Review: Sleep Token at Magnet House

Sleep Token at Magnet House
Thursday, May 4, 2023

Sleep Token’s popularity has sky-rocketed since they last visited Perth supporting Northlane in June 2022. With six new singles released just this year so far, and breakthrough single The Summoning appealing to a whole new demographic, it’s no surprise the prog-metal act sold out stages across the country on their highly-anticipated Australian headline tour.

Magnet House was packed to the brim well before Sleep Token took the stage, with a mix of calming, almost meditative sounds being played while the crowd was waiting with anticipation. The lights dropped and Vessel (vocals) slowly approached the mic to kick off the show, or “ritual” as the band refers to them, with Chokehold. Quickly whipping the crowd into a frenzy, the opening number was laden with melodic vocals, huge Djent-style guitar work, with synths and piano playing a major role in the over all texture, accompanied by the highly competent drum work of “ii" (the band members use roman numerals to identify themselves with).

Next up was The Summoning. a song that had seemingly been the reason a lot of people were in attendance, as a multitude of phones raised above the crowd capturing the footage. This song is a masterpiece and translated perfectly to the live setting, showcasing the band's ability to splice musical genres seamlessly in a six and a half minute journey.

After a very short break the band returned to the stage with Hypnosis off their 2021 album This Place Will Be Your Tomb, followed by Like That taken from the same album. The latter has an RnB/hip hop vibe to the intro with Vessel’s vocals carrying a soulful tone which soon transformed in to a sinister, darker impression repeating the words “do you like that?” with the crowd chanting along in sync.

The band and audience we were well warmed up by this stage as they played a song called Nazareth taken from their second release Two, a calmer song for the first half then exploding in to a wall of sound for the second. Granite was the next song in the set, a very popular new single as the crowd sung along loudly. This song once again contains RnB and pop sensibilities building to a huge Djent style outro. Following up was the band's fourth single to be dropped this year Aqua Regia, a song that contains no heavier aspects whatsoever and has a jazz-lounge band style all over it.

The piano intro to Atlantic was played live by Vessel captivating the crowd as the flawless playing and vocals were delivered with a solemn, almost heart broken fashion. Another song from 2021’s This Place Will Be Your Tomb and a clear crowd favourite, Alkaline was the bands first single of the aforementioned album in 2021 and hit like a tonne of bricks with the once again RnB and trap hi-hat style percussion leading in to the first verse. The Love You Want was the last song played from This Place Will Be Your Tomb, and had a very responsive crowd singing along to the most emotionally driven track of the night so far.

After close to an hour of an amazing and highly professional performance, the home stretch was approaching. Higher is the first song the band played from their debut album Sundowning released in November of 2019. The Night Does Not Belong To God was the second offering from this album pleasing many fans of their earlier work.

Sleep Token are known for their mysterious nature and anonymity, with the band never giving interviews or talking to the crowd, but Perth was lucky to get a glimpse of the more human side of Vessel when he flipped around a photographers cap in a rather charming and cheeky way during the intro to The Offering. Another crowd favourite and the first track from Sundowning. This track was absolutely huge, with bass guitarist “iii” and guitarist “iv” locking in extremely tightly as the outro was played to a crowd knowing the end was near.

Finally, Vessel retuned to the stage to play DYWTYLM as an encore. Their latest single was played solo with the three backup singers assisting with vocal duties. Simply put, it's a pop song, and shows the band could honestly do any genre they want and nail it. Upon the end of the song, Vessel then made gestures of appreciation to a crowd highly satisfied with what they had just experienced.

Sleep Token are on the forefront of heavy music and have set the bar extremely high in terms of musicianship, business modelling and plain old hard work. Fans new and old left the venue on a high, and excited as ever for the band's next album Take Me Back To Eden, which comes out on the 19th of May. Worship.

CLINT LE SPARROW

Photos by Adrian Thomson