CLEVELAND, Ohio – The mysterious musical entity known as Sleep Token held a “ritual” Saturday night at Rocket Arena for a sold-out crowd of rapt “worshippers.”
The crowd reveled in the anonymous UK band’s metal-based, genre-melding, heavy and heavily emotional songs drawn from their four albums, focusing on their latest, “Even In Arcadia,” released in May.
The masked and costumed band, which in the studio and in official band photographs is lead singer-songwriter and creative mastermind Vessel and the superlative spider-armed drummer known as II, returned for only their third show in Cleveland. Each time, the ritual (that’s their term for a concert) and the number of worshippers attending have grown, from the House of Blues in 2019, to the Agora in 2022, and now the band’s first headlining U.S. arena tour, which has sold out quickly across the country.
As with many bands and artists that have mastered social media, Sleep Token uses visual easter eggs, ancient sigils and signs and even their own alphabet to hook obsessive music fans. Leader Vessel seems like that mysterious goth-poet kid in high school with the perpetually chipped, black fingernail polish, his dark hair covering at least one eye at all times, who constantly wrote and drew in a notebook that may be some kind of angry “manifesto” to be discovered later, or the conceptual master plan for a huge metal band.
See, Vessel has created an entire lore for Sleep Token, which is too purposely esoteric and open to interpretation to get into in this space (If you’re curious, boolin tunes attempts a pretty deep dive). But the band’s lore involves a deity, “Sleep,” who chooses the singer-songwriter as their “Vessel” and for whom the band’s songs are tokens.
It basically adds up to songs about obsession, abusive relationships, a dash of self-loathing, unrequited and unhealthy love, all sung in Vessel’s sonorous, vibrato-laden tenor. The band’s commitment to the bit, keeping the focus on the lore and the music is strong. Sleep Token has given only two interviews in nearly a decade, one of which was a drum instruction video by II in full costume and his voice digitally obscured.
The “Even In Arcadia” tour is the culmination of all that mysterious world-building and the attending worshippers ate it up like they had the munchies. The multi-level stage resembled the entrance to an ancient mausoleum embedded in a mountainside side, with the trio of women backup singers, collectively known as Espera, perched high in the back while guitarist III and bassist IV roamed the elaborate stage, often lurking behind Vessel.
The singer, wearing his current mask and hood, his body covered in black paint (is “blacktorso” a thing? Naw, it’s cool) is a surprisingly spry and active frontman given the mournful, emotional quality of his voice and songs, which sound as if he recorded them while in the fetal position in the corner of the saddest studio on earth. Throughout the show the lanky leader jumped around the stage like a methed-up praying mantis on the heavy tunes such as the punishing fan favorite “The Summoning,” featuring a blazing drum coda from II.
On other songs, such as “Emergence,” one of six “Arcadia” tracks performed in the 14-song set, he gesticulated like a rapper. The band is known and loved for its penchant for stuffing its songs with a variety of genre elements. “Emergence” packs big drop-tuned metal riffs, emo screams, delicate piano chords, trap grooves and a sax solo in its six and a half minutes.
Another fan favorite, “Alkaline,” an obsessive love song with a catchy chorus, became a group sing-along, as did the heavy ballad “Rain” complete with “rain” pouring down in front of the mausoleum door.
For all the heavy metal moves and melodramatic vocals, multi-instrumentalist Vessel can also write some darn pretty music.
The mellow “Metal Quiet Storm” tune “Aqua Regia” rides cool and jazzy piano chord changes. “Damocles,” perhaps one of Vessel’s most honest and plainspoken songs about the uncertainty inspired by the band’s growing fame and what’s next (“Well, I know I should be touring, I know these chords are boring, But I can’t always be killing the game,” he laments) also features some lovely piano melodies. “Even In Arcadia” contains the usual emotional vulnerability of past albums, but is infused with real-world clues as to Vesel’s current mindset, as his art and music project has turned his masked public persona into a reluctant rock star. “Caramel” continues the theme and infuses the now ubiquitous reggaeton beat with some massive and beautiful metal breakdowns as Vessel sings about fans and media’s obsession with the man behind the mask, “I Guess that’s what I get for trying to hide in the limelight,” he quaveringly sings.
Though fame may be screwing with his masked head, the band, which offered no banter, sure puts on a good rock show with artful and complex staging, good set pacing and a killer laser light show. Singing at stage volume, Vessel’s voice is still mournful but perhaps having to project makes it an overall stronger sound and a bit less weepy than the records.
The sold-out age eclectic crowd loves that weepy quality and they showed up to Rocket Arena ready to rock out with their emotions out. Mingling with and drawing curious looks from the Guardians fans heading towards the stadium, there were folks in full Vessel costumes, numerous goth brides in all-black or all-white wedding-style dresses, folks in makeup and ornate masks and little kids in capes.
Vessel may be uncomfortable with the band’s growing fame and attention, but Sleep Token’s jump from the Agora to the arena seems deserved and their music and mystery had no problem filling the big room.
Worship.
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