Download 2025: A Crash Course In Sleep Token

As we’re sure everyone has heard by now Sleep Token have been announced as one of the Download Festival 2025 headliners, joining the likes of Green Day and Korn, but how much do you really know about this mysterious masked band?

In this piece we aim to give you a brief look into the world of Sleep Tokens lore, bearing in mind that a lot of their story has been carefully pieced together by fans, as the band themselves have spoken very few times and even less so about this world they have created. We will discuss both established lore and some fan theories as well as what is possibly next for this British 4 piece.

The Origin of Sleep

The most important thing to start with is that their lore centres around Sleep, and no not the activity. Sleep is the deity that rules the world they have created, according to Vessel Sleep is not exactly its name, but the closest word that we have in our language. Vessel tells the story that he was sent by Sleep to spread its message and make others aware of Sleep and its power. He claims that he is a ‘Vessel’ for its message, hence the name, the other members are also Vessels commonly being referred to by their numbers (II, III and IV).

Sleep Token call their concerts rituals, referring to them as their way to spread the word of Sleep and hoping that fans of the band will also follow and believe in Sleep. The band offer themselves as a token, remaining faceless and only glorifying Sleep at their shows rather than themselves, this is what brings them the name Sleep Token. They also refer to their songs as offerings, being something that they give to Sleep to show their loyalty.

“I [he] encountered Sleep in a dream, with the promise of glory and magnificence if I [Vessel] followed him” is one of very few quotes from Vessel himself, this being from a 2017 interview in the bands very early days and is a key part of how fans can put together fragments of their story. It's also worth noting that Sleep is referred to with different pronouns, not really conforming to one.

On the surface Sleep Token's lyrics all refer to Sleep, talking about their love and gratitude to Sleep but also Vessels inner turmoil with coming to terms of how he has given up his life and his identity to serve this god that only uses him.

Take Me Back To Eden

Stepping away from the lore many fans see a parallel between Vessel's feelings for Sleep and how one might feel about a lover or ex lover, making the lyrics relatable to those that have been in unfavourable relationships. Some theorise that their entire lore is a metaphor for just that and also that ‘Eden’ who is referred to in multiple songs is another lover that treated Vessel better than Sleep.

Another large part of Sleep Token's lore is depicted in their Graphic novel ‘Teeth of God’. This book tells a different story but follows in the same vein - I will give a brief description here so please if you would like to avoid spoilers for it then skip the next two paragraphs!

In this graphic novel the story of Sleep is told by another person - possibly Vessel in another life or a different Vessel all together - as he witnesses a lunar anomaly. This anomaly sees Sleep emerge from the moon as it is shown in their Take Me Back To Eden album cover and rains all hell on the earth spreading what is referred to as ‘Eden’. This is on the base level a word that represents all the ‘alien’ flora and fauna that Sleep brings with her as she destroys the earth and replaces it with her own.

In this story it is described that the world has forgotten about the deity - references to dead gods in their lyrics also point to this - and that Sleep is angry that man has moved on without its reign and it seeks revenge by destroying all humanity. This story also sees a protagonist being chosen by Sleep and being given dreams of the destruction of humanity to make the vessel serve Sleep, much like is described in Sleep tokens lyrics and other pieces of their lore.

Although not being the exact same story all roads lead in the same directions with many links lyrically between the novel and the music.

Even In Arcadia

In this new era of ‘Even In Arcadia’ the new album being released on May 9th we are seeing more references to what we know whilst equally revealing newer pieces of the puzzle to which we have never seen before.

To give you just a taste of the chaos that is trying to decode their messages in real time, the most recent single ‘Emergence’ had fans literally travelling the country to put together the pieces just for the song's release.

Early in March two instagram profiles appeared called ‘House of Veridian’ and ‘Feathered Host’ whose names have been repeatedly occurring since. These instagram profiles posted co-ordinates in the form of morse codes leading any fans near the destination to venture out of their homes. After mere hours of being posted fans found two QR codes near an observatory which lead them to two similar images.

These images overlapped and created the digital cover for their new single and the image files were named ‘Blood’ and ‘Moon’ because of course the single was being released in tandem with the blood moon later that same week.

Words: Amy Smyth