The enigmatic band Sleep Token, renowned for their uniquely diverse sound, draws inspiration from across the musical spectrum. Producer George Lever, who worked on their first two albums, recently shed light on the influences behind their genre-fluid approach in an interview with The Metal Roundup. He affirmed that the “progressive” label often associated with the band is indeed fitting, citing a specific influence from Porcupine Tree.
Lever explained (as transcribed by Ultimate Guitar): “The prog band thing is not wrong. My favorite prog band is Porcupine Tree, and there is an album that I saw them play in full, before I heard it on record, Fear of a Blank Planet. There’s a really specific part of that album where there’s a repeating guitar part that plays over and over and over for way too long, and it becomes hypnotic, and a drum solo plays over the top, and then eventually it goes into a heavy repeat.”
The song Lever referred to was identified as “Anesthetize.” He further elaborated on the concept, noting the significant impact of Porcupine Tree’s drumming on Sleep Token‘s percussive style. “If you take that idea of the fact that you can repeat a thing and completely throw someone in at the deep end before they realize what’s going to happen next, and still be in the middle of something that’s actually very poignant — it’s juxtaposition. A lot of the drum sounds that we worked on are based on Gavin Harrison. We have a shared love for Gavin Harrison and an appreciation for him because he’s a fantastic drummer.”
While much of Sleep Token‘s musical direction is informed by progressive rock, Lever emphasized that the band operates without strict songwriting rules. “A lot of the things are led from prog records. ‘Higher‘ is supposed to be like Karnivool. There are lots of things in that record… For me, I wanted to try and pay homage to the bands that I loved, from a technical aspect within that record, but from a world-building point of view, I think, for Sleep Token…I don’t really know if we knew [what would happen], it happened anyway.”
He concluded by highlighting the band’s remarkable flexibility: “It seems to be a world and a space where anything goes, and there isn’t really a rule book. There is some kind of structure. There are some expected moments and expected things to happen because we know the tropes, but it’s still like anything goes. They’ve managed to introduce a few more styles since I finished up with them, and they’ve been accepted completely. It’s not really even been considered.”
Sleep Token has achieved significant commercial success with their fourth studio album, Even In Arcadia. The album recently debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard Top 200 chart, breaking multiple records for a hard rock act. Released recently, Even In Arcadia secured an impressive 127,000 equivalent album units in its first week. According to Billboard, citing data from Luminate (which has tracked sales since 1991), the album set a new benchmark for the most vinyl sold in a single week by a hard rock band, with 47,000 units purchased in the U.S. This accomplishment surpassed a record set just two weeks prior by the theatrical metal band Ghost for their album Skeletá, which had sold 44,000 vinyl copies.
