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Is Take Me Back To Eden, or Sleep Token's latest and hugely anticipated record, the best album to come out in 2023 and recent years in general, was always going to be a polarising debate and an infinite source of pointless arguments for months. The rapid raise of the enigmatic UK outfit has been an absolute joy to watch, culminating in an album premiere that easily rivals those by some of the greatest names in the entire heavy scene, and all that is left for us all to ask, with no other use than to fill our pages, podcasts, and videos with insignificant blabbering, is "Is it all really worth it?" (yes, you did read it in that voice).
The short answer here, putting personal preferences aside, is hell to the yes! Whether you love, hate or don't really care or know anything about Sleep Token, Take Me Back To Eden is one of those seminal and generational records that needs to be experienced, be it solely for general knowledge or to understand subsequent events. Truth is, as soon as they dropped 'Chokehold' and 'Summoning' at the very beginning of January and then quickly fired 'Granite' and 'Aqua Regia', there was really no doubts that 2023 will be Sleep Token's year. So, to answer the question again, the hype might be overbearing but it is worth it.
Over the next weeks, months and probably years, you will see journalists, critics, tastemakers, youtubers, streamers, reactors, and other musicians all talk about Take Me Back To Eden, whether as a standalone release or within its wider context, and this by itself is already a huge win for a band that is as difficult to comprehend. Grabbing people's attention in 2023 is as difficult as it gets, but holding and manipulating it with such flair, is a whole different game and through meticulous work, enourmous talent and marketing mastery, Sleep Token have perfected it unlike any other current band across the entire metal scene. You can draw paralels and quote influences all day but there are truly unique.
Sleep Token have been a cult band since day one, gradually surrounding themelves with a shroud of mystery, speculation and conspiracy, and carefully constructing a narrative that rapidly turned into lore and inevitably bred fanaticism. The progressive nature and experimental approach in Sundowning (2019) and This Place Will Become Your Tomb (2021) also lured the guitar nerds and online experts whose overzealous devotion to established norms and stylistic conventions will certainly be put to the test with Take Me Back To Eden. Whether the record can be considered metal at all is a topic for dissertation, and while Sleep Token have always displayed healthy affinity to pop and R&B tropes, their latest offering really pushes genre fluidity and defiance to a whole new beautiful level.
The six promo singles have already revealed half of Take Me Back To Eden, covering its production style and scope, and I bet the Reddit crowd would still find a way to be disappointed. People would be quick to forget that the foundations were already laid in Sleep Token's first two records, all leading to this perfectly fitting conclusion of their spectacular album trilogy, which is also impossible to separate from the rest and analyse as a standalone entity. Moreover, Take Me Back To Eden needs no dissection, somehow finding subtle ways to excite or soothe you even after the hundreth playthrough, its fragile polarity, shifting moods, extreme opposites, instrumental imagination and vocal virtuosity, all pleasently challenging to comprehend and expectedly unexpected. So yes, it is worth it.
All this said, I cannot possibly list Take Me Back To Eden as album of the year just yet, for it plays in a separate category from everything else released so far. To put it in a chart or compare it to others is to strip Sleep Token from their signature uniqueness. At times, one might find the production to be too polished, the vocals too prominent, certain congs too long, and then again it all makes perfect sense within its underlying concept and essence. Regardless of what we all think, Take Me Back To Eden's depth, layers and genre spectrum will be discussed for years, the album will chart high and the band will sell out arenas.
Considering its entirety as an album, with the deliberate progressions and transitions between its twelve tracks, Take Me Back To Eden might actually be the only true LP to come out this year. In a time where singles and videos are dominating social feeds and media headlines, it takes vision, skills and guts to drop such an album, and Sleep Token have plenty, their success story impossible to miss and worthy of discussion. Greatness these days might be rare but remains easy to spot, and when a band that has been active for half a decade rocks such numbers in the current landscape, we just have to worship.
Sleep Token - 'Take Me Back To Eden'
Country: United Kingdom
Released: 19 May 2023
Tracklisting:
1. 'Chokehold'
2. 'The Summoning'
3. 'Granite'
4. 'Aqua Regia'
5. 'Vore'
6. 'Ascensionism'
7. 'Are You Really Okay?'
8. 'The Apparition'
9. 'DYWTYLM'
10. 'Rain'
11. 'Take Me Back To Eden'
12. 'Euclid'
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