Take Me Back To Eden (2023)
How big can a cult get before it becomes a religion? That's the question facing Sleep Token after the release of Take Me Back To Eden, their third album proving a breakout smash internationally as they played sold out shows both sides of the Atlantic, including a Wembley Arena performance that sold out in less than 10 minutes.
TikTok interest around singles like Chokehold and The Summoning certainly helped spread Sleep Token's message, but the fact that Take Me Back To Eden felt like a full circle moment for the band - both musically and thematically, ensured it was one of the biggest metal releases of 2023, as well as being voted the best metal album of 2023 by Metal Hammer readers.
Chokehold
Reinforcing the imagery threaded through its two predecessors, the opening track on Sleep Token’s third album once again centres around a relationship that seemed perfect but has gone bad (something suggested up by its aggressive, violent title).
The twist here is that this could all be Sleep showing Vessel that his relationship will go wrong, rather than narrating something that has already happened. Sleep is offering salvation from a cycle of destruction that He has seen before, but also suggests that what Vessel is (or will) experience is pre-destined, right from Chokehold’s opening line: ‘When we were made, it was no accident.’
It also introduces lyrical motifs that are then picked up again on future songs. On the Sleep Token Discord, the user Valentine goes one step further, stating, “Chokehold is a great intake of air after holding your breath to dive to the bottom of This Place Will Become Your Tomb. […] Chokehold is the state of being between living with [another person] and living without them. They feel they can do neither at this point, but must choose one."
The Summoning
Much of Take Me Back To Eden is based around the idea of cycles, reinforced through repeated imagery. Colour-coded lyrics like ‘I look for scarlet and you look for ultraviolet’ echo ‘I’ve got a blood trail, red in the blue’ from Sundowning track Higher (and come up again on this album’s Aqua Regia).
It reinforces the idea of repetitive patterns, potentially of abusive or collapsing relationships. Some Reddit users even posit it isn’t just about meeting someone new, but a prelude to the tragedy explored previously (and in future) in Sleep Token lore.
Granite
Sleep Token don’t do ‘stories’ in the traditional sense, but Granite seems to be a narrative about a car crash, possibly caused as a result of addiction/selfdestructive tendencies. It also introduces the idea of alchemical reactions, contrasting sulphur with granite, with some fans pointing out sulphur dioxide causes granite to degrade.
Aqua Regia
Another reference to a chemical reaction: Aqua Regia is a scientific compound used to refine gold. There’s a lot of gold imagery in the song’s lyrics, as well as a suggestion of the of drug abuse hinted at in Granite (and referring to blood trails from The Summoning).
It also goes back to the idea of the romance Vessel is singing about being destructive and toxic, but equally addictive. This is Vessel at their most ‘human’, but also at their most damaged and broken.
Vore
Vorarephilia is the erotic desire to be consumed by someone or something else. There’s an obvious sexual connotation to the lyrical imagery, but it also ties in to themes of addiction and being subsumed, perhaps by Sleep or by an external relationship.
There’s also an element of desperation that is common throughout Sleep Token’s songs, wanting to escape anything that could separate the pair. We also get repeated holy water references from Granite, reinforcing the idea of this being part of the cycle.
Ascensionism
Read as a conversation between Vessel and Sleep, there’s a level of ambiguity as to whether Ascensionism is about the idea of past ties and past lives in a metaphorical sense, or more literally the idea of different Vessels repeating destructive patterns in the past.
The song revisits imagery from Vore, The Summoning and Aqua Regia, playing into the idea of cycles and an inevitable sense of destruction and deception as part of the relationship.
Are You Really Okay?
As part of the destructive behaviour and relationship Vessel has been exploring, we start to get a sense of despair as he is unable to save someone he loves from their own destruction. The song covers a sense of distance that is growing in the relationship and the self-destructive imagery is seen as a callback to some of the lyrical content on Sundowning.
One Reddit user even suggests that the single art seemingly portrays a figure with an infant, suggesting the idea of a miscarriage as part of the album’s overall tragic arc, leading to more destructive behaviour.
The Apparition
With so many callbacks to previous albums and songs throughout Take Me Back To Eden, it’s impossible to tell if the record is supposed to be read as a linear narrative. The Apparition seems to be one of the more direct songs on the album, dealing with conversations between Vessel and the entity, in particular honing in on the sense that Vessel is doomed to despair each time he wakes up, left to make sense of past memories and experiences.
DYWTYLM
Sleep Token have plenty of songs about heartbreak, addiction and destructive behaviour, so it’s unsurprising DYWTYLM would be seized upon by the fanbase. Although it continues those dark themes, this track also starts to move away from the idea of repetition; it’s more about acceptance and self-love, fans drawing parallels with the oceanic imagery of the previous record used at the very start to a sense of moving on that becomes crucial to the closing tracks of the album.
Rain
After finding self-love, Vessel is looking to move on and end the destructive cycle. Fans have interpreted the line ‘I know what I am; the mouth of the wolf, the eyes of the lamb’ as Vessel recognising that he is a prophet for a false god, linking it to the biblical passage Matthew 7:15 (‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves’).
Take Me Back To Eden
The album’s title track ties its overarching narrative together, with plenty of callbacks to what has come before – both on this release and their previous ones. It also reinforces the idea of a cycle being inevitable: the line ‘when we were made, it was no accident’, originally from Chokehold, is repeated, as if Vessel is trying to escape the cycle, that is in itself a part of the same cycle.
Euclid
‘I must be new’, Vessel sings on Euclid, and fans have seized upon this as an admission that the band will be moving on completely with their next release – it feels like the closing chapter of the first phase of Sleep Token’s story.
Ultimately, Take Me Back To Eden ends by going right back to the very beginning: the song’s final verse is directly lifted from Sundowning opener The Night Does Not Belong To God, suggesting that the cycle is looped and we’re right back to the beginning of the band’s lyrical narrative as laid out on their first album.
