7 Bands Who Sound Like SLEEP TOKEN

Do you love Sleep Token? It seems that you can only be completely obsessed by them or not into them at all, such is the passion of their fanbase. There’s seemingly no middle ground when it comes to opinions on this mysterious masked group. Their strong visual language of theatrical outfits and sigils is perfect for arena rock, and their enormous sound is one part downtuned metal and two-parts angst-ridded, fragile RnB.

With added emotional pain.

As a combination, it seems pretty unique!

But no band comes into existence out of nowhere. All creative beings share influences and passions, and so it is that Sleep Token, whilst undeniably effective in their combined elements, are actually by no means unique. Today’s article is not a put-down piece at all, but rather a celebration of the bands who’ve inspired them, and their fellow scenesters who have a similar sound. In short: if you love Sleep Token, then you should at least know about these other bands too!

So have a listen to the bands listed below, and praise be to Sleep, and the Vessels who serve…

The most obvious forebear to Sleep Token’s sound is metal pioneers the Deftones. More popular now than ever - no small task when you’ve been going for over 30 years - Deftones’ clearly defined mix of semi-ambient emotional vistas and bludgeoningly heavy riffing has proven to be one of the most influential sounds in modern times. 

Until Sleep Token came along, Deftones were one of the very (very) few bands who could play 8-string guitars and still reliably fill arenas across the world. In prioritising softer and more psychologically fragile moments, Deftones sidestepped the ‘heavy metal cavemen’ cliches and opened their world to more interesting possibilities, just as Sleep Token have done.

With only two albums and a brace of EPs under their belts, Vancouver Island’s Spiritbox have swiftly become one of the most essential bands in metal. It’s partly due to their futuristic, grinding enormous post-metalcore sound, and partly to do with a melodic pop sensibility that matches their molten ferocity. 

In Mike Stringer, they have a guitarist who seeks to innovate within the realms of the song, and in Courtney LaPlante, they have an iconic frontwoman who doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘compromise’. For Spiritbox, you’ll need a 7 string tuned to F# mostly, so it may be an idea to just grab an 8 string since some of their newer songs do use those too!

Liverpool metal band Loathe are an important link in the chain here, I think. They’ve progressed with their dark, moody sound into a blend of metal and shoegaze that sounds like it should always have existed! Again, Deftones are an influence here, and I’d also say Meshuggah (who’ve influenced almost every metal band of the last two decades) have been studied too. Moody film and videogame soundtracks are also high in the ‘inspired by’ list for them. 

Significantly though, it’s Loathe’s own sound that is the reason to be interested in them, and the unpredictability that comes with it. Loathe make use of Fender and Gretsch guitars (baritones and Bass VI models abound) with single coil and P90 pickups, which give you a whole different type of ‘heavy’ to humbuckers and active pickups. Try it!

Dayseeker are a metalcore band from the sunny OC in California. It seems, however, that sunshine doesn’t cure heartache, because this band’s blend of heaviness with emotional edges is very similar to where Sleep Token aim their efforts. Earlier Dayseeker songs were perhaps more straightforwardly ‘metal’ than their current material, so whether they’ve taken inspiration from Sleep Token themselves or simply found themselves moving in a similar direction is something I couldn’t comment on. Either way, fans of one are likely to connect with the other.

Downtuned 7 strings and baritones (including cheap Jackson JS models, so don’t think you need to spend a fortune) are the order here, through digital modelers.

Virginia’s Bad Omens is another band combining the disparate worlds of metalcore and RnB in ways that will definitely make sense to Sleep Token fans. Like lots of bands in this particular wave of music, there are strong electronic elements too, allowing the music - and the heaviness - to exist in a separate context to just live bass and drums.

Bad Omens are signed to Sumerian records, who have long since been taste-makers in this corner of the musial forest, as it were. Bad Omens are currently celebrating the 10th anniversary of their self-titled debut, so now is as good a time as any to jump into their world.

Dredg have been going since 1993, so it’s a bit unfair to say they sound like Sleep Token. As you’ll have surmised, this article is more about finding similar music to Sleep Token, than about mapping a timeline of influence!

Anyway, Dredg are a really interesting band from Los Gatos, California. People throw around terms like Art Rock and Prog Rock, neither of which are too inappropriate, I suppose. Dredg appeal to Tool fans a lot, and they’ve got similarly high-brow artistic references: one body of work, for example, was based around a Salman Rushdie novel, so it’s not Motley Crue territory here!

Dreg are still going strong and proving to be as quietly influential as ever.

Epic Norwegians Leprous have an expansive sound that fits in well with modern prog metal. Their name stems from the band’s genesis when they were 15 year old metalheads, so it’s perhaps slightly less appropriate for the ambitious sound they have these days!

A band since 2001 and touring internationally since 2010, Leprous are another heavy band who use 8 string guitars with force, but also have quiet, reflective and emotional moments to counter the brutality.

I suppose the real take away with this brace of bands is that heavy music appeals nowadays to far more than simply metalheads. The heaviness has, if anything, only intensified, but there’s now more scope for sounds, textures, styles and moments that previous eras of heavy metal perhaps didn’t have space for. The sound has broadened to encompass more influences, and as a result, the heavy parts become even heavier by juxtaposition with chart-friendly pop. 

This isn’t a new thing, but the mainstream sometimes takes a while to catch up. Metal is more diverse than ever, and Sleep Token are as much proof of that as any of these bands. If you thought that 8-string guitars were for prog djenters and nu metal throwbacks only, then you are missing out! In fact, even if you aren’t a fan of Sleep Token at all, I expect you’ll love at least some of the bands in this article. Give them all a shot!