{"id":254982,"date":"2025-07-11T01:52:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T01:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/254982\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T01:52:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T01:52:15","slug":"the-psychology-of-how-sleep-token-became-the-masked-mammoths-of-metal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/254982\/","title":{"rendered":"The psychology of how\u00a0Sleep\u00a0Token\u00a0became the masked mammoths of metal"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all have snapshot memories of KISS<\/a> slathering on theatrical black and white makeup for the stage, and glam metal\u2019s M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce showing up with powdered faces and pink cheeks. Alternative bands have never shied away from the circus of costume and aesthetic, but Sleep Token<\/a> take it a step further. In their case, the masks and cloaks they wear are crucial for maintaining anonymity. The band, with their lead vocalist known only as Vessel, and drummer going by \u2018II\u2019, plus two touring musicians, have reached an unprecedented level of commercial fame and success, akin to the likes of fellow masked metal acts GHOST<\/a> and Slipknot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read next<\/p>\n

Their fourth album, Even in Arcadia, released in May this year, topped the charts in the UK, US and Australia. Now, after their KoRn-approved headliner set at Download in mid-June, Sleep Token are being positioned as a once-in-a-generation metal band.\u202f<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not familiar with Sleep Token, there\u2019s a chance you\u2019ve missed their guitar-guzzling, black metal-inspired tunes. At times, their mega-mashup of styles feels like Twenty One Pilots slammed against Imagine Dragons\u2019 chart-patented pop-rock and tender, Coldplay-esque lyrics. After forming in 2016, their ascent as one of rock music\u2019s newest highlights has pulled them into the mainstream spotlight.<\/p>\n

Aside from their sweep of the charts, what stands out about Sleep Token is the passion of their fanbase. Rolling Stone UK reached out to some of their fans to find out what it is about the band\u2019s image and music that lures them in.<\/p>\n

\"\"(Picture: Andy Ford)<\/p>\n

Becky Remmer, 42, from Ottawa, Canada, first saw Sleep Token with her husband in Montreal in May last year. Such is her devotion to the band that she has travelled across the world to see them perform. \u201cThe first concert I saw them at was in Quebec, and I immediately bought tickets to see them in Toronto a few days later, and then flew over to see them in Glasgow and Manchester as well. There is something magical about the live shows which captivates you so much,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Moni Serneabat, 26, lead singer of the band Charm Offensive, admits she bought a ticket for Download simply to see Sleep Token live. Her reasoning for the band\u2019s popularity is that their music \u201coffers an escape\u201d to their listeners.\u202f<\/p>\n

It was hearing Sleep Token\u2019s third studio album, Take Me Back to Eden, that converted Marie Killen, 33, from Florida. She connects deeply to Sleep Token\u2019s discography, describing their work as filled with \u201cyearning and passion\u201d. Confessing that she feels seen by their music and writing, she believes Sleep Token is changing the game in the metal world. \u201cThe powerful lyrics combined with the rhythm and tempo of songs like \u2018Alkaline\u2019 and \u2018Descending\u2019 make me feel otherworldly. \u2018High Water\u2019 is deeply personal to me and reflects my mental health struggles and conflicts with faith and belonging,\u201d says Killen.<\/p>\n

\u201cSleep Token aren\u2019t just performers, they\u2019re artists,\u201d she continues. \u201cIt\u2019s poetry and stories that invoke something deep within you. I think their fans are looking for this connection to their music. Their musical style is so different from most big bands out there right now and melds so many genres together.\u201d\u202f<\/p>\n

\"Sleep(Picture: Andy Ford)<\/p>\n

Dedicated fan Keiran Heaffey, 34, from Milton Keynes, first discovered Sleep Token in 2020, while tuning into a Twitch stream during the Covid-19 pandemic. The band\u2019s 2019 song \u2018The Offering\u2019 and the band personas were his gateway into the fandom. \u201cI love the detail of Vessel. It shows that, in real life, humans can push themselves so far into something they want that they do not see the damage they are doing to themselves as a result,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

Heaffey reflects on Sleep Token\u2019s rapid climb of the charts as a signifier of their \u201cfervent\u201d fan community, saying: \u201cAvenged Sevenfold took 12 years [from their debut album] and six albums to get their first number one [album], Architects took 15 years and nine albums to get their first number one [album]. Sleep Token took only six years and four albums to do this. It is so rare for this to happen, especially in the world of streaming where we lose focus on a piece of music so quickly these days.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is an extract from a larger feature to be published in\u00a0the September\/August issue of Rolling Stone UK, published July 24. Pre-order the\u00a0Sleep\u00a0Token\u00a0special fan edition cover here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We all have snapshot memories of KISS slathering on theatrical black and white makeup for the stage, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,269,7544,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-254982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-sleep-token","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114832103807349919","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}