We Are The Teeth of God

an analysis of Sleep Token

Preface

I’ve written this preface for the reasons of housekeeping, acknowledgements, and to avoid any misconception of my intentions here.  

I’m delighted to be a part of this fandom, and thank you for having enough interest in my thoughts to read this. It will be a long read, so I’ll be both pleasantly surprised and grateful if you take the time to read it full!

I’ll be stating what is in reality only own opinion as fact here. This is largely due to stylistic reasons when attempted to compose a compelling argument. Prefacing every sentence with the phrase “I think…” gets tiresome. All of this analysis is ultimately my interpretation. My arguments do not mean other interpretations are invalid; this is the brilliant thing about art (including music)!

I will be focusing on cannon: what Sleep Token themselves have published, rather than popular fan theories. Please be aware THERE ARE SPOILERS (of the graphic novel in particular), but there is no mention of band member’s real identities. I aim respect their privacy, plus their anonymity is essential for the whole thing to work (I will be discussing why).

To support my thoughts, I’ll be using philosophy (existentialism), psychology (Jungian and TMT), sociology, and some history (art and literary). Consider this a content warning - death, existentialism, and the human condition; and some readers may find these topics confronting. I have offered some background on certain concepts to give context to my points. I do quote Sleep Token’s own content at length, along with other authors. I do not claim to be the first person to have had these the opinions that I’ll be sharing here - I honestly expect other fans who are interested in psychology and philosophy to have drawn similar conclusions. 

Whilst not a scholar, I will be using references and you can find my references at the end. I’ll be using APA (American Psychological Association) style, as it is what is most familiar to me from my unrelated uni studies. 

I’m incredibly indebted to other fans who have shared resources online (such as magazine articles and ritual interlude transcripts) - which were essential for what I’ve written.

This exposition is a work of passion and hyper-fixation. I am autistic and ADHD and have been fostering a deep interest in Sleep Token for a while now. It went into overdrive after seeing them live for the first time in April 2024. I especially felt like I needed to get some of my thoughts in order after I finally got around to reading the Teeth of God graphic novel a couple of months ago. After reading it, I had existential questions and concerns resurface into my mind (which are something that I have encountered before), but this experience was particularly emotional, it was like a howling cry that would stifle in my throat before I could let it out. On the same day, when I was alone, I decided to do a full listen to Sleep Token’s entire discography (note - this was before Emergence was released). I’ve listened to the entire discography on many occasions, but something was different this time. This full devoted listening was utterly astounding. I feel rather insipid saying this, but I can only describe it as some sort of spiritual awakening. It felt like I was finally getting something I hadn’t been able to put my finger on before.

As I’ve been reading all the resources I’ve gathered during the writing process, I’ve started to feel like it is turning into a Weltanschauung. I will wax lyrical about it all here. 

This analysis is not commercial. The purpose is to offer commentary and/or criticism; which is regarded as fair use. All content that is not my own is referenced. 

Non-referenced content is my own (including illustrations). Please do not redistribute without acknowledgement. I have not used extractive or generative AI in the writing of this document (I conscientiously object to the use of AI).

I am publishing this on my website. I’ve chosen to use my website for the following reasons: no login is required to view it; there is no advertising; and it allows me more control over the format. The web version is not linked from elsewhere on my webpage. 

A couple of notes:

• I use the term “unconscious” rather than “subconscious” to stay consistent with the majority of my references. Subconscious is generally used more informally, and is the term Sleep Token have used in interviews. 

• Square brackets […] in quotations indicate my additions for added context. 

• I’ve had to limit to number of songs I’ve discussed for now, but I’d love to add more another day (time permitting)

Introduction

The genre-defying, UK band Sleep Token wrap themselves in a shroud of mystery. The band’s promotional efforts are full of riddles and crumb-trails of clues. The lyrics are steeped in metaphor and symbolism. The other-worldly visual aspects of the band in their rituals (i.e. live performances), album artwork, and their graphic novel (The Teeth of God) further exemplify the enigma. 

Their last known interview was in 2019, and all interviews have been done by email. The band’s eerie masks and anonymity fuels this further - despite the band members sadly being doxxed in recent years (it is usually considered a faux pas among fans to spread this information or discuss it). Whilst some naysayers see the masks and mystique as a gimmick, Sleep Token aren’t concerned by this criticism:

“The standard of gimmickry is none of our concern. We are here to deliver a message; touch people in their hearts and subconscious minds. Soon, regardless on cynicism, you will all be followers.”  (Morton, 2017, Metal Hammer)

Sleep Token profess to worship an ancient god named “Sleep”- to whom they offer their musical contributions (i.e. tokens) to. These offerings of music are intensely poignant and they have gathered legions of followers (i.e. fans) in recent years. 

Sleep Token aim to take listeners in a journey into the unconscious and examine what lies within each of us. They want to create an emotional experience: 

“We sculpt , build and craft these sounds with an aim to deliver the emotional magnitude of His words.” (Stay Toke, 2017, Metal Hammer)

There are a multitude of reoccurring themes in Sleep Token’s published works. The consistent overarching theme is nature of the human condition. Existential issues (the desire for meaning and death), psychological concepts (Jung’s shadow, the collective unconscious, and transference) are all featured heavily in their offerings.

Frequently in lyrics, Sleep Token do an interesting poetic technique of changing who is speaking within a song. It can make for huge differences in interpretations. There are many play-on-words and metaphors which leads to multiple layers of potential meanings. Their song have a texture to them, and require you to explore them for yourself and see what you find there:

“Dreams are textural, so is music and much like life; they bring both darkness and life, beauty and ugliness - it’s our job to translate and convey those complexities as best we can. Each of these songs is an experience, but to find the real details you’ll have to explore them yourself. The music will ring out and people will continue to follow, for that’s what people do best. Follow. Stay with us and we’ll show you the whole world through his eyes. What a magnificent sight that is.” (Stay Toke, Metal Hammer, 2017

So, lets follow them, and give our all to understand together what we find. 

The Jungian Unconscious

The Shadow

The idea that Sleep Token is related to the Jungian concept of the Shadow is not new within the fandom (Geist, 2023, p. 16). The shadow is a part of our unconscious minds that contains the dark aspects of the personality. These are the deep desires, fears and ideas we have repressed and that we try to ignore about ourselves. The things that scare, yet fascinate us. Like the disturbing events that are fantasied about in Nazareth. That destructive fantasy is characteristic of desires from the shadow. 

Give provides a fantastic demonstration of the shadow. It is sung from the perspective of Vessel’s unconscious shadow to his conscious self, and our conscious selves: “I am the shadow, you’re a passenger”.The “…limit of your light again” is the concern we feel that we are the dark we find there. This shadow is part of us and wants to be engaged with and to live with us in its own way (Jung, 1954/1968, para. 44). This desire of the shadow is addressed in Give: 

“I want to know you’re out there…

If you want to give

Then give me all that you can give

All your darkest impulses and if

You want to give me anything then give 

Give in again”

This shadow wants to be be a part of you; it “Just want to know you better” or “…taste you better”; and for you to know it - well, you just need to give in again. The shadow of course is in you and this is reflected in the change from second to first person when the chorus is repeated:

“I just want to give

Want to give you all that I can give

All of my darkest impulses and if

You want to give me anything then give

Give in again”

Vessel also reminds us that our shadow will always be there: “And in your waking moments / I will be there”, we can never get away from it. 

Confronting our shadow and becoming conscious of its affect on us requires accepting the dark qualities of our personality, and this process is essential for the development of  true self knowledge, but it is confronting and difficult to do, as the conscious mind will resist it (Jung, 1971, p. 145). In Chokehold, Vessel is struggling with this innate part of his unconscious, that he is inherently entwined with:

“When we were made

It was no accident 

We were tangled up like branches in a flood”

The idea of tangling and fate is also repeated in the graphic novel: “tangled threads of fate” (Sleep Token, 2024). Vessel is also addressing his shadow in this song; it’s this that is testing him with pain- “So you keep me sharp and test my worth in blood”; it has him fascinated and has him gripped “in a chokehold”, which can be dangerous. He recognises both the despair and the awe that can be found there: “Beneath the stormy seas / above the mountain peaks”. This allure of what lies deep has him wanting more, even if it agonising:

“So show me that which I cannot see

Even it if hurts me

Even if I can’t sleep

Oh, and though we act out of our holy duty to be constantly awake”

He acknowledges that exploring the shadow is painful, and disturbing things can be found there. It’s part of our humanity though, and is needed for self discovery. 

The exploration of this shadow in the unconscious (also known as “shadow work”) is a clearly articulated goal of Sleep Token in a 2018 Kerrang! interview:

“There exists a considerable body of art that explores the deeper recesses of the human mind, Sleep Token serve as a means to explore this on an individual basis. The music is a representation of one individual’s deepest and most fundamental emotions and desires. This is what people connect to. They see themselves in this individual, and the music becomes about them.” (Richardson, 2018, p. 14)

This aspect of themselves that people see in Vessel, is in effect - a projection. In Jung’s words - “Projections change the world into the replica of one’s own unknown face.” (Jung, 1971, p. 146). Sleep Token aims to be a mirror, aiding us through projection to face our shadows (as stated in an interview in Rock Sound):

“Sleep Token draw from the most profound experiences we have in life and, most crucially, where they intersect. We’re all driven towards intimacy, away from death. We’re all scared. We’re all in love. To see this within yourself, and then see it reflected in others - this is the essence of worship.” (Rogers, 2018).

Now, to then realise this identification with Vessel to be a projection requires some work, as you must face this recess of your mind and come to terms with what you find there. This recognition is an act that Jung considered to be “a moral achievement” (1971, p. 146). It’s not all doom and gloom though, there is potential benefit in brining up the personal unconscious; it advances our awareness of the human condition. By acknowledging this part of ourselves through this exploration of the shadow, Sleep Token (in the Rock Sound interview) have stated their aim is to increase our understanding of others:

“The ultimate goal is to engender a constructive emotional process within as many people as possible. Simply the basic concept of understanding oneself better, understanding others better as a result.” (Rogers, 2018).

It’s an understanding which is a key for developing empathy. 

The Anima/animus

Within the Jungian unconscious there is also the concept of the anima and animus. The anima/animus is an aspect of the unconscious - personified in a figure of the complementary gender of the individual’s consciousness. The masculine consciousness has a feminine personification of the unconscious termed the anima (Jung, 1954/1968, para. 58); and in the reverse the “…feminine consciousness confronts a masculine personification of the unconscious, which can no longer be called anima but animus.” (Jung, 1954/1968, para. 296).

Now, please note this gendered idea of anima/animus has been revised by some post-Jungian analysts to encompass gender beyond the binary (Azriel, 2024; McKenzie, 2006). (Whilst fascinating, I won’t be going further into it here.)

The anima may be the “she” Sleep Token frequently refer to in their music. The anima is also described by Jung (1954/1968) as: a nixie, siren, mermaid, wood-nymph, lamia, Grace, or a succubus (para. 53). She is a goddess, a part of what we now call “erotic fantasy”, and she can cause: “states of fascination that rival the best bewitchment, or unleashes terrors in us not to be outdone by any manifestation of the devil.” (Jung, 1954/1968, para. 54). It is the anima that is the subject of the song Hypnosis, and is this entity hypnotising Vessel. The anima is also the “she” of Alkaline. The anima is the “…something beneath” and is the “undiscovered element / Born in hell or heaven-sent” as she is the unknown soul of the unconscious. Vessel is caught up in her fascinating allure, and yet aware that she shows him his own unconscious:  

“I’m caught up in her design

And how it connects to mine

I see in a different light

The objects of my desire”

The Summoning is Vessel seeking to summon his anima. Vessel wants to encounter what Jung (1954/1968, para. 56) had called a “life-giving daemon”, who plays “elfin games above and below human existence”  - mirrored in the words: “You’ve got my body, flesh and bone…The sky above, the earth below”, this is also a an expression of the microcosm-macrocosm of the universe. The anima is “a taste of the divine” as “everything [she] touches becomes numinous…magical” (Jung, 19541968, para. 59). It’s no wonder Vessel asks: “Did I mistake you for a sign from God?”. 

The sexual tension in this song is the erotic fantasy the anima presents. An encounter with the anima can be thought of as a dynamic erotic dance of desire. Hence, it can be interpreted as referring to his unconscious, or being quite literal. The “…river running right into you” is the preconscious, connecting him to his anima.

Now, if the anima/animus is so capricious why would anyone want to interact with this aspect of their psyche? Jung considers the anima/animus personification to be the soul, (but not in a religious, dogmatic sense); and “living thing” in us “which lives of itself and causes life” and this soul “lures into life the inertness of matter that does not want to live” (Jung, 1954/1968, para. 56). 

Encountering one’s shadow is the “apprentice-piece”, and anima/animus is the “master-piece” of an individual’s development according to Jung. “The relation with the anima is again a test of courage, an ordeal by fire for the spiritual and moral forces of man.” (Jung, 1954/1968, para. 61). The encounter with the anima changes Vessel in Alkaline: 

“Every once in a while something changes

And she’s changing me

It’s too late for me now, I am altered…”

Jung (1954/1968, para. 64) wrote that when a person comes to grips with their anima/animus only then do they realise that behind her: “…there lies something like a hidden purpose” and “It is just the most unexpected, the most terrifyingly chaotic things which reveal a deeper meaning”. Vessel wants to go further into the psyche, beyond his animus to experience this meaning:

“Take me past the edge

I want to see the other side of

Won’t you show me what it’s like?”

The more this meaning is identified, the anima loses her capriciousness as defences are erected against the surging of chaos in the unconscious:

“…the meaningful divides itself from the meaningless. When sense and nonsense are no longer identical, the force of chaos is weakened by their subtraction; sense is then endued with the force of meaning, and nonsense with the force of meaninglessness. In this way a new cosmos arises.” (Jung, 1954/1968, para. 64). 

According to Jung, there is more to be found deeper, further beneath this personal unconscious of the shadow and anima/animus; and there is “…the helpful powers slumbering in the in the deeper strata of man’s nature [which] can come awake and intervene…”(1954/1968, para. 44 [italics added]). As you delve down into the the “deep well” that is the unconscious, Jung (1954/1968, para. 45) describes the shadow as “a tight passage, a narrow door, whose painful constriction no one is spared”, what comes after the door is phenomenal:

“…a world of water, where all life floats in suspension; where… the soul of everything living, begins; where I am indivisibly this and that; where I experience the other in myself and the other-than-myself experiences me.” 

This world of water, this “new cosmos” is what Jung calls the collective unconscious, which we will now explore. 

The Collective Unconscious and Sleep

Earlier, in our discussion on the shadow and anima/animus we were addressing the more surface level of the unconscious that Jung (1954/1968, para. 3) refers to as the personal unconscious. The personal unconscious:

“…rests upon a deeper layer, which does not derive from personal experience and is not a personal acquisition but is inborn. This deeper layer I call the collective unconscious. I have chosen the term “collective” because this part of the unconscious is not individual but universal; in contrast to the personal psyche, it has contents and modes of behaviour that are more or less the same everywhere and in all individuals. It is, in other words, identical in all men and thus constitutes a common psychic substrate of a suprapersonal nature which is present in every one of us.” (Jung, 1954/1968, para 3. [italics added])

This collective unconscious consists of archetypical symbols, or archetypes (Jung, 1954/1968, para. 4; 1971, p. 60). These archetypes are primordial images, and mythological motifs; which are: “unconscious content that is altered by becoming conscious and by being perceived, and it takes its colour from the individual consciousness in which it happens to appear” (Jung, 1954/1968, para. 6). Fairytales, myths and esoteric teaching all abound is archetypal symbolism. Mythology is so steeped in this that: “…the whole of mythology could be take as a projection of the collective unconscious.” (Jung, 1971, p. 57). 

Sleep 

Dreams are an important origin for knowledge of the unconscious (Jung, 1971, p. 306). It is of no surprise that Vessel encountered Sleep in a dream (recounted in Metal Hammer):

“He is everywhere, at all times. Vessel encountered Sleep in a dream, with promise of glory and magnificence if Vessel followed Him. The UK is old, centuries of lore lay buried here. This land has power, if only you knew how to use it.” (Morton, 2017).

Sleep is ubiquitous, everywhere, at all times. Sleep is all of us. Vessel is Sleep. You are Sleep. I am Sleep. The music is a token for us. Vessel states in an interview when describing Sleep:

“He is everyone. He is you. There’s a power in music that binds us all, every note relates to another. He showed me a world filled with depth and texture” (Metal Hammer, 2017)

Sleep is the collective unconscious that connects us all. The archetypal images of the collective unconscious are ancient - stretching back to the dawn of human society when storytelling and myth making was used to make sense of an unfathomable world. Regarding Sleep, Vessel has also stated:

“He is the oldest God, a primal majesty that has endured the ages unperturbed by the mortality of a flawed and chaotic human race” (Metal Hammer, 2017). 

It is important when delving deep here into the collective unconscious that the personal shadow has been addressed and reintegrated. If there’s too much repression of our personal shadows it can give the collective shadow a chance to “sneak through the door” and we won’t have the self awareness to recognise it (von Franz, 1974, p. 9). This collective shadow is all of the dark primordial imagery of humankind. This is the dark, destructive side of Sleep.

This collective unconscious and the archetypal symbols it speaks in are powerful. Jung (1971, p. 321) describes this power:

“Whoever speaks in primordial images speaks with a thousand voices; he enthrals and overpowers, while at the same time he lifts the idea he is seeking to express out of the occasional and the transitory into the realm of the ever-enduring. He transmutes our personal destiny into the destiny of mankind, and evokes in us all those beneficent forces that ever and anon have enabled humanity to find a refuge from every peril and to outlive the longest night.” (Jung, 1971, p. 321)

In Emergence, Vessel is calling out to Sleep (and in doing so, to us), for this collective unconscious to emerge, from deep within our minds.  

Vessel is recognising that Sleep makes him stronger: “Are you carbide to my nano, red glass on my lightbulb”; the verse lists properties that make different objects stronger. The deeper voice singing: “So go ahead and wrap your arms around me”, is the collective unconscious suggesting for us to embrace it for comfort - to both Vessel and us. 

For Vessel, the feeling of being with Sleep takes away the torment he feels:

“You might be the one to take away the pain

and let my mind go quiet

And noting else is quite the same as how I feel

when I’m at your side”

When we encounter this mythological, archetypal situation we feel deep emotional intensity, it resounds through our psyche, reverberating, as if releasing forces we had never previously could exist; we feel as if released, or part of an immense power; we feel as if we are no longer isolated individuals, instead we experience humanity as a whole. Even in our suffering we no longer feel alone, as Jung (1971, p. 36) expresses: “Not as my sorrow, but as the sorrow of all the world; not as a personal isolating pain, but a pain without bitterness that unites all humanity.” We can transcend. 

TRANSCENDENCE

This connection to the collective unconscious can feel like a loss of self, or lessening of ego. Here’s a description from another description from Jung of this sensation: “There I am utterly one with the world, so much a part of it all that I forget all too easily who I really am.” (1954, para. 46). Transcendence can encompass a wide berth of experiences. It can be transcendence in the form of: a loss of self-consciousness, of self-awareness; transcendence from time and space; a mystical experience, fusion with another person or with the whole cosmos; transcending one’s own skin, body and bloodstream; and the reconciliation of the necessity of death (Maslow, 1971, p. 269-272). This transcendence is the intense feeling many of us followers experience when we are at a Sleep Token ritual. 

Sleep and death are entwined 

Now, I also contend that there is another aspect to the entity called Sleep.

Sleep and death have long been connected, with sleep serving as an analogy of death. This connection is particularly demonstrated by the Ancient Greeks, who depicted the personified god of sleep (Hypnos), as death’s (Thanatos’) twin brother (Homer, ca. 700 B.C.E./2014, Ch. 16, Line 681). 

Sleep is still used today as a euphemism for death, especially when talking to children. An example of this is telling a child that a family pet was “put to sleep”. Death themed lullabies are not uncommon around the world, some examples include: Rock-A-Bye Baby (English), Itsuki Lullaby (Japanese), Lima Anak Ayam (Malaysian), Dodo Titit (Haitian), and Le Grand Lustucru (French). 

Myths and fairytales often portray characters who, at first are believed to be dead, are really in a profound sleep (Kastenbaum & Moreman, 2018, p.51). Hamlet’s famous soliloquy is a particularly famous connection of death and sleep in the English language:

“…To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life…”

(Shakespeare, 1601/1922, Act III, Scene I”)

From a psychoanalytic point of view, Mills (2006, p.374) explores the sleep-death connection as follows:

"Consider the paradoxical processes of how sleep is both regressive yet restorative, and particularly how going to sleep is associated with wanting to return to a previously aborted state of peace, tranquility, or oceanic “quiescence”— perhaps a wish for a tensionless state, perhaps a return to the womb. Excessive sleep is also one of the most salient symptoms of clinical depression and the will toward death.” 

Sleep is the feeling that you try to run away from, that you don’t want to admit about yourself. Sleep is that repressed knowledge that we all have of; our imminent death, our mortality, the “worm at the core”; the sword of Damocles - dangling over our heads, despite our best efforts to ignore it. The Director in the final diary entry in Teeth of God graphic novel (2024), says as much: “sleep is death”. When asked by Kerrang! where the influences for the LP Sundowning came from, Vessel even replied: “Death. Power. Desire. Anguish” (Ruskell, 2019).

With viewing Sleep as being everyone, it will colour how the songs are interpreted.

Now, rather than their music being a token for a individual, specific, deity - they are instead offering their music as token to us - to the whole of humanity, because each and every one of us is Sleep after all: 

“Our verses are a token, crafted to magnify and embody the multitude of emotion that writhes in our subconscious. Sonically our voice is rooted in the resonation between the notes and your emotion. Take our hand.” - Vessel (Morton, 2017, Metal Hammer) 

So, let’s take their hand and accept the tokens they offer to us…

The Offering is Vessel addressing us as Sleep. He wants to us to accept this gift:

“This is a given, an offering

In your favour, a sacrifice in your name

But I know you’ve got a taste

So take a bite of me

Turn the page once again, oh

Give up the game and let me in, oh

My arms belong around you, oh, oh

So take a bite I want to know” 

This gift or token, is the connection we share via the collective unconscious, the shared human experience that has continued for millennia. He wants to reach out to our humanity, and us to have a taste - a bite of his. In essence, to connect with Vessel and experience transcendence with the collective unconscious. 

Water and the collective unconscious

Water is a reoccurring theme in Sleep Token’s discography. What is the significance of this water? Jung (1954/1968, para. 40), considers water to be the most common symbol of the collective unconscious and that water also means spirit which has become unconscious.

The most illustrative example is their second LP This Place Will Become Your Tomb (TPWBYT). Not only do the songs in their lyrics and title reference deep water, but the easter eggs and clues the album’s art and merch were also of a watery theme: numbers on a merch item from this album were co-ordinates to a whale fall, and each single had artwork of a deep sea animal, with the depth in meters ascribed to each song becoming progressively deeper. 

In High Water this concept of water as the unconscious makes an appearance. 

“And it seems my hell is your high water

Wash me clean again before I pull myself beneath the waves

For the time being

I will admit my defeat again

I will accept that I can’t pretend

We will ever be together

I can’t hold myself together”

It seems Vessel’s suffering might be our elation; let our joy wash over Vessel before he succumbs to the waves of the deep water of his misery, eventual sleep and death. The joy that we wash Vessel’s pain away with is through the connection with the collective unconscious; however, he is aware this amazing connection to our bliss that he feels during rituals is only temporary, and struggles without this feeling of transcendence. 

With Take Me Back To Eden Vessel describes this feeling the awe of the collective unconscious elicits: 

“We dive through crystal waters

Perfect oceans

But no one told me not to breathe

And now the weightlessness recedes”

But, no one told him how to deal with all the terrible beauty found there, and the feeling of loss that then follows when the ecstasy of transcendence dissipates. We then feel our existential isolation return. 

It’s this feeling of being alone that the experience with collective unconscious can help to alleviate:

“It is not so much that the self needs a God, but that it cannot (or does not wish to) stand alone. It is a comfort to know that in patterns of behaviour, actual or imagined, are repetitious, shared archetypical with the entire history of the race, are actually part of a “collective unconscious,” to which each self may attend if the need occurs. This is not to defeat but to gain a kind of immortality in the sharing of undying patterns.” (Hoffman, 1959, p. 149-150).

We seek meaning in the endless patterns of our lives. 

One of the most extraordinary aspects of us as humans is that we can understand the idea of a future, and that this future entails our inescapable deaths. The human condition, our search for meaning in our lives in spite of this, and the powerful emotions this calls up within us is source of inspiration for the band:

“As musicians we are inspired by the human condition and a plethora of artists, but we a deeply moved by His words and continue to do our utmost to bring them to life. As followers we are bound by a duty to combine our crafts to create music that conveys some of our most primal, and powerful emotions.” (Morton, 2017, Metal Hammer interview)

For when we feel our lives lack any meaning we fall into existential problems. We know death is coming for us all.

Existential concepts and the search for meaning

There is a heavy weight of existential suffering, pain and isolation that permeates through Sleep Token’s offerings, and we have seen that they are inspired by the human condition. 

Humans are animals - creatures that have organic bodies, yet we are infused with a self, that can ponder our own existence and meaning. Becker (1973, Ch. 3), describes this existential paradox that is the fate of all humans as “individuality with finitude”; that man is a “symbolic self, a creature with a name, a life history”, and “[man] is a creator with a mind that soars out to speculate about atoms and infinity…”. 

Humans face an existential dilemma. We face the terrifying awareness of our eventual mortality, and struggle to find meaning in our short existence. Many people learn to keep this fact neatly tucked away, out of the reach of their consciousness. It’s an attempt at putting off having to come to terms with this reality of the human condition. Schimel et al. (2007) express the essence of this repression as: 

“The horrifying awareness that people may be nothing more than walking digestive tracts— ultimately insignificant, finite, and expendable—is a bleak view of reality that, despite all efforts of sublimation, can never be completely ruled out.” (p. 802). 

The Fall from Eden 

The existential realisation of the human condition leads to a flood of despair, and what men are truly afraid of. This terror of self consciousness is the understanding of one’s own mortality and death. This is our fall from Eden - “The biblical fall of man presents the dawn of consciousness as a curse.” (Jung, 1971, p. 5). Becker (1973), echoing Jung says “This fall gave us anxiety” (Ch. 5). 

Eden represents the Great Mother archetype and “our longing for redemption” (Jung, 1968, para. 156). Take Me Back to Eden is a screaming plea for this return to innocence and naïvety: 

“And I don’t know what’s got its teeth in me

But I’m about to bite back in anger

No amount of self-sought fury

Will bring back the glory of innocence” 

Existential fear and the the gnawing feeling it has at us is a theme in the Director’s final journal entry in the Teeth of God graphic novel: 

“I finally understand now[.] I do understand[,] but will you let me keep my human fear[?] will you let me[?] yes[,] being scared makes you human[.] fear will sow the hot blood of god across the cold stars[.] fear will make us dance[,] and we must keep dancing[.] can you see god dancing for you[?] can you see him biting into you[?] can you hear his teeth cracking into pieces of the stars[?] they send sparks raining down through the darkness[.]” (Sleep Token, 2024, Teeth of God Graphic Novel) 

The teeth that are biting into Vessel and into us are one and the same as the worm at the core. “The knowledge of death, rather than death per se, is the worm at the core of the biblical apple.” (Solomon et al., 2015, p. 170). This death awareness as biting teeth is repeated in High Water:

“When the mouth of infinity buries its teeth in me

I’ll smile through the agony for you

And I know you still bear the weight of your own existence 

And you’ll never bear the weight of two”

For this song the “you” is the audience. Vessel will smile through his suffering for us, as we have our own existential suffering and will not bear the weight of his too. We will discuss some more symbolism regarding gaping maws and teeth later, as this is a significant reoccurring theme in Sleep Token’s work. 

This agony, this suffering, when accepted as the reality of the human condition, is a rebirth, and our “real ejection from paradise”- this rebirth means for the first time being fully aware of the “terrifying paradox of the human condition”, and know that one must be reborn as a human (and all that entails) - an animal, who whilst having the ability to imagine entire worlds; we will age, sicken, decay and die (Becker, 1973, Ch. 4). 

Making meaning

We feel so deeply alone in our fear that we then try to make some sort of a meaning out of the nonsense of existence. We try to create meaning through culture and society, as a defence against our helplessness (Becker, 1974). It is this that Sleep Token allude to here in the first interlude of the Teeth of God (ToG) ritual set:

“We are all told that truth is merely a conclusion that can reliably be derived from some observable phenomenon. We forget that truth is a tool. 

It is the hook upon which we hang our deeds, and the bed from which we rise each day..” (2024).

To get through our lives, and bring ourselves to get up each morning; we made this tool - a cultural system we created to give our lives some semblance of meaning. It’s distraction from the truth that awaits us all and “We flee from the reality of our eventual deaths with such purpose and persistence…” (Wahl, 1958, p. 18). Like in the graphic novel Teeth of God (ToG GN) - we keep moving, keep busy:

“… we too sought meaning through constant friction and unending movement, compelled by some core motive that drives us to bring ourselves to bear on the world and manifest our own perceptions.” (Sleep Token, 2024)

Humans created a “codified hero system” of shared meanings, or acceptable reasons and values in societies (Becker, 1973). When we become truly aware of our mortality, and we leave the garden of naïveté we need something to keep us going, to keep us distracted from our despair. This is the concept of Terror Management Theory (TMT) which is a formalisation of Becker’s ideas by Solomon et al. (2015). Evidence from over 30 years and (500+ studies) shows that awareness of death can cause the rise of debilitating terror, and humans manage this terror by contributing to ongoing cultural drama/values (or “heroics” in Becker’s terms). Becker also theorised that “character” or self esteem also reduces this anxiety (both in general and for death specifically), which the authors also found in their experiments. Having children is a method many people use reduce their existential terror - by having their genetics and personal values continue through future generations, it offers an immortality of a kind. Taking part in shared values is also an attempt at immortality - being part of, and contributing to something bigger than yourself, that will outlive you. 

Now, a problem can arise when a person doesn’t adopt these mass cultural meanings. Then an individual needs to find meaning in something else. One of the solutions is through creativity, and this is what the artist attempts to accomplish. Rank (1932) explains that artists are basically people who won’t adhere to the dominant immortality ideology of the time, who seeks a more individual immortality (p. 72), which they try to earn through their creative gifts. Being painfully aware of the futile reality of the human condition, and yet struck in wonder by the sublime nature of the universe, artists try to capture a fragment of this sublime in their work. But Becker points out that this is impossible:

“It becomes a paradox- one feels guilty. Your works accuses you and makes you feel inferior. The art is his transference projection and the artist knows it. The art still pales in comparison to the transcendent majesty of nature. The art itself is ephemeral, hardly a symbol of immortality.” (1973, Ch. 8)

This is the sort of struggle that is expressed in Damocles. The Sword of Damocles is a reference to a story, recounted by Cicero (45 B.C.E/1888, p.185) - in which Damocles wished for the same “happiness” of Dionysus the tyrant of Syracuse. Damocles thought everything was wonderful until Dionysus had a sword hung over his head by a single horsehair, his joy immediately turned to dread. It is a parable of the constant reminder of imminent death and how precarious power and success is. The lines: “No alabaster carvings or faces on a farthing / Would prevent my head from fading to black” are that no amount of material riches will stop his mind from thinking of death. The remembrance of death feels like a sudden fall, a jolt. “Discordant” is a great choice here, it can refer to jolting unpleasant sounds and is an antonym of harmony; but also can mean contradictory - so this suggests that this feeling comes and goes. But like the tape, it will continue until his time is finished:

“I play discordant days on repeat 

Until the tape runs out on me 

When the river runs dry and the curtain is called” 

This curtain and river are his death, when life is over - but he won’t know when that will be, as he doesn’t know how deep the river is:

“How will I know if I can’t see the bottom?”

Come up for air and choke on it all

No one else knows that I’ve got a problem”

The uncertainty of life is overwhelming, he’s choking on it - but he tries to hide it from everyone else and act like he’s fine.

“What if the diamond days are all gone, and

Who will I be when the empire falls

Wake up alone, and I’ll be forgotten”

Vessel is worried that his success will all end at any moment, about what his legacy will be, and if he’ll be remembered at all. What if in the end he doesn’t achieve any sense of immortality through his music? Vessel is echoing similar sentiments to Albert Camus: “Little by little, instead of being more and more successful in my undertaking, I see the abyss drawing nearer.” (1970, p. 287). 

“And no one told me I’d be begging for relief

When what is silent for you feels like its screaming to me

Well, nobody told me I’d get tired of myself

When it all looks like heaven, but it feels like hell”

He didn’t expect to feel this way, and when not making music he can’t bear his own thoughts. No matter how aware you become of your problems, ultimately you still have to live with yourself. Even in success, that painful isolation is there. A similar sense of isolation, fear of death and anxiety to face life is expressed by Camus in The Wind at Djemila (1938). 

It’s our eventual deaths that gives life value though. We don’t value what we can never loose. It is part of our nature as animals to die:

“Life without death knows no form - no boundary. Without death in our finite nature, it would be stripped of all meaning, left to wander as little more than endlessly rotating gears in the quiet engine of a cold hell. 

But we do not die because it gives our lives meaning, we die because it is the way of all things.

And in the end, is that not all that we are?” (Sleep Token, 2024, ToG interlude)

Death

As I’ve began to elucidate, Sleep Token’s work - discography, interviews, ritual interludes, and visual media all feature death as a major theme. Death and our relationship with it is a core aspect of the human condition. 

The band in interviews have made statements that are in effect a memento mori. A memento mori (remember you will die) is a reminder of death and has its origins in legend that in the Roman triumph parades, a slave would be standing behind the victorious general in the triumph procession and whisper into his ear: “Memento Mori”; remember this glory and riches of live are short lived, for you are a mere mortal, and will die. Our mortality is an antidote to hubris. 

The title for Sleep Token’s latest album Even in Arcadia, is in effect a memento mori. It is a reference to Poussin’s painting titled Et in Arcadia Ego (Even in Arcadia, there am I) - even in Paradise, Death is still there. Arcadia is reference to a romantic notion of a Greek pastoral utopia. The Poussin artwork is also reproduced on the Shugborough monument’s relief; which was one of the early clues in the breadcrumb trail leading up to the new album announcement from Sleep Token. This memento mori sentiment has been expressed by the band from the very beginning in the few, early interviews:

“Life is fleeting and this too shall pass. But for now we praise Him.” (Morton, 2017, Metal Hammer)

The phrase “Nothing lasts forever” has been a constant throughout their career. From these early interviews (Ruskell, 2019), to their ongoing social media presence. 

The Night Does Not Belong To God is the first track from Sundowning, Sleep Token’s first LP. With this song the line “The night comes down like heaven” - is a multitude of images it is - rituals, sleep and death. The song begins with the ideas of TMT; that during the day, when we live our lives, within the order of the predominant cultural drama and values of our time; we remember the things that give a sense of meaning to us and hence we can forget our impending doom:

“When you live, by daylight

With angels at your side

In order now, bestowed by

The light of the sunrise

And you remember everything

Only ’til the Sun recedes once again”

But when we lie in bed at night or when we are worshipping at rituals in the dark, something else happens. We start to join the collective unconscious, this is the divine; and in it we are all connected: 

“The whites of your eyes

Turn black in the low light

In turning divine

We tangle endlessly

Like lovers entwined

I know for the last time

You will not be mine

So give me the night, the night, the night”

But, Vessel knows this feeling is so fleeting, but we long for the connection of psyches like the embrace of lovers. Does it last forever when we die? Do we join the cosmic ocean? Vessel is longing for this, and Jung argues that for the artist, this is a deep yearning:

“His life is a constant struggle against extinction, a violent yet fleeting deliverance from ever-lurking night. This death is no external enemy, it is his own inner longing for the stillness and profound peace of all-knowing non-existence, for all-seeing sleep in the ocean of coming-to-be and passing away. Even in his highest strivings for harmony and balance, for the profundities of philosophy and the raptures of the artist, he seeks death, immobility, satiety, rest.” (1952/1967, para. 553).

In an interlude in ToG (2024), he ponders these questions of what happens to our being, our souls, and how a purely biological explanation doesn’t feel to be enough to account for the depth of our experiences:

“To assume that death is the end, is to assume that our being extends no further that the physical substrate that carries us. This assumption does not account for the way in which we experience being alive. Nor does it sit comfortably aside the fact that we are not all able to comprehend the way in which our being manifests itself from the flesh and bone that binds us. I believe those gaps in our understanding are still wide enough to cast doubt on such conclusions. I believe that those gaps are yet wide enough for our souls to fit through and drift onwards to some new realm.”

Death is a strange fellow, in that it is both yet simple, but so difficult to pin down and discuss, and in the West the majority of people find death distasteful to talk about. Camus links the concepts of death and colours to point out this difficulty in The Wind at Djemila: 

“What is blue, and how do we think “blue”? The same difficulty occurs with death. Death and colours are things we cannot discuss.” (Camus, 1938/1970, p. 78)

This sentiment of death being a colour is echoed by Sleep Token in the final interlude of the ToG set:

“Look around you. About what can you be truly certain - death is a colour. It soaks in part of every canvas. Death is fabric, it can clothe the living. Death is merely another weapon wielded by the great adversary. Another cadence in this terrible and beautiful symphony we listen to helplessly. Let it bring you hope in one hand and fear in the other. It is asking you to dance with both, after all.” (Sleep Token, 2024).

So let us dance. It is after all, the same Danse Macabre we all are part of. 

The Danse Macabre

Sleep Token has referenced dancing numerous times, especially since 2024 and The Teeth of God tour. Prior to this there has been a cover of I Wanna Dance With Somebody on The Room Below deluxe release of Sundowning. The promotional website for Even In Arcadia’s URL is: showmehowtodanceforever.com. All this dancing is the dance or life and death, which is The Danse Macabre. 

The Danse Macabre is an allegory of death, where Death as a skeleton dances with people. The dance originally depicted in the Middle Ages was the farandole, an open chain community dance, uniting everyone in Death’s hands; and has its roots from the 13th century French literary genre Vado Mori (I prepare to die) (Pyle, 2017, p.130-131). A specific feature of the Danse Macabre is the equality of all in death: pope, king, child and old man, lovers, usurers - no one was spared, Death was universal (Gottlieb, 1959, p. 172).

Hans Holbein’s 1538 depiction of Dance of Death is the most well known portrayal of the allegory. Whilst each individual was on separate plates, dancing with Death it was full of social commentary of the time- highlighting the hypocrisy of the depicted individuals. 

We dance with Death everyday, it’s when we stop dancing that we die.

“would you like to dance[?] I have always been dancing[.] we must keep dancing[,] even when we are just tendrils[.] we were always tendrils[.]” (Sleep Token, 2024 ToG GN)

At the core of it, we are just worms after all, and we trying to forget this fact.

violence

We try deny the reality of death as a society at large.

According to TMT, in our desperate bid to forget our mortality, people become further entrenched their cultural beliefs, values and shared meanings (Solomon, et al., 2015). 

When these values get challenged and weakened, it reveals “the worm at the core of cultural prescriptions for happiness” (Schimel et al., 2007, p. 802). 

With intense fear of death, people then instead become afraid of “unconscious irrational symbolic equivalences of death” (Wahl, 1958, p.28); which includes anything that shakes the foundations of their cultural beliefs and shared meanings. This leads to people desperately trying to defend these beliefs, acting out aggressively (and even violently) because, if their beliefs that they base their identities and their lives on are wrong, then their lives feel meaningless. In regarding the denial of death Kubler-Ross points this out:

“…the denial of society has given neither hope nor purpose but has only increased our anxiety and contributed to our destructiveness and aggressiveness-to kill in order to avoid the reality and facing of our own death.” (1970, Ch. 2)

This is the self-inflicted destruction and horror that is suggested in the final cryptic diary entry by the Director in the ToG GN: 

“…we spilled his paradise over the earth and danced within it[.] such a beautiful dance[.] horror would leap and dance with us[.] horror would bathe us and we could lie within it[.] we could tear the horror out from our hearts over and over[.]…”

 “…death will give us fear[,] and fear will give us blood[.] we will spill our hot blood across the stars[.]…” (Sleep Token, 2024)

Both Kulber-Ross and Sleep Token suggest that we may finally achieve peace by accepting the reality of death:

“Finally, we may achieve peace-our own inner peace as well as peace between nations-by facing and accepting the reality of our own death.” (Kubler-Ross, 1970, Ch. 2)

“…we can step through death[.] wear it like a crown[;] heirs to the highest pantheon of life[.] precious life[,] with death as its blood[.]…” (Sleep, Token, 2024, ToG GN)

Sung from the point of view of Death for the verses; the song Higher also suggests this fear and denial of death is leading to violence. 

“You say you won’t begin again

Capitulate and let me in

‘Cause I am a fire

And you are dry as bone

You are taking your time

You are killing me slow”

You won’t accept the reality of death, but death is also the drive for life, the fire that burns in us. This is reminiscent of Freud (1918,  Pt. II), in that our lives become dry and impoverished, when we are too scared “Life becomes impoverished and loses its interest when life itself, the highest stake in the game of living, must not be risked.” 

In the chorus, the link between our fear of death and the enacting of violence is expressed:

“And we are exhausted by all this pretending,

we just can’t resist the violence

And you need a melody,

I only need the silence”

The melody is the cultural values that we need to distract ourselves; Vessel on the other hand accepts the silence, the reality of mortality. He looks for different meanings for existence and life.  

In the verse it goes back to Death’s perspective:

“With all that you believe

You still refuse to shelter me

‘Cause I am a danger

And you’re a long way from home

You are one among many

But you’re now on your own”

Accepting one’s eventual death can feel dangerous and antithetical to ourselves. It drags up all sorts of existential questions, and makes us realise our insignificance. But these thoughts of mortality bubble up into our conscious minds when we are alone and left to our own thoughts:

“‘Cause you can remember

Only when you’re alone

I am granting you more

Than the debt that I owe

You won’t begin again”

The debt is our lives. You don’t get to start over, and to think otherwise is to reject the idea of death:

“To argue that the existence of anything beyond death is to reject the idea of death itself. Death is not the opening of some eternal door, death does not confer a transcendence of any kind. To lay such assertions is to act as though you do not know death, as though we do not spend our lives trying to drag forth some semblance of meaning from beneath death’s thick, dark shadow, as though we have not also inflected it, no less than we sometimes revel in it. It is only the certainty of death that provides us with the darkness against which we glow defiantly.” (Sleep Token, 2024,ToG Interlude II)

If we accept that that there is no individual afterlife or immortality it forces us to appreciate what we do have. It’s cultivates gratitude that is tinged with desolation:

“If death is a wall and not a doorway, the pace of experience diminishes, the attention to time is translated into absorption in space, and every detail of change is noted and treasured. Instead of a metaphysic dependent upon an infinite extension of the given, we get an ontology of objects and experiences. Death turns us toward life and forces us to admire or cherish it (even though we despair of it as well), to begrudge the passing of time (which is signified by changes occurring in objects), and eventually to despair of conclusions.” (Hoffman, 1959, p. 137)

The Terrible mother 

The sea and still water are considered to be symbols of the Great Mother archetypal image (Jung, 1954/1968, para. 157). An aspect of the Great Mother is called the Terrible Mother, and is the negative side to the archetype. The life-providing Great Mother turns into death, and instead devours her children to maintain her fertility. It’s part of the cycle of life; death and decay are needed to nourish, so that life can then be birthed anew. Neumann gives an apt description of the archetype:

“Thus the womb of the earth becomes the devouring maw of the underworld, and beside the fecundated womb and the protecting cave of earth and mountain, gapes the abyss of hell, the dark hole of the depths, the devouring womb of grave and of death, of darkness without light and nothingness.” (Neumann, 1972, p. 149)

The teeth, and mouths that reoccur in Sleep Token’s songs are reminiscent of this.

The Hindu goddess Kali, the Sphinx of Oedipus, the Ancient Greek Hecate, the monster Echidna are some broad examples fitting the Terrible Mother archetype (Jung, 1952/1967). 

I must point out now, that this archetype does not represent any actual woman in Vessel’s (or other band member’s) life - it is a metaphor a symbol of more far-reaching concepts (Neumann, 1972, p. 148). 

This theme of deep water is a representation of the archetypal Terrible Mother along with the devouring sea creatures depicted on the artwork for each song in TPWBYT; predators, with gaping maws that entwine around or swallow their prey whole (angler fish, black swallower, brittle star, vampire squid) are particularly fitting with the Terrible Mother (Jung, 1954/1968, para 158). She is the “Water of the depths” and “lives in the nocturnal darkness beneath the world of men and threatens to fill the world with water” (Neumann, 1972, p. 187). 

Whales are associated with her; and the whale fall which is depicted mid-descent for the artwork for Fall For Me, reaches the bottom of the ocean on the art for Missing Limbs. A whale fall is when a whale carcass sinks to the ocean bed and this provides colossal amounts of nutrients, supporting deep ocean ecosystem for decades (National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, 2021). This whale fall is a beautiful symbol of the Terrible Mother - the hungry ocean, eating her children so to be fertilised and cloyed, so that she can provide life anew - continuing the cycle of birth and death.

Another connection to the archetype of the Terrible Mother lies in the easter egg that was discovered on the CD and vinyl editions of TPWBYT. A set of numbers where found that were distances in nautical miles. Fans converted these to letters which then spelt the message: “LeviathanSun”. 

The Leviathan is famous as a biblical monster that represents chaos and is described in The Book of Job (41:1-34). Interestingly, and fitting with the Terrible Mother narrative; The Book of Enoch (not regarded as canonical by most sects), describes Leviathan as distinctly female: 

“And on that day were two monsters parted, a female monster named Leviathan, to dwell in the abysses of the ocean over the fountains of the waters.” (60:7)

Leviathan has also been used to describe whales (see Melville’s Moby Dick), and as discussed earlier whales are also associated with the Terrible Mother. 

LeviathanSun is particularly interesting here, and likely is a symbol of transformation.  Leviathan has been used to portray the unconscious in myth along with the whale (Jung, 1955-56, para. 277), and the sea has been regarded as the “seat of hell”, “depths of eternal death”, and “gloomy abyss” by early Christian writers (Jung, 1955-56 para. 255).

If you can bear with me, I’ll explain what I’ve drawn from the phrase Leviathan Sun.

A perplexing mention of Leviathan appears on the mysterious Ophite Diagram. I’ll provide some historical background on this document. Origen had a version of this document which he describes in Contra Celsum (ca. 244). Contra Celsum is a refutation of Celsus’ On The True Doctrine (ca. 170), which also described this Ophite Diagram. This diagram is regarded by scholars to depict the Gnostic-initiatory ascent through the spheres (Welburn, 1981, p. 261); Denzey (2005, p. 115) however, argues that it may not be Gnostic, that they share a background in Jewish mystical ascent, and the nearly merkabah traditions. 

In the accounts of the Ophite Diagram feature a diagram of the earthly cosmos - the spheres - a geocentric system orbited by seven rulers (archons), enclosed by the serpent Leviathan “the world soul” (Origen, ca. 244, 6:25), or the “soul of the universe” (Celsus, ca. 170, p. 96). 

It is apparent that Celsus and Origen did not posses identical documents, and Celsus’ was an illustration of a mortuary ritual, and Origen’s to an initiation ritual (Denzey, 2005). There is a rectangular figure and the gates of Paradise in Celsus’, but a rectangle and a flaming sword in Origen’s. 

Now to make matters baffling - none of Celsus’ original writings have survived and we only have  his description as quoted by Origen (who scholars do consider to be reliable), and no original of the Ophite Diagram is known to have survived either. The accounts the diagram of is vague (Jung,1956/1963 para. 574), and it has not been restored in any certainty - although some attempts have been made by Welbourn, Denzy and Vassallo (1981, 1997, & 2005). The diagrams have seven archontic daemons (Celsus), or seven archons (Origen) as concentric circles with the Earth in the centre and Leviathan the eighth - encompassing them all. 

There is a running theme in myth and legend of seven gates, and the eighth step being “an entry into a new order”: Taoists have the “eight immortals”; the Mithraic mysteries have a stairway with eight doors (the seventh is was gold, the eighth is the fixed stars); and the seven stages of alchemical process (Jung 1955-56, para. 574; 1968/1952, para. 99). According to Jung (1955-1956, para. 607), they all signify transformation, the passage of the soul, and the final step is the solificatio - an illumination of “inwards of the head” (or soul) and the transformation into gold - or the Sun (in alchemy they are considered equivalent). 

Now, all this then ties in with the archetypal journey of the hero (aka “sun god”); who is swallowed by the Terrible Mother in the west, journeying through the underworld, or crosses the sea; to emerge reborn from the belly (or the earth or sea), it’s a passage through the depths of the unconscious (Jung, 1975/1931, para. 326). It can be symbol of an ascension to paradise. Annihilation, so one can be reborn again. You need to be swallowed up and destroyed first.

The destructive threat of the unconscious, and the Terrible Mother in the form of flooding water, is felt in the following passage from the Director’s journal in the Teeth of God graphic novel:

“There is one such dream that I remember more than most - one in which I found myself standing on a vast shoreline gazing out at a flat, wide sea. Slowly as I watched the horizon gradually begin to lift. Before long, I was able to observe that this lifting expanse was approaching me - a wall of smooth, black water that curls into an impossible lip at its peak. Rather surprisingly, I do not recall being afraid at such a ominous sight. Well, to me more precise, I was afraid - I was terrified, but not of the wave itself. Instead, it was the thought of what was beyond it. This vast, unstoppable force sweeping forth to herald the end of everything, to drown the world and eventually sink back into itself. A careless shrug of entropy enough to sever the thread of all fates… An echo stuck in the throat of a dead god.” (Sleep Token, 2024).

The impending doom, is coming to sweep away us and swallow us all. 

Vore stands outs amongst Sleep Token’s catalogue as an obvious example of this devouring mother. According to Neumann (p. 168), this is seen most often as a mouth bristling with teeth. Do we suffer like Vessel? Will it get better if we embrace our fate, and let it swallow us?:

“Are you in pain like I am?

Will we remain stuck in the throat of gods?

Will the pain stop if we go deeper?

So let’s get swallowed whole

I wanna go where nobody else will

Ever go”

Now, by being swallowed according to Jung (1952/1967, para. 654), is a metaphorical return to the womb. A sinking past childhood and infancy, and then “vanishes from the existing world” (para. 631). 

After vanishing from the world, he is then in the deepest darkness; and this darkness is the collective unconscious. Vessel want us all to follow him into it, which is Sleep.

“There is always something in the way

I wanna have you to myself for once

Follow me between the jaws of fate

So I can have you to myself for once”

Now, what are we supposed to find there? Jung (1952/1967, para. 631, 655) believes that it is there that we can experience a vision, which is the awakening of the primordial images - which have a an effect of lessening our pain, and healing such as what occurs in myth. He states the overall meaning of this cycle is: “…the longing to attain rebirth through a return to the womb, and to become immortal like the sun.” (Jung, 1952/1967, para. 312). 

This journey into the dark unknown of the collective unconscious isn’t without danger, what we find there may keep dragging us back to it and become obsessed by it:

“In actual fact, however, the psychic substratum, the dark realm of the unknown, exercises a fascinating attraction that threatens to become the more overpowering the further he penetrates into it.” (Jung, 1968/1952, para. 439)

All through our lives we are hunting for this connection to everything. We are dancing through our lives. We dance through our dreams, and we dance with death.  

“…all these years you have hunted him and reached for him[.] you want his blood[;] he made you with veins inside you like tendrils[.] we dance through his veins[,] as we bite through the stars and dance[,] and he opens his mouth wide[.] I am so scared[.] will you let me be the last human[?] I understand now[.] I am the teeth of god[.]” (Sleep Token, 2024, ToG GN)

This god, Sleep is in all of us. He has been here all along. Each of us are his teeth. Us, as humans blame external forces for what we are doing to ourselves, when it has been us all along. It’s a beautiful darkness that connects us all. We carry it inside of us, and it can have us long for the abyss to obtain deliverance from our suffering:

“Always he imagines his worst enemy in front of him, yet he carries the enemy within himself—a deadly longing for the abyss, a longing to drown in his own source, to be sucked down to the realm of the Mothers. His life is a constant struggle against extinction, a violent yet fleeting deliverance from ever-lurking night. This death is no external enemy, it is his own inner longing for the stillness and profound peace of all-knowing non-existence, for all-seeing sleep in the ocean of coming-to-be and passing away. Even in his highest strivings for harmony and balance, for the profundities of philosophy and the raptures of the artist, he seeks death, immobility, satiety, rest.” (Jung, 1952/1967, para 553)

Longing for death

It’s that longing for death that is captured in Atlantic. It is a heart-wrenching, emotionally devastating song. It is steeped in water, flooded in it. The links to death (suicide especially) aren’t subtle. The blue light can be both the light underwater and ambulance lights:

“Call me when they bury bodies underwater

It’s blue light over murder for me

Crumble like a temple built from future daughters

To wasteland where the oceans recede”

The crumbling temple is a symbol of our mortal bodies, and future daughters the potential our lives are, which then in death return to the cosmic ocean. 

“So flood me like Atlantic, weather me to nothing 

Wash away the blood on my hands” 

It’s a plea to drown, to have the self be washed away into non-existence; the pain of life’s experiences are then all gone. “Don’t wake me up” is the wish to stay asleep forever, to die, that profound final peace. 

When we look at Take Me Back To Eden there is also this fascination with the void. The longing for this abyss reappear in the chorus:

“My, my, those eyes like fire

I’m a winged insect, you’re a funeral pyre

Come now, bite through these wires

I’m a waking hell and the gods grow tired

Reset my patient violence along both lines of a pathway higher

Grow back your sharpest teeth, you know my desire”

The “you” this circumstance is the magnetic collective unconscious (Sleep), and to finally be permanently reunited with it. It is a sensation of l’appel du vide (call of the void). It’s a fleeting desire for death, that then reaffirms one’s desire to live (also know as “high place phenomenon”). We only really value what we can lose:

“I guess it goes to show, does it not?

That we’ve no idea what we’ve got

Until we loose it

And no amount of love will keep it around

If we don’t chose it”

We need to chose to live. It would be so much easier if we hadn’t ever left the garden. White roses and black doves are further death symbols, the thoughts of death are everywhere:

“White roses, black doves,

Godmother, rise up

I need you to see me for what I have become.” 

The Godmother is the name of the being on the art of Take Me Back to Eden - the entity is named in the deluxe edition of the ToG GN, as she appears there too. This is the chthonic Terrible Mother. She is the dark, seductive and devours and is “terrifying and inescapable like fate.” (Jung, 1968/1954, para. 158). At the end of the graphic novel The Director - when he has nothing left but his life; goes out to finally meet her, and sinks into the red ocean in her embrace; and in the end the entire world is consumed by it. To be reunited with the eternal. 

It is this inescapable fate of eventual darkness that gives our lives contrast and meaning:

“It is only the certainty of death that provides us with the darkness against which we glow defiantly.” ToG interlude

The philosophers and sages throughout history remind us that: “Although the physicality of death destroys us, the idea of death saves us” (Yalom, 2008, p. 33). It makes us care about our lives more. It makes us want to connect with others, so we don’t feel so alone. 

Transference, Vessel and Anonymity 

Sleep Token’s anonymity have been a fundamental aspect of the band since the very beginning. In an early interview with Metal Hammer the band stated:

“Our identities are unimportant. Music is marketed on who is or isn’t in a band; it’s pushed, prodded and moulded into something it isn’t. Vessel endeavours to keep the focus on His offerings.” (Morton, 2017).

This sentiment was even repeated again the following year in an interview with Kerrang!:

“Art has become entangled with identity. The aim is provide something people can engage with without being obstructed by the identity of its creator. The true identities behind Sleep Token are irrelevant. Our identity is represented through the art and music itself.” (Sleep Token, 2018, Kerrang).

Being anonymous does accomplish something, other than privacy- what the band is trying to do here is facilitate transference. 

The vessel is considered to be an archetypal symbol. In terms of alchemy and the Hermetic vessel, it has the symbolism of containing the soul. The vessel is the central symbol of the feminine, and forms the concept of the body-vessel; and it isn’t limited to women (Neuman, 1972, p.39). This is why Sleep Token have said Vessel isn’t a name: 

“‘Vessel’ is no name. It is merely a descriptive term, one that may indeed be applied to us all. He is no different in this regard” (Ruskell, 2019, Kerrang!).

We are all vessels really - soul containers. By only being a “Vessel”, we can project ourselves into the frontman - he then becomes a vessel for our own ideals by leading us (Kets DeVries, 1988). They are anonymous to help this projection:

“Vessel: In order for all of this to work there has to be a certain boundary in place. They need to able to project themselves onto this, without anyone else’s identity getting in the way. In turn, I need to be able to show my true self to them in a way that does not compromise their ability to connect.” (Sleep Token, 2023, Union Transfer Interlude).

The interludes during this ritual at Union Transfer are presented as a conversation between Vessel and the mask he wears. It is an especially interesting and revealing exposition on the crisis of identity that is occurring from wearing this mask:

“Vessel: My life is becoming gradually consumed by you. Before long, all that I am will be contained within you. Then, one day, when I no longer wish to wear you, there will be nothing else left.

Mask: It seems you have forgotten who you are. Before you had me you were nothing. All of this artifice, all this pathetic conjecture about your identity; it is nothing but a manifestation of how short-sighted and solipsistic you have become. I lifted you up from misery and obscurity. You would be better to become me. You are nothing without me. You always were nothing without me.

Vessel: You. Are. Wrong. In the end, my fractured sense of self was only another piece of fuel for the fire that burns in the eyes of these people before us. They too are pained. They too not know who they really are. And yet, they are here. United by that sense of never truly belonging. They see nothing beyond their own bleak horizons. And they reach for it. Together. So let us join now, to reflect their joy and to serve as a conduit for their anguish. To swallow their fear. To worship.” (Sleep Token, 2023, Union Transfer Interlude)

We are united with Sleep Token in the feeling of alienation from others, and seek a connection even if that connection is our shared loneliness and pain. This existential isolation we all feel is overwhelming and it comes from the “unbridgeable gap between the individual and other people.” (Yalom, 2008, 121). Sleep Token are offering themselves up, to shine back our joy and to channel our suffering. The language used by Sleep Token by referring to fans as “followers” further reinforces the intent for a leader-follower dynamic here. 

We want to project ourselves like this onto Vessel though - it’s a way to help deal with the side of our psyches that we’d otherwise run away from. This is how the band is trying to facilitate us to do shadow work - the process of reintegrating into our self what we’ve been repressing.

“We all desire to see the darkest, most profound aspects of ourselves reflected in the expression of others. That’s what tells us our existence is anything more than a meaningless sequence in an endless tangle of physical and chemical reactions. We’re here to provide this expression, so it may serve as a device with which people might understand themselves better.” (Rogers, 2018, Rock Sound).

Becker (1973, Ch. 7), explains that in transference, people project their problems onto leaders (Vessel in this case), which then gives the leader consequence; however, leaders need their followers too, as the leader projects their own fear of isolation and inability to stand alone onto them. It is a reciprocal relationship. Those who think Sleep is a toxic woman are likely projecting - we are all projecting, that’s the whole point - If I’m right then I’m projecting too! 

There’s a catch though - in the process of this transference, this projection we can become captivated, and long to merge with powerful figures. The words of Becker describing this are particularly striking: “One intense look, one mysterious song and our lives may be lost forever.” (1973, Ch. 7). Leaders become “imbued with mystical charismatic qualities, whether they possess them or not” (Kets DeVries, 1988, p. 18).

This power of transference can lead to a loss of identity for us followers; leaders can reduce this by keeping followers focused - but no matter what is offered it will never be enough to satisfy followers entirely (Kets DeVries, 1988, p. 24). 

The negative impacts of this transference is what Caramel refers to. This feeling of being trapped and having to be careful of every step taken, because we’re all watching, obsessed with every detail:

“I swear it’s getting harder even just to exhale

Backed up into corners, bitter in the lens

I’m sick of trying to hide it every time they take mine…”

Trying to act like it’s not affecting him, all these people wanting attention. He just wants us to join him and sing. Then we can feel numb to our pain too:

“Walk beside me ’til you feel nothing as well

I’m fallin’ free of the final parallel

The sweetest dreams are bitter

But there’s no one left to tell”

Whilst the success has been far more than what was ever dreamed, the internal anguish is there still, but now there’s no one trustworthy, or close enough to talk to about it anymore. The success gives a connection to countless people, at the expense of the connections to those closest to you. Thinking things should have improved, but it didn’t: 

“(I thought things had changed) 

missing’ my wings in a realm of angels 

(But everything’s the same)”

He doesn’t feel like he belongs in this new world he’s in, his lack of wings is a metaphor  that he like an imposter. So he will just keep on living, dancing with death to the beat being played by others:

“So I’ll keep dancing along to the rhythm

This stage is a prison

A beautiful nightmare

A war of attrition 

I’ll take what I’m given

The deepest incisions

I thought I got better

But maybe I didn’t”

He can’t escape, as this stage called life is a prison to him. The use of the world “stage” here is a reference to Jacques “seven ages of man” speech from As You Like It:

“All the world’s a stage, 

and all the men and women merely players…

… Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion;

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” 

(Shakespeare, 1623/2014, Act II Scene VII)

But this life is beautiful and terrible, despite being what he’d once dreamed of, and it’s wearing him down, eating away, cutting into him. He thought that feeling would stop, but life continues to wound. 

I can only offer empathy. Empathy for us all, we are all suffering.

We can all offer empathy to each other, like Vessel and Sleep Token have offered it to us:

“I experience a great deal of pain in my life. However, I do not believe I have suffered as you have suffered. Perhaps that is another reason why we are here. At the very least, we have all suffered…

I would like to take this chance to tell you something. To love oneself - is not the easy task we are sometimes told it is. We are all limited by something. We are all guilty of something.

My own path towards a place of greater self acceptance is paved with the art that I create. It is a path that I continue to stumble down. At the expense of everything else… I am nothing without this music. I am nothing without this mask. So in this sense, the message I received was true… but only in an inverse sense. 

The truth is, I did not save anybody. You. Saved. Me.” (Sleep Token, 2022, Room Below)

Conclusion

The final song for the three album cycle - Euclid, is a comforting balm offered to us. It is Sleep Token reassuring us that there is some hope. Vessel understands it is heavy, and scary what he’s been singing of. It haunts him, this knowledge of death waiting:

“I am thick tar on the inside burning

I’ve got a ghost in the hallway grinning

And a heavy head that won’t stop turning”

He hopes he can keep the connection that has been established over the albums going for just a little bit longer, to give him a chance to say a final message to us:

“If my fate is a bad collision

And if my mind is an open highway

Give me the twilight two-way vision

Give me one last ride on a sunset skyline”

He can feel it’s all going to come to an end. 

“Call me when you get the chance

I can feel the walls around me closing in”

He plays along at life, moving through it even though his mind is stuck in the past:

Just running forwards, a life like wires

As I see the past on an empty ceiling 

I play along with the life signs anyway

He desperately hopes we haven’t experienced the terrible same feeling he has. But he knows we are the same as him, and therefore suffer too. 

“But I hope to God you don’t know this feeling

Yet in reverse you are all my symmetry

A parallel I would lay my life on”

If we can’t feel joy in our lives, he will bring it to us by making music:

“So if your wings won’t find you heaven

I will bring it down like an ancient bygone”

Do we think about death? Do we think there’s no meaning to it all?:

“Do you remember me?

And do you still believe

That nothing else matters?”

When it gets too much, this knowledge of his inevitable end; Vessel thinks about the magnificence of the world, and the experiences of awe and beauty:

“For me

It’s still the autumn leaves

These ancient canopies

That we used to lay beneath”

As the song progresses he believes we have understood his message, and we can take back the night, and conquer our fear. Now he can transform, since his desired aim in these songs is complete. His job is done:

“No, by now

The night belongs to you

This bough has broken though

I must be someone new”

The coda is from The Night Doesn’t Belong to God: 

“The whites of your eyes…

…So give me the night, the night, the night” 

It finishes up the 3 albums into a full cyclical journey. We ended up the beginning again - 

“…we come from the darkness of “not yet” and rush towards the darkness of “no more.” (Tillich, 1959, p. 30). The cycle of life and death. 

For me, when it all feels like too much, and I want comfort and a sense of awe - I remember that the atoms within us were first forged inside stars, and that we are stardust:

“The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore we’ve learned most of what we know. Recently, we’ve waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return, and we can because the cosmos is also within us. We are made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” (Sagan, 1980, Cosmos, 05:53).

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