There is no denying Sleep Token are among the hottest names in heavy music right now. The name on seemingly every heavy music fan's lips, the anonymous UK collective recently completed a sold-out tour of Australia to a legion of passionate worshippers. This week those worshippers helped the group's third album Take Me Back To Eden debut at number three on the ARIA charts, and secure the coveted triple j feature album slot. The fanfare for the group down under is in many ways representative of the fervour for Sleep Token worldwide, with millions of fans falling head over heels for their genre-blurring alternative soundscapes.
Following debuts Sundowning and This Place Will Become Your Tomb, Take Me Back To Eden is the finale in a trilogy of records that have seen the secretive band convert the metal-loving masses while crossing over into the hearts of mainstream music lovers. Despite all this success, very little is known about the musicians that make up Sleep Token. The singular creative vision of the mysterious masked figure known as Vessel, Sleep Token seem determined to keep it that way too, infamously resisting industry clamour for them to engage with the press or peel back the veil of anonymity in even the slightest of ways. In a culture completely obsessed with personal branding and celebrity, it makes for a unique approach, one that ensures the primary focus remains on the art at all times. It is also an approach that has led to a cultlike following and seemingly endless theories about just who it is that is making this music that is conquering the globe.
As the vocalist for rising Adelaide alt-rock act Alt. Daniel Cullen-Richards has got about as close to Sleep Token as anyone else you'll meet in Australia when Alt. served as the opening act on Sleep Token's first-ever appearance on these shores in 2022, when the two acts combined with Plini to support Northlane on their nationwide Obsidian tour. With this in mind, we asked Cullen-Richards to provide us with his thoughts on Take Me Back To Eden and to provide some recollections of touring with Sleep Token.
Alt. vocalist Daniel Cullen-Richards reflects on touring with Sleep Token & reviews Take Me Back To Eden
The masses have gathered in worship for the UK’s masked, soulful pop metalcore band Sleep Token’s new album Take Me Back To Eden - and it is glorious.
Since 2016, Vessel and co. have been making themselves a scene staple with their unique sonic blends and visual concepts. The band have maintained their anonymity during this time creating a groundswell of excitement and curiosity. Their rituals first found their way to Australian shores in June of 2022 with national heavyweights Northlane, Guitar wizard Plini and ourselves, alt., and fans have been in awe since. During this tour, I gained a newfound respect for one of the scene’s newest and brightest stars.
At the first show in Perth, my band alt. had never been on a real proper tour before, and it is a daunting experience walking into rooms far larger than you have ever played before. The boys were very welcoming, they were the first band on the tour to approach us and introduce themselves. They were approachable, professional, and kind and offered us great support during the tumultuous time that was our first large tour. For that, we are forever grateful to be able to learn and see the workings from the inside of such a dedicated group. With that, I am more than happy to see the extensive growth, or boom if you will, of the band Sleep Token as it is very well deserved down to its core.
Since their first trip to Australia, they have had an insurmountable leap in terms of Spotify listers from a quarter of a million to over 2 and a half million in the space of a couple of months. What attributed to this incredible rise of Sleep Token? New music and social media. The band began the rollout with a unique approach releasing two singles at a time and none with music videos but different characters being displayed using visualisers. The first two songs Chokehold and The Summoning instantly did the rounds on TikTok, catapulting the band from scene newcomers to heavyweights, and urging the new stars to come back to Australia in the same venues as most dates they did with Northlane were sold out. This also left many fans searching for tickets for months on end until, inevitably, many missed out, longing for their Sleep Token fix.
Their latest offering Take Me Back To Eden is the most consistent album by the four-piece to date in terms of the quality of the tracks down the line. Five of the six singles released by the band showcase the broody pop-filled hard edge the band’s fans have grown to know and love. Sprinkling in bits of experimentation to keep the fans guessing around their core structure, the songs are heavier, the songs have more heart and pay no rent in your head for weeks to come.
They have done it. They have fully completed their iteration of the band as we currently know it. The non-singles are where the band truly thrives, in my opinion. Songs like Ascensionism, Are You Really Okay and Rain showcase that the band has the chops to be able to write pop sensible songs just as well as one of Vessel’s favourites in Frank Ocean. Everything on this album is deliberate, it is thoughtful. It is Sleep Token at its very best and I know they will be playing many of these songs for years to come.
If you want to follow a band that boasts incredible musicians but more incredible people who offer a unique genre-bending sound, then look no further than Sleep Token. Their album Take Me Back To Eden is out now through Spinefarm Records.
Listen to Take Me Back To Eden
Alt. released the single APEP featuring Void Of Vision vocalist Jack Bergin earlier this month. Taken from the upcoming album ABEYANCE, due out on Friday 16 June via Resist Records in Australia and SharpTone Records for the rest of the world, APEP charges at chaos and corruption with a futuristic sonic glove. Showcasing yet another side of the explosive new alt. chapter, alongside previous singles WRAITH, THE GREAT DEPRESSION and A.D.D, APEP explodes alongside a razor-sharp emulsion of towering soundscapes, anthemic stomps and colossal vocal interplay between Bergin and alt.'s Daniel Cullen-Richards.
Due out on Friday 16 June, ABEYANCE finds alt. emerging from a turbulent few years armed with rejuvenated focus and ferocity, set to stupefy the senses and catapult one of the city of churches’ brightest stars further into the spotlight.
Working on ABEYANCE alongside Marcus Bridge (Northlane), Landon Tewers (The Plot In You), Zach Britt (Dream On, Dreamer) and Trenton Woodley (Hands Like Houses), producer Callan Orr also returned after his work on alt.'s 2020 debut EP dysfunctional - and the end result is nothing short of astonishing.
Spending years honing their signature brand of punk, pop, electronic and alternative rock since first erupting onto the scene in 2019, alt. have previously performed with the likes of Karnivool, Cog, sleepmakeswaves, Belle Haven, Bad/Love, Saosin and Don Broco.
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