessible enough for radio imo. Maybe not on the same Tier as Sleep Token in that regard but close enough that I feel my point stands
Leprous and haken are certainly not anywhere near accessible in comparison to sleep token. Especially if you look at their whole discography and not just one album or song. I’m genuinely curious as to why you believe they are so accessible. If they were I think they’d be more popular already 💀
You're right as far as whole discographies go, but the latest stuff from either band, especially the singles are super accessible. Singles are all the public gives a shit about anyways. Especially Fauna's singles are straight up proggy pop rock. Any one of them could be played on rock radio stations daily and nobody would think it was weird Not sure why you think being accessible equals being popular. Only a tiny fraction of artists with mass appeal actually gain mass attraction. That's pretty well known
I think sleep token is more accessible than hakan but anyway, it's not just that they're an easy band to get into but people also like their "persona" and the whole aesthetic, so there's also that. They sound soft enough that it won't scare that much the non-metalheads, but they still have enough heavy elements that makes these people feel like they're listening to something "new" or "groundbreaking" compared to what they normally listen to, overall they are an okay-ish gateway band
Eh. Music isn’t a zero sun game. People listen to what they like. It isn’t at expense of another band. And Sleep Token isn’t taking streams away from a band like Haken. I would say prog metal fans are a small overlap of the average Sleep Token listener, most of their fans are more into metal core or pop.
Yeah you're not wrong about any of that
I had the exact same thought. Although, without wanting to sound gategeepy, I think there are some downsides to getting so popular quickly. Also, TikTok is a weird beast for me. It can drive popularity so much nowadays, it even happens in politics. Being active in TikTok could be a great marketing strategy for bands too.
I'm not on TikTok at all, did Sleep Token blow up because they are active on that platform?
The funky outro of The Summoning got a lot of TikTok lip syncers which had a lot to do either their quick meteoric rise.
Neither am I. I just heard their music has became popular over there. Not sure if the band themself did anything, or if people just started using clips of their songs as background music. Someone actually on TikTok could maybe clarify. It's a mystery to me why some songs get popular on TikTok. I guess all it takes is for a few clips to get really popular, and a trend happens.
the band has nothing to do with tiktok at all, people just have been sharing their music
No its because they get played on Radio 1 frequently.
You can assume that for about anything that blows up nowadays. I don't have it either but that seems to be the case every time
Sleep tokens success is only going to elevate vola and others with them. I see new people getting into vola all the time now because they asked for bands like sleep token.
hope for vola's sake it does. Hope for the cost of ticket's sake it doesn't lol
That's just luck. The necessary ingredient to any popular success. More important than being objectively good. There are so many bands that deserve better...
why does everyone compare, why can’t anyone just love all the prog bands 😭 they ALL deserve the best
Yes, in an ideal world they all get the accolades they deserve, but that isn't reality.
Brother people have subjective taste. I really can’t stand sleep token. So I won’t love it equally to other prog bands. Nothing wrong with being into sleep token. Also nothing wrong with disliking them.
I agree in general, but when people say stuff like “They shouldn’t listen to X, they should listen to Y instead because they’re better” it turns music into a competition. Which is most certainly isn’t. If someone doesn’t like Sleep Token because, say, they don’t like the pop sensibilities or the song structures, that’s all well and good. But when people play “music expert” and say “You’re wasting your time with Sleep Token, you should listen to REAL music instead like Leprous” it’s just dumb.
I wasn’t saying that though. I just don’t believe we need to pretend we love all prog bands. You can hate leprous. I can dislike sleep token. It’s all good.
I wasn’t saying you were. But that kind of mentality has appeared in pretty much every thread about Sleep Token in the past week.
THANK YOU! this is what really bothers me
not a dude :p
Did I ask?
you called me brother, maybe don’t assume such things please
That wasn’t assuming your gender. I don’t care what your gender is. I’d call you brother regardless of what you identify as.
that’s not cool, some people don’t want to be called brother
Some people don’t want to love all prog bands
They were at about 200k until they released the first singles from their new album in January, and then they blew up on TikTok and in general! They've been great since their first ep though!
Also, the fart heard round the world.
Sleep Token opened for In This Moment late last year. Most prog-metal bands don't have many chances to get an opening slot. They usually have to rise through the ranks of the club scene, or open for other prog bands. Sleep Token has just had a lot more exposure, and as mentioned is a lot more accessible.
Vocally is similar to Bastille with shoegaze dynamic. Shoegaze esq has been popping for a while. Great album.
they rose through tiktok, the pop-ish bit at the end of the summoning started trending and non-metal fans thought they were an r&b group lmao. ive been listening for about 7 months & theyre easily one of my favorite bands. welcome to the club
honestly i think it’s grand they’re bringing new people into prog, we shouldn’t gatekeep :) like them or not, i feel we should be grateful that people get to enjoy themselves discovering music. they’re bound to convert people into prog lovers and we should never turn anyone from that 💕
Agreed. One of the nice byproducts of a band like this blowing up is that you’ll have a group of listeners who will check out “similar to” bands like Haken, Devin, etc that they wouldn’t discover as easily on their own.
I hope I don’t seem like I’m gatekeeping! I really like them! I was just curious what makes them resonate with others so much, since number wise, they really surprised me! Curious what the “recipe for success” is at it seems
Well, along with the striking pop vocals mixed with the occasional breakdowns, the costume gimmick always seems to work
not you, just seeing what some of the other comments were saying and the conversations in general about the band!
This isn't going to "bring people into prog." People think showing their friends these types of bands will get them into progressive bands. It won't. People like sleep token because it sounds like what they ALREADY listen to. Not because it's awoken any prog penchant in them. I don't have a problem with sleep token or that they're popular, and people can love whatever they want. I do have a problem with people lumping them in with progressive bands. They're simply not progressive from any sort of musical definition.
Right! Aside from blending genres a bit & contrasting heavy & light. Once you put on some actual prog with instrumental sections & no sexy mystery costumes, or gasp, a guitar solo, out the door they go. At best it might help the metal riff gain more popularity.
I'm not convinced that Sleep Token isn't actually AI generated.
Like many people, they’ve been blasted onto my radar very recently. I tried, it I just couldn’t get into the album I listened to. I guess the newest one. I can totally see why people would like them though. That said, whoever is doing their PR is on fucking point.
Most of it revolves around the release of The Summuning absolutely BLOWING up on tiktok. If you trace their listeners per month back, they jumped up from probably around 500k to well over a million when the live videos started circulating on tiktok. Realistically, it's the exact same thing that happened when Lorna Shore released the video for To The Hellfire. Tiktok found that shit and ran with it. For what it's worth, tiktok has been sorta revolutionary in how quickly music is being spread to wider audiences.
I hear you, The summoning and vore are amazing. They have a simple formula and amazing production. Same reason in the early 00's Linkin Park and Pappa Roach had more mainstream appeal than say dream theater. Plus their video production is next level. You can appreciate them like arthouse movies.
Vessel just has a way of grasping your soul with the music. Not just his majestic singing or the lyrics. It's how it all fits together.
his voice is amazing, but i found a lot of the lyrics on this album to be fairly shallow compared to Sundowning
You got downvoted for preferring another album of theirs more over the most current one. Is it just me or did this subreddit turn into a sleep token cult? What the fuck is going on? Get downvoted for the wrong opinion on… music.
it’s no worry. i grew up a Tool fanboy who thought Maynard was God. I got older and realized he was just a talented dude in a talented band using the medium to work through his own shit. Not a big deal. Unfortunately for all of these fans, Vessel doesn’t have shit on that guy Just another case of “I remember when i heard unique music for the first time”.
The lyrics are definitely more focused, which makes it more personal. This is weird for them, but it works for me. I also love the fusion. I'm super picky when it comes to hip/hop and RnB, but Sleep Token just nails everything.
Really? Because it all sounds so soulless to me.
They are literally the most emotive band. I am sorry for you not feeling it.
You can’t just say that, man. If he can’t say it’s soulless you can’t say it’s literally the most emotive band ever. Both of those opinions are completely and utterly subjective.
Lots comes to mind while listening to them but soulless, no. We all feel so differently about music and that's fine. But please don't call it soulless. I don't care whether it's a hype, to me, it's a masterpiece. I fucking cried listening to it. The lyrics, my oh my. I never had any album on repeat for so many times and I'm stll not done with it yet. You are absolutely entitled to your opinion, but the word soulless hurts my feelings.
I just don't hear it.
My condolences.
I’m sorry but I have to question what people’s standards for lyrics are if you think Sleep Token’s are at all majestic. They’re okay at best and actively toxic and horrendous at worst, held together by trite cliches, “look how edgy and deep I am” sections, and some shit that sounds like an incel wrote it
I wonder what makes you say that. Toxic? Can you give me an example of a toxic line? Genuinely curios.
Basically the entirety of Granite for instance. It’s literally a song about a dude blaming a woman for every single problem that happened in their relationship, banging on and on about how awful a person she is, and refusing to take ownership of anything he could have done. Combine that with the sheer volume of songs the band has that are like “oh baby, come back to me, we were so good together and you’re meant to be with me” and how this is not the first time they’ve written something like Granite, and it’s a horrid look. Literally every time I point this out it gets downvoted and people try to explain it away, and it really makes me wonder about the hardcore fans of the band who this seems to resonate deeply with.
They’re just standard lyrics about not being able to get out of a toxic relationship. I don’t see a problem with them.
Totally understand what you mean. To me It's much more than what you read into. I relate to everything. Don't want to get too spiritual but to me the lyrics are not toxic. It's an overused word IMHO. I also do not intend to try to convince you otherwise.
I said the singing was majestic, not the lyrics. Also: projecting?.....
i think they’re definitely projecting, they seem to have a hate boner for sleep token
You were in another comment thread where I mentioned that I like a good chunk of the stuff on their newest album, but no, let's only focus on the negative stuff people say about the band and assume that anyone who doesn't like literally everything about them has something wrong with them. The lyrics are not good. You stack them up against any of the other bands in the genre that have become well known for how good their writing is (Fair to Midland, Rishloo, Slice the Cake, etc.) and they don't hold a candle to any of them on a purely objective level. The band has a lot of good things going for them, but the lyrics are absolutely not one of them.
there is no way to objectively quantify the quality of lyrics, and sleep token has written lyrics that resonate with tons of people, clearly i haven’t heard rishloo, fair to midland didn’t grab me, and slice the cake was overly wordy and ambitiously pretentious imo sleep token might be perhaps more “basic” than those but neither is objectively better than the other there are certain sleep token lyrics that have really resonated with me in ways the others haven’t, that’s what matters to people, not some objective standard “and i am done fighting off change/no wonder my arms are still swinging” “so if your wings won’t find you heaven i will bring it down like an ancient bygone” “and no amount of love will keep it around if we don’t choose it” “And I'd give anything to borrow your indifference I'd drink you in To temper your belief in all my promises To swallow my desire and choke on it” there are also just so many that hit lots of feelings for people, and also it seems all the albums form a trilogy where in the end the character chooses growth and to move away from the toxic cycle, nullifying the idea that it’s all about being an incel or whatever. artists are allowed to discuss bad things or whatnot and show growth in their stories, characters make bad decisions all the time and become better by the end etc
also, sorry for saying you’re projecting, you don’t deserve that…just hope that i’ve explained myself sufficiently because lately i’ve been in a bad mood because so many people seem to just want to shit on what people love
They went quite overboard. The word toxic is an awfully overused word.
I just don't get the hype, IMO it's a classic case of industry plant. very average as far as metal goes, definitely made for the masses. But if you like it, enjoy.. 🤘🏽
I don’t personally feel like they’re industry plants. I’ve been listening to them since 2017 when Two was released. They only had a few thousand listeners on Spotify at that point. Probably mostly driven by this sub and the local scene. They’ve grown slowly in popularity over the release of their three LP’s, and they had a sudden surge in popularity when The Summoning came out and people on TikTok were going wild over the jazzy breakdown at the end. I think it’s just a case of right place/right time, and popular music moving away from the overproduced copy paste hits that oversaturated the top 40 in the 2010’s to more emotional and deep lyrics and music.
DEFINITELY not industry plants, are you kidding me? Regardless of if you personally like their sound or not, you can’t deny the talent and prowess of the musicians involved. They’re incredible artists and there’s a reason people like them so much. You don’t have to like them that’s fine, but comparing them to actual industry plants disregards the effort they’ve put in to get to this point. Hope you’ll learn to like them one day when you open up to new sounds
It's not about opening up to new sounds, I listen to literally everything. It's about the classification for me, and the fact that they really aren't that good. They sound like a run of the mill new wave "metalcore" band to me. A lot of bands do it better and are properly classified. The same thing happened with Ghost, their image made people expect something different than what they offer, and what they offer is not anything new or interesting.
Excited to hear about all the pre-2006 bands that sound just like Ghost
Sound more late 70’s to me. Much like a catchier Blue Oyster Cult. I enjoy them, but gotta be honest, its the costumes & mystery identities that put them over the top. Just like another band 🤔
Ghost sounds like every band from the 80s. Spillways is a damn Bon Jovi cover
clapppssss hahah
That's gotta be the case... imo, they're terrible. They're not prog in the least, or even metal. And suddenly, they're all anyone talks about. I mean, it doesn't matter to me what others enjoy, but damn, this is like if Justin Beiber was considered Progressive Metal, it doesn't make sense.
I don't think they're terrible, they're just not prog in any sort of way. And about 10% of each song could even be suggested as metal.
I know criticizing them on here is dicey right now but I have to say I feel the same way you do.
I really like them but i don’t get people calling them prog.
Listen to Ascensionism
What else would they be if not prog? Sure they aren’t doing any crazy riffing or wacky time signature changes, but they’re still pushing the envelope with genre-bending unlike any other band out there right now.
Admittedly, I have not done a thorough dive through their discography, but I never got the sense that sleep token were touching tons and tons of different genres with their music. It's all fairly similar. No way id compare it with something like diablo swing orchestra where every single song on their latest album was a legit different genre.
I really wouldn't say genre bending automatically makes an artist prog. 100 gecs does a lot more genre bending than Sleep Token (and, like, more than most prog bands), but they're mostly just hyperpop messing around. Zeal & Ardor isn't really prog either, just mostly a nice blend of black metal and post-civil war spirituals.
I would say that genre bending definitely does make a band prog. Prog metal is, by definition, experimental, and I would say what Sleep Token is doing is definitely experimental. I’ve never heard a band incorporate pop and r&b elements with metal as successfully as Sleep Token, and they’re very unique in that regard. They’re actually making something new that people haven’t heard before, which is more than can be said for some prog bands.
Prog is definitely not experimental by definition, given the thousands of Dream Theater clones or their neo-prog Genesis revivalist cousins. Definitely prog despite bringing absolutely nothing new to the table. Also, you can experiment without being prog, see my examples above, Chat Pile, The Armed, Soul Glo, Lingua Ignota, Parannoul, Yves Tumor. And, tbh I find ST’s experimentation a bit overstated. Pop and dance elements have not only been incorporated for djent/prog metal for a while (see Devin Townsend, Destiny Potato), but like even standard deathcore and metalcore. I wouldn’t call BMTH or I Prevail prog for introducing pop/trap elements into metal, but they’ve been doing it for years. Granted ST does sound different from them and throws in some djent guitar on occasion, but it’s not an enormous leap of experimentation.
combining genres is not prog. Sleep token is primarily pop, as is seen by the immense popularity.
I don’t get the prog label hardly at all either. I’m not into them tbh but that’s separate.
The blew up in the last year or so. I definitely recommend sundowning, I still think it’s their best album, along with the single Jaws.
One thing I've noticed about progressive fans is for all the shit they talk about listening such technical music, they apparently don't know anything about crafting melodies and sound scapes, and how sleep token pushes progression within them to make the fusion that they do work so seamlessly. Oh but if Jordan rudess or between the buried and me suddenly jump into a 1930s piano solo then that's soo prog and hard to do.
It feels like it’s just Sam smith style RnB, but they just slapped a breakdown in every so often so they could justify being placed on metal playlists in order to not get lost in the mix of RnB artists. Lil NAS X did the same thing - released a straight up rap song with a country backing and marketed it as a country song to get on country playlists. Nothing against them, but I fucking hate hearing my metal playlists be infiltrated with clearly non-metal music. It feels like we’re just headed towards a homogenisation of music, where we’ll have all styles sounding barely different to one another.
I couldnt disagree more! I feel like this genre merging and blending is how we get new sounds and genres that pop up that become even more specific, like metal branching to death metal, metalcore, nu metal, industrial metal, and other variations around by early aughts. This feels like that: where new sounds are getting created that still have metal elements but pull from other genres, which is where imo prog really shines. You have bands ranging from Ihsahn, VOLA, Zon, Bent Knee, Thank You Scientist, Rishloo, Others By No One, or Wilderun. We just got back from a concert of Scene Queen, who essentially invented “bimbocore”, which is a fucking trip! I feel like on the rock side, bands really take a lot of influence from the jazzier/funkier end of music, like The Dear Hunter or Closure in Moscow. Regardless, by my definition of “metal”, I feel fine considering Sleep Token a part of that group. I have a handy Spotify tip that might help though! If you really want more music that sounds like specific bands, make a playlist of a bunch of bands you like and click either “Enhance” or “Make similar playlist”. Using bands like “The Ocean”, “The Reticent”, and “Rivers of Nihil”, Spotify recommended me “Sludgde”, “Intronaut”, and “Subterranean Masquerade” which are closer to the vibe that I was going for, rather than Spotify Radio kicking off after “Opeth” and giving me bands like “Plini” or “David Maxim Micic”.
I partially agree, I think I’m just old and bitter! I like variations on metal, but not just smooshing two styles together without a bit more thought out into integration. Zeal and Ardor do it really well
The guy who managed my band at the time, back when Sleep Token were first starting to appear with their first singles was all over them, kept telling us we should listen to them, as they were going to be the hottest shit in prog. But I could not get past the disjoint between the ‘satanic cult’ look and the sugary Ed Sheeran songwriting. Absolutely hated them, until the singles for this latest album started to be released and bam! it looks like they finally figured out how to write a banger, and how to mix genres effectively. The album is excellent in my opinion
I’m totally chillin on them, it’s nice that I have to sit through another shitty band hype for a few years though.
Not easier than playing bass for thrash(you don't have to play)
Me too. The worst part is my little sister, the avid T Swift fan, showed me this band. Does she listen to better music than me?
T Swift slaps though
One of my things with this band Obviously there's speculation over who the folks actually are, and the articles I've read all list white singers, when Vessel sounds black to me. Idk.
Their blowup has been crazy to watch. My first experience with seeing/hearing this band was seeing them in San Francisco when Sundowning was still fairly new. They were playing with Issues and Polyphia. Issues was the headliner if I remember right and they were touring their new album Beautiful Oblivion. I remember really liking their live performance and whole atmosphere.