Report Blog Entry
I've listned to this band quite actively since their debut album, which I was not particularly fond of. I was a lot more impressed by their second album.
As much as I love the very unique sound of Sleep Token, I think they may have made a mistake in their decisions on designing and advertising this project. Sleep Token's projects have historically been primarily dark pop/worship with only the occasional couple metalcore tracks. Evidently, they enjoyed the attention that those tracks got them from much of the metalcore scene, but over time it culminated into this project being almost entirely songs that are at least half metalcore.
Instead of picking a side and rolling with it, or continuing to follow the same path as before, Sleep Token simply pushes the two song styles they were oriented around before all into the same songs, resulting in some abrubt genre switches that are sure to catch much of their new audience off guard for better and for worse.
Speaking of their 'new audience', this album was clearly marketed toward metal listeners despite the only metal on the album being in one of the most contentious styles in the entire scene, on top of blending this with dark-pop and sort of haphazard trap/r&b segments that interrupt those already contentious segments. It almost seems like the band was deliberately trying to spark controversy by attracting and brand new audience they knew would be upset with the project.
Bizarre decisions in marketing aside, I thoroughly the project. While I can understand that some may find the experimentations into rapping to be poorly executed, I still found them quite enjoyable. I am also firmly of the opinion that there is nothing wrong with a song being extremely simple to compose and preform, as long as the end resulting studio recording simply sounds pleasant to my ears; thus, the simplistic djent progressions at points are simply fun as far as im concerned.There were only three tracks that scored less than an eight (extremely positive feelings);
Auqa Regia scored a six (slight positive feelings) because while I did understand and appreciate the aesthetic of the song, the melody and progression didnt particularly hook me and mostly just felt repetitive and a bit irritating, especially in comparison to the sheer variety of the rest of the project.
Are You Really Okay scored a seven (moderate positive feelings) largely because it didnt really expand on the concept much by the end of the song and the vocal style change felt somewhat awkward, even if the emotional element of the track was still conveyed fairly well.
DYWTYLM Scored a two (extreme negative feelings) because... ugh, to be entirely honest this is the only song on the record I think is net terrible. The only reason it didnt score a one (irredeemable) is that I could kind of understand the intention and thought of a few ways to improve upon it, but this song was absolutely bad enough to warrant blocking it from playing on my music app. I think they were trying to have this play the same role as the much more pleasant and aptly placed “Fall For Me” from their previous record, but it is horribly executed and that idea simply doesn't make sense in the first place given how different this album is from its predecessor stylistically.
Overall, the averaged score is an 8.7, which I rounded up to a 9/10 (Almost Flawless). I absolutely enjoyed the listening experience but there are several places that could use structural improvements (smoother transitions between genres), and theres an entire song that would do well to be cut from the tracklist.
On the subject of the critical hatred for this album, I sincerely dont understand why this album seems so despised. I can understand not enjoying pop-y sounding music or finding the genre transitions strange/awkward, but I can't imagine the simplicity of the metal segments or people simply not liking the way Vessel's voice sounds warranted much more than a mild disinterest. I feel the same way critics of this record seem to about Foo Fighters and a great deal of beloved rock and metal projects from the eighties, but I can't imagine that warranting the kind of vocal and abject hatred this album has been receiving. I'm deeply confused.
If there's one thing I'd caution before listening to this project, its that you should not be expecting a metal album. If you listen to this as a metalhead, you will be thoroughly disappointed, because thats not what it is. Sleep token is first and foremost a dark-pop band with metalcore elements. If you dislike sing-songy vocals, stadium claps and stomps, simple djent, and genre blending, you absolutely will not like this record. But you also need to recognize that doesnt mean it's bad. I think this album, despite the flaws I brought up, is excellently composed and mixed. Vessel's vocals are excellently performed, the drums are hard hitting and groovy, the synths are well crafted and pleasant, and the djent guitars simply sound fun. If you think those are objectively untrue statements, I have to wonder if we listened to the same record.
(The one thing that confuses me the most is people headlining reviews with complaints about this album "representing the state of modern metal" when... this simply is not what any mainstream metal sounds like! I can only imagine this is shorthand for “I hate metalcore” since I can't imahine what else it would mean.)
Comments
Displaying 1 of 1 comments ( View all | Add Comment )
Inu
As a sleep token fan I to don't understand people viewing them as metal the members themselves have said that they aren't wanting to be restricted to one genre of music/viewed as metal.