SLEEP TOKEN
"IF I DON'T FEEL ANYTHING THEN WHY WOULD I EVEN DO THIS?"
A hit album, viral videos, secret listening sessions, an upcoming arena show – 2023 has been the year of Sleep Token. Hammer joins them in Los Angeles to hear Vessel finally speak
A deep, distorted voice is coming through the PA of Los Angeles’ El Rey Theatre.
“Do you think they want you to cry?” it’s saying. “Do you think they like it?”
A second voice, lighter in tone but still distorted and oddly inhuman, replies.
“Not as such,” this one says. “I think they just want to know that Iam feeling something, feeling what they are feeling, perhaps.”
The audience in this ornate, 800-capacity venue stand silent, entranced by the voices. The band onstage are masked metal sensations Sleep Token, tonight playing their first headlining show in the City Of Angels as part of their month-long North American Rituals tour.
The dialogue that is playing out around us is hugely significant to everyone in this sold-out crowd. It marks the first time cowled frontman Vessel – the lighter voice – has broken his silence in public. The deeper voice he’s communing with belongs to Sleep, the god-like entity at the heart of the band’s lore. As the conversation continues, you could hear a pin drop.
“Do you think that this amount of crying is healthy for you?” Sleep asks.
“I don’t know,” comes Vessel’s response. “But at least I feel something. If I don’t feel anything then why would I even do this?”
At this, the crowd lose their minds and a wave of mania ripples across the floor. That the voices are pre-recorded doesn’t matter. Nor does the fact that this isn’t, strictly, the first time it’s happened – Sleep Token have been doing throughout this tour. But modern metal’s most enigmatic band have done something they’ve never done before: they’ve cracked open the door and given us a tantalising glimpse into their inner world.
This show isn’t the biggest Sleep Token will play this year. In December, they will headline London’s Wembley Arena. But Los Angeles, together with New York, is one of the twin epicenters of the US music business, and the buzz that’s surrounding the anonymous band suggests that America is paying attention to them.
More than that, La La Land has always had a thing for cults, from the Manson Family to Scientology, as well as the countless smaller ‘spiritualist’ groups that operate in the city today. An anonymous, masked British band with their own mysterious, quasi-religious mythology? LA never stood a chance.
“There is a new atmosphere at these live shows, an electricity,” says Benji Purdy, an American fan who also acts as moderator on the band’s official Discord server. He first saw Sleep Token when they supported metalcore act Issues on
