Devin Does A Review: "Take Me Back To Eden" by Sleep Token

I just want to get one thing out of the way. Anyone that claims that Sleep Token is a "Metal" or a "Metalcore" band is an absolute moron. Let's just get that out there right now. I think you're a dingus if you think that. They're a band that infuses so many genres at so many different times that to pigeonhole them to a one word genre description is fucking asinine. To quote Kratos from God of War, "be better." You can hear elements of multiple genres in almost every song. Something that's hard to do, and even harder to do well. And Sleep Token has gone out of their way to not only do that well, but to do it perfectly.

I, like a lot of people, came across Sleep Token the same way. The fucking pandemic. 2021's This Place Will Become Your Tomb was one of the best records out that year, or really in the past couple of years if I'm being honest. It was something I felt was almost perfect, with a few dull moments spread out in the tracklist here and there, but it was an overall lovely experience that grew on me as time went on. That was then, however! Now we have the highly anticipated record, Take Me Back To Eden to sink our teeth into. I listened to it twice so I could write this review, and well...

It's incredible. It's perfect. I'm not even being sarcastic.

Apparently, it's the final part of a three-part story, starting with 2019's Sundowning. I actually had no idea that was even the case, and with me being a sucker for a concept album already (Coheed fan), I already know that I have to do after writing this. Gotta do a trilogy marathon! Ah dang, twist my damn arm...I'm honestly not sure if I can do a track by track review the way I normally would, I don't think that'd be fair. It wouldn't feel right to me to analyze it on such a paint by numbers, music critic level. I'd really have to strictly go by how it made me feel. Which by the way, is something that this album made me do a lot of. Day in and day out, I am listening to music. But it is very rare that it gets me to illicit any emotions. For me, it's largely background sounds. I'll pay attention to it, obviously, I'll go "cool riff, nice vocal", but I'm never really feeling anything, if that makes sense.

But the second that the album opener "Chokehold" started, I stopped dead in my tracks. And once the main instrumental really opened up, I was sitting down. And once I got to the title track, I was shedding tears. The amount of thought, care, and attention put into this record on every single track is insane. It's about time that a band put they entire pussy into a concept. Too many bands refuse to go out of a comfort zone or try to make anything unique, but not Sleep Token. They leaned right into the strange.

A few tracks that stood out over the rest were the title track, an 8 minute opus that masterfully paints with every color of the bands palate in a beautiful amalgamation of sounds. "Aqua Regia" might be, hands down, one of the sexiest songs I have ever heard. And tracks like "Vore" and "The Apparition" are two pieces of music that stick to your brain like taffy does on teeth. I'd also be stupid to not bring up album closer, "Euclid". A heart wrenching tale of loss and subsequent healing that uses similar melodies and lyrical callbacks to the first song on the first record, creating a full circle effect that stuck with me well after I was done listening to it.

This album is a beautiful reflection on pain, loss, love, and healing. I really can't believe I'm gonna break my own rule by doing this but like, fuck it.

10/10