#sleep token lore theory

[ivys-thick-juicy-thighs]

Sleep Token Lore part 2

From the pov of someone deeply interested in psychology and a survivor of narcissistic abuse.

Warnings: self h*rm, su!c!de, narcissistic abuse.

Disclaimer: my idea of what all of it means is less in the esoteric direction and based more on my opinions of some of Vessel’s personal experiences. I’m basing all of this on lyrical content, the evolution of his masks, how he behaves on stage, and my own personal experience. I will not mention any of his previous work or related individuals. I will keep this as neutral as possible out of respect for all of their privacy.

Read part one here

But first some bonus points going off the previous post.

Let me know if you’d like me to go into an analysis of every song and share my thoughts on the lyrics one by one. Writing this one was very fun.

Rain: “I know, I know, I am what I am, The mouth of the wolf, the eyes of the lamb…” One example of Vessel having been an equal player in the toxic relationship. He’s saying he may look innocent but he played his part in it too. “I’m coiled up like a venomous serpent…” this I feel is the best example of the thought process behind his current mask. The spikes at his chin remind me a lot of fangs. This to me really speaks volumes of how he sees himself. He does not want people to grow intimate with him simply because he believes he’s dangerous. He most likely believes that the failure of this relationship was his fault. Exactly how the narcissist would want it, and would have spun it.

Dark Signs: “And I miss the man I was the moment we left off…And I hate who I have become, every time I wake up.” One example of him both being changed by this relationship, and also growing to hate himself because of this relationship. “And if you saw the marks on my dashboard, The new scars that I didn't ask for, And would you call asking for answers? Tear my arms off…” an example of the “ending his life” thoughts. This song also is the first time we see the metaphor of a car crash. I’ll go into this more in its own post later.

Higher: “You are taking your time, You are killing me slow, And I know we instigate, Go back and forth, Lacerate…” an example of both of them playing a part in the toxic back and forth. I also can’t decide if this song was written from Vessel’s perspective or the narcissist’s perspective. The entirety of the second verse feels like it’s written from a pov that isn’t Vessel’s. This person is saying to him that they are the ones granting him a favour “I am giving you more than the debt that I owe”(despite all of the obvious abuse) and that he forgets that. This verse also shows the isolation I mentioned in my previous post. “Because I am a danger and you're a long way from home, You are one among many but you're now on your own…”

TMBTE: “But I'll take a pound of your flesh 'fore you take a piece of my paystub…” as someone pointed out in my previous post, this line most likely means that the person he was in a relationship with, he also worked with and they took a bunch of his money too. This lines up perfectly with my entire theory as financial abuse is also extremely common in these kinds of relationships. Narcissists always want to have control over your finances and a lot of the time will drain your accounts so you’re even more dependent on them. “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…” another example of him having turned into the more argumentative type during this time, and his realization of how he’d changed.

Give: this entire song aside from the very last stanza I feel is written from the other person’s perspective. The bridge in particular shows that the other person is admitting (but not apologizing) that they are mistreating Vessel. “In this open warfare, I won't fight fair, No, I won't fight fair, And in your waking moments, I will be there…” this person also wants Vessel to give them his “darkest impulses,” to show his anger, lust, fears, etc. so that they can flip the script and use them as ammunition. Ultimately, they are telling him to continue to give in to their mind games over and over again.

Bloodsport: I have an unconventional idea of what this song is about. I think the person he’s talking about in this is actually himself. I think this is maybe a reference to self h*rm. “I made loving you a blood sport, I can’t win. So let’s play…”

Now back to Vessel’s journey:

7. Learning to love himself again: on the album TMBTE, we watch the slow realization of the reality of the relationship. Particularly starting in Granite. “Sulphur on your breath, granite in my chest…” we all know that sulphur stinks horribly, so the narcissist in this case was likely being particularly toxic (and saying some nasty shit) and it marked the tipping point for Vessel. It’s the moment the blinders are removed, and he sees them for what they really are. Who they really are. We see the break down of his mentality of giving this person everything he can and everything they want from him. This is shown in Aqua Regia, the title referring to the only chemical solution able to dissolve gold, the golden walls that he would put up to bring them home again. Moving on to Vore, this is when he becomes completely engrossed in reviewing the events of the relationship. “Swallowed whole” by it even. All of the highs and lows, the back forth, the mind games, the loss of his identity, etc. etc. He has the realization of what has actually happened, and he is filled with a sort of bittersweet rage.

8. Continued: in Ascensionism, we really see this. “You’re gonna watch me ascend, And I know what you want from me, You want the same as me, My redemption, eternal ascension, Setting me free, So I'll take what I want then leave” He’s saying to his abuser “you took me so low, to the bottom of the ocean, and now you’re gonna watch me as I leave you behind. I don’t deserve this.” This song also has a really cool call back to Dark Signs “Diamonds in the trees, pentagrams in the night sky…” “And where we met, there must have been dark signs, Omens in your skies…” Moving on to Are You Really ok?, this is when someone around him sees the broken and empty state he’s in. I think this person is someone who has known him for a very long time, possibly a family member. They were there when he made that attempt on his life (Atlantic), and they’re hoping that this time doesn’t go that far again. This person wants to help him but they know that he has to get himself through this on his own. “And I, I cannot fix your wounds this time, But I, I don't believe you when you tell me you are fine, Please don't hurt yourself again, Just please don't hurt yourself again…”

9. Continued: in The Apparition, Vessel expresses frustration that the narcissist always puts on a fake persona, and fear that even though they torture him, they’ll leave him. Stockholm syndrome, anyone?“Why are you never real? Whenever you appear, You leave me with that grace, I am trembling with fear, But I know that you will disappear…” The only time he can find any relief from the torture he endures in his waking moments is when he’s dreaming. However, the narcissist has even managed to work their way into his dreams to torment him there. He still clings to this person though, “Just let me go or take me with you…” I think this is also him giving them an ultimatum. “You either get all of me, or none of me” kind of thing. It’s evident that the person is displeased with this boundary that he’s set. They leave him alone for a time, most likely giving him the silent treatment.

10. Continued: moving on to DYWTYLM, this is when he has that all important conversation with himself. He asks himself all of these questions, basically trying to figure out who he is. This is also the point where all of the references to jaws, teeth, and eating all start to make a lot more sense. “And there is something eating me alive, I don't know what it is…” the thing that’s eating him alive is the narcissist. All of the back and forth, the ups and downs, the torture and toxicity, the dissolving of gold, all of these have resulted in him being stripped of all that he once was. They left him as nothing but bones. On a different note, I also feel like the reflection flickers between himself and the narcissist, and he’s asking both of them these questions. “And I've tried so hard to fix it all but nothing seems to help, But I cannot hope to give you what I cannot give myself…” He’s saying to both himself and the other person that no matter how hard he tries, he can’t love them if he doesn’t love himself at least the same amount. Ironically, this admittance is an act of self love.

11. Continued: in Rain, we get an interesting development. In the previous song he says that his “reflection won’t smile back at him the way he thinks it should.” And in the first verse of Rain, he tells us that he’s finally able to smile at himself. “But I finally think I can say, That the vicious cycle was over, The moment you smiled at me…” I think this song is written from himself to himself, but in a different manner than DYWTYLM. It’s from the future version of himself to the past version. “For so long, I have waited, So long that I almost became, Just a stoic statue, fit for nobody, And I don't wanna get in your way…” I think this also explains the figures in the visualizers for this album. They symbolize the different stages of development, and the different versions of him and the narcissist throughout the end of their relationship.

12. Continued: returning to TMBTE, this is when the silent treatment ends and the whole thing is brought to a cataclysmic, disastrous end. There’s a lot of rage in this song. While we don’t get to hear about the actual break up, we’re invited to watch starting “Just two days since the mainframe went down…” In those two days he is inundated with phone calls from a bunch of people that he knows take the narcissist’s side. They sympathize with him, but it’s fake. Those two days also feel cold and lifeless “Room feels like a meat freezer, I dangle in like cold cuts…” We also get a call all the way back to Bloodsport. In fact, the lyrics of Bloodsport almost mirror the lyrics of TMBTE. “I want to choke up chunks of my own sins…” “I spit blood when I wake up, Sink porcelain stained, choking up brain matter and make-up…” Making this choice to walk away from something he clearly wanted to work out, is very painful for him, but if he wants to move on with his life and maybe find real happiness later, he has to do this. No matter the pain, no matter the cost. He feels like in order to purge himself of “his sins,” he has rid himself of entire pieces of his brain. Also, feels like he’s putting on an act, hence the make-up.

13. Finally, Euclid: I have a bit of an unconventional idea of Euclid too. I think he’s singing to the past version of himself. The entire second verse, he is replaying the whole course of events over in his mind watching them play out on the ceiling “As I see the past on an empty ceiling, I play along with the life signs anyway, But hope to god you don't know this feeling…” The lines that follow this, I feel, show him looking at both himself and at the narcissist. “Yet in reverse you are all my symmetry, A parallel I would lay my life on…” both the old version of him (before the relationship and during it) and the narcissist themselves are complete opposites of who he is now. But like all things in life, we are always defined by our opposites. We only know that something is broken if we’ve seen it when it’s whole. “So if your wings won't find you heaven, I will bring it down like an ancient bygone, Call me when you have the time, I just need to leave this part of me behind…” The old version of him is who has the wings. That old version is now dead and he needs to leave it behind. He officially knows he must move on.

14. Euclid, final thoughts: from this point on, the song falls into what feels like a cacophony of memories playing over each other. They echo back through the time of the relationship, hitting all the most important moments. It finally ends with the memory of their first night together.

Now to examine the addition and roles of II, III, and IV.

First and foremost, Vessel likely asked them to join because they are (obviously very) talented musicians. However, he probably chose them because they also understood and respected the emotional depth and nuance of his music. As for why they’re called vessels and what they are vessels of? Simplest answer: pain. They all have most likely experienced similar things. The thing with creative people is that we are not likely to ask someone else to join ranks with us on a project if they don’t view their art the same way we see ours. So unfortunately, the other three have probably felt similarly or (I hope not) still do.

In the next post, because this one was very long, I want to go into some bonus theories that I have. These ones are much more abstract and not so much based on lyrics.

[ivys-thick-juicy-thighs]

I have a different but also similar interpretation of alkaline.

Similar in that on the pH scale, water is neutral, yes. But in that, water is necessary for life as we know it. Nothing on earth can exist without water. We need it to survive. So vessel feels he needs this person in order to survive. They are a life line for him.

HOWEVER

What a lot of people don’t know is that if you drink too much water too quickly, you can die.

(Autistic nerd brain info-dump coming at ya)

When this happens, it’s is medically referred to as “hypo-nitremia” wherein the concentration of certain salts (sodium, calcium, and potassium specifically) fall into a dangerously low percentage. On top of this, your kidneys can only process and expel so much water at a time so a destructive cycle happens in the body. This is dangerous because those salts are what control nerve function.

So water is needed to live, but too much of it can kill you. In this song he’s saying that the person is both his poison and his antidote. And that is fascinating to me.

uhhh something something i like looking at lyrics sometimes

anyways I’ve always seen the line ‘She’s not acid nor Alkaline’ as meaning she’s pure, bc the true neutral on the PH scale is pure water, like the subject is the true neutral, like Vessel is calling Sleep pure or sumn. or just someone in general idk :/

uhh also the line about Vessel melting into her—water(or rather, the molecule H20) is a polar molecule so it tends to dissolve a lot of things it touches which also helps with the idea of the subject being pure water

anyways off to the void i go good timezone

[melit0n]

I wanted to add on to this ask done by an anon on ST confessions, because they are so right and they made something click in my brain. Do go read it before you read this.

First, off, heavy agree that Fall for Me is designed to be a lonely song, both lyrically, and quite smartly, musically. In every single other song Sleep Token has ever done there is music. There is noise, always. Even in times where there should be silence, there never is any. Instead, it's filled by sounds of birds, a taught guitar chord or chewing and biting.

Fall for Me, however, is utter silence. There's no musical reply. No SFX, no subtle drums or bass; no nothing. It's the one of the few songs (along with Missing Limbs, Take Aim and Drag me Under) in which Vessel directly addresses the love he holds for this person. It's not layered in metaphors, prose and an eloquent vernacular, it's straightforward. While his poetry in other songs is used to draw Them in, decorate his love and entice Them, he's done with getting nothing. He wants to be an equal, a lover, but he gets naught.

The reason why, other than the obvious choice of acapella instead of instruments, the song feels so lonely is because it's the only song- overall- that he doesn't get a response to. Sugar is the response to The Offering, Say That You Will is the response to Take Aim etc., but here? Cold, dead silence. No gesture in tongues, no crushing 'affection'; no nothing.

So, to the rhythm of eternity, he will be on that beach, stumbling, crawling and shouting out the same question that he will never get an answer to; won't you fall for me?

However, even though, unlike most songs that get an answer within their album, Vessel gets one in the next. Take Me Back To Eden, therefore, becomes the answer to that question. As well as Vessel's action against it.

@lifemod17 saw you reblog the ask as well, thought you might like this :]

[ancientbygone]

bygone lore: Sleep

finally found it in me to write my thoughts/worldbuilding on Sleep in one place. this is taking so much courage to post this to the public, no joke, so i hope it's entertaining! not sure how much sense it all will make, but nevertheless.

okay, so. i just don't think Sleep is any sort of sleep/dream deity. not for any solid reason, just because 1) the only descriptions we get of it are secondhand from what Sleep has told to Vessel & i personally have no reason to trust Sleep with how manipulative that shit is and 2) i think it would be more fun that way, especially taking the first point into account. i legit just think that Sleep lied to Vessel about its nature to further whatever goals it had and Vessel passed the information onto us oblivious to the truth. i still think it's a relatively powerful supernatural force though. easy enough for a human like Vessel to be convinced that it is a god. more of a feeling than an actual entity, but still with its own sentience and wants and goals. could be whatever makes the most sense to anyone, but my personal take on what Sleep is instead of a dream god (what it is in my version of the lore) is that it's all the desires of every living thing congealed into a single being with a mind of its own. 

[cont. under the cut]

i think that works well personally! the lyrical themes of give/take and longing and Wanting from both sides make sense with it. even the "i want to want to live, and so do you" in Fall For Me. Sleep is driven by wanting, and being made from wanting itself, when it gets what it wants it just continues to go further, to the next step of its desires, ever insatiable. it becomes entwined with Vessel because when they meet for the first time, they want the same thing. they're both dying, and still they want to want to live. to be more precise, Sleep wants fuel; its existence relies largely on humans, and it needs someone who feels strongly and passionately (please don’t ask me why it’s dying, i don’t even know and don’t want to look too much into it). Vessel, on the other hand, wants a way to turn around his life that he may or may not have driven into the ground, and he believes that it cannot be fixed by any existing means, which is why he's lost all hope in living anymore. but those two desires perfectly coincide, do they not? they can help each other get what they want. so they try. 

it doesn't work out. it backfires horribly, in fact. i've talked about it before, but i think it's very important to mention regardless. Sleep, being pretty much desire incarnate, may have harbored certain negative feelings of its own towards humanity, but they never would've become anything if it were not for Vessel. Vessel's anger at the world around him, the way he believes he has been wronged by everyone, is palpable, and with Sleep having to draw on Vessel's emotions to survive for the time being, that anger infects it, too. the passive unnamed negativity becomes a strong desire to take revenge. with all of it combined, Sleep's supernatural power and Vessel's uncontrollable rage slowly takes over both of them, and Him is born, a despicable thing. it's all-consuming blind rage taking on a mind of its own, much like how Sleep came to be but so much more unstable and volatile. the revenge on humanity doesn't go further than a single person torn to bits with bare hands and teeth, both too dull to be effective, but that thing is nothing it not fucking determined. it does fall apart immediately after, though, because it was barely together as is and killing someone was the tipping point for Vessel's consciousness somewhere deep in there. plus Vessel’s body honestly couldn't sustain Him for much longer. sorry for the tangent, i really love talking about that fucked up abomination.

but yeah, this experience changes both of them forever. Sleep gets a taste of feeling human emotions to a full extent, arguably even more so because of just how much Vessel feels; Vessel gets a taste of wielding inhuman power and releasing his emotions through it. Sleep's usual straightforward path of progression (just gaining more power, more control over more things) diverges as it realizes that it needs to feel like humans do again. Vessel, on the other hand, is fucking terrified of Him or something similar coming back, so he closes himself off and tries to repress his feelings back down again. he won’t let Sleep in again no matter how much he wants to be able to express his emotion with the same intensity as he feels them again. Sleep is well aware that Vessel wants that sort of relationship back, too. Sundowning is essentially Sleep trying to win Vessel back over and convince him to “help each other” once again, and realizing by Blood Sport that if Vessel doesn’t think he can handle it this time, he just needs to be made better suited for it. unfortunately, Sleep finds that breaking Vessel’s spirit, making him entirely emotionally dependent on it, and practically isolating him from the only people he interacts with on the daily (his bandmates) by stripping away his humanity in their eyes is very much a working strategy for getting him where it wants him to be.

Sleep’s tactics of manipulation are… algorithmic? for the lack of a better word, in the way that it doesn't really have a reason why exactly it's doing things other than that they're what's worked on Vessel so far. no real understanding of human psychology and whatnot, only trial and error until it pushes the correct set of buttons in the right order at the right time. it does learn more and more as their relationship progresses. Sleep also doesn’t exactly lie; it’s shapeless by nature & only able to embody what others put into it, and even then to a certain extent. it only really talks & shows itself to Vessel at any point because of their connection, and it’s able to draw from all of his emotions instead of just desire like any other human for that same reason. no matter what form Sleep takes, it’s always akin to a shadow, although the exact way the shadows look depends on who Sleep is showing itself to - drawing (pun intended) from Vessel’s artistic heart, Sleep looks to him like pencil on paper. Sleep does distort reality much in the same way that any emotion might - it pushes things to their extremes, makes them seem larger than life to get a response. as it grows and becomes more powerful in itself, it stops being able to appear as something smaller than it is, so pretty much any form it takes is an exaggeration of what it’s imitating. this ties directly into the mimics (see this (tmbte) and this (sundowning) for context), but also just. anything that Sleep appears as to Vessel. during TPWBYT, Vessel feels like his emotional repression is suffocating him, and Sleep’s most commonly assumed form during that time is a literal ocean that Vessel is often trapped in, drowning. during TMBTE, Vessel feels like he cannot escape his situation no matter how miserable it makes him feel, and Sleep appears to him as a reaper, taking that thought to its extreme conclusion that Vessel's only salvation might as well be death. even though Sleep isn’t a dream deity, its appearances still function on dream logic somewhat; it invokes the feeling of something in one’s subconscious that what they’re seeing is the actual thing Sleep is imitating, even if the actual visual resemblance is minor (that makes sense right please tell me it does).

what happens to Sleep once Vessel breaks free from him for good… i’m not entirely sure, honestly. it’s definitely not going to just disappear; a being of desire is going to exist as long as we still feel it. it isn’t gonna chase after Vessel, and i’m not really sure if it’d try and seek out another person to form a similar connection with. maybe we, the audience of Sleep Token living and feeling through Vessel’s music that has come from all his pain, sustain it well enough now. i don’t think it matters that much anyhow; Sleep is entirely unscathed either way afterwards, unlike Vessel. maybe i’ll figure out a little more eventually.

[magefeathers]

In honor of TMBTE’s first birthday I’ve decided to finally unleash my dissertation on my unusual interpretation(s) of Sleep! I’ve only ever seen one person who had a similar outlook to me, and they said they received some Negative Feedback on their views, so uh, don’t shoot me?

My favorite thing about this band's fandom is exploration of the lore, how open to interpretation everything is, and how welcome we are to find our own stories within the source material. I love reading how other people interpret certain songs, or the overarching story, differently from each other based on their own outlooks and experiences. That's what I think the point is. So I want to be clear that I'm not trying to say I'm right, I'm not trying to say anyone else is wrong, I'm just expressing my own opinion.

Grab a drink, it's a long one. I won't give a TL;DR because I don't want people to reactively shoot down my theory without reading my reasoning, but I will say it deviates from the more standard interpretations in two ways:

I don't believe Sleep is meant to be an actual deity, I think it's meant to be more allegorical, a metaphor for something real.

I don't think the music, or the story being told, is about Sleep.

I'm sorry if I've already lost you with the first point. I'm sorry if I seem like a party pooper. I love the aesthetic and the worldbuilding and the symbolism, and I love the creativity of the fans who build out the story on the premise of Vessel actually communing with and having some manner of relationship with this great, unknowable, ancient deity. The issue for me is that I can only read that story if I already have that story in my mind, if that makes sense. Sure, I can make the songs fit that narrative, but I never would have arrived at that narrative on my own, without first reading that the band was made to worship this deity. And in my mind, if I couldn't arrive at that conclusion naturally, without being led there, then it probably wasn't the conclusion I was meant to arrive at.

For a while, I could vibe with the idea that Sleep was supposed to be a metaphor for a lover, either present or former, and a toxic relationship he was struggling or had struggled with. But as I delved deeper into their catalogue I very much lost the impression that all of these songs were about one singular person, or even that all of the songs were about romantic relationships in general. And as I got more into the fandom and found out that there was more official dialogue from the band than just the "One Single Interview" everyone talked about, I realized that trying to fit the songs to all be about one person or thing would never work, because the songs weren't about Sleep, there were merely gifts to Sleep.

Now, I could have sworn that when I first got into the band’s lore I read on their official website that their songs are offerings to Sleep - not about Sleep, the way everyone seems to interpret them. That no longer appears to be the case. I have this screenshot that I took of part of what I remember reading, but I distinctly recall there being another paragraph or two in addition to what I cropped, and unfortunately my PC doesn’t show me the link the screenshot was taken on, like my phone would. And in re-reading the text in the screenshot, it does seem to be speaking about Sleep Token as a separate entity so I may be entirely misremembering how official of a source it was ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Regardless, I’ve seen multiple articles that word it in this manner, that the songs are for Sleep rather than about Sleep, and nowhere in the official sources I’ve found is it said that the songs are about Sleep, so I’m going to assume I’m right and continue under the assumption I’ve worked under all along: that the songs are not, in fact, about Sleep.

They are, however, for Sleep. This has never been debated. The songs are tokens, or offerings, to Sleep.

So, let me share with you the official communications that developed my theory. In addition to what I've commonly seen referred to as their "only interview" before II's drumeo video, I've found (poor quality) scans of two magazine spreads, one from Kerrang! and another I'm unsure of the source of, both featuring Jaws. I read most of these after having watched videos of rituals and reading transcripts of the conversation between Vessel and, presumably, his mask, that took place on last year's tour, as well as the monologue from The Room Below. I started to notice a common theme between that more recent conversation and these much earlier interviews, that for some reason surprised me: Vessel had wanted the fans to project onto the music all along.

Noteworthy quotes from the linked sources, in roughly chronological order:

“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.”

“As musicians we are inspired by the human condition [...]. 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.”

“We are here to deliver a message; touch people in their hearts and subconscious minds.”

“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.”

“The aim is to provide something people can engage with without being obstructed by the identity of its creator.”

“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.”

“Sleep Token draw from the most profound experiences we have in life and, most crucially, where they intersect. [...] To see this within yourself, and then to see it reflected in others - this is the essence of worship.”

“We all desire to see the darkest, most profound aspects of ourselves reflected in the expressions of others. [...] We’re here to provide this expression, so it may serve as a device with which people might understand themselves better.”

"We are here to silently collect. To project ourselves onto one-another."

"Perhaps that is another reason why we are here. At the very least, we have all suffered."

"I think they just want to know that I am feeling something, feeling what they are feeling, perhaps."

"In order for all of this to work there has to be a certain boundary in place. They need to be 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."

"They, too, are pained. They, too, do not know who they truly are. They are each stood alone on a stage of their own. And yet, they are here. United by that sense of never truly belonging. They see something 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."

And finally, from the Fall For Me music video: "So for now let me serve as a living drama of your pain. If we are to be submerged let us be submerged together."

When I place them right next to each other, it's probably easier to see the common theme that I caught onto. I cycled through a few ideas - including Vessel himself being Sleep, or Sleep representing music and the connection it can foster between people - but I kept coming back to the way Vessel has repeatedly talked about fans projecting onto the music, examining themselves through it, understanding themselves through it. Projecting ourselves onto him, seeing ourselves in him, trying to understand ourselves through our interpretations of his story.

He's a Vessel for us. The songs are tokens, offerings, to us. We, the fans, are Sleep. The songs are gifts for us to examine ourselves through, to help us delve into our own experiences and emotional responses and understand ourselves - and, in turn, understand each other. It isn't Vessel that we are worshipping, it's ourselves and each other that we see in Vessel. I could even get really sentimental and cheesy if I wanted and say that Vessel directly worships us as well, albeit wordlessly, with his deep bows and falling to his knees in appreciation of his audience.

And just to reiterate, I don't think the songs are about Sleep. Although I think an argument could possibly be made about the toxic relationship between Vessel and Sleep being a metaphor for the parasocial relationship between an entertainer and their audience, I... won't get into that. Today, at least. Although I think it's a really interesting take that deserves exploration, I don't genuinely think any of the songs are directed toward or written about the fans/audience. I just think he's sharing the story of his life with us and allowing us to project our own lives upon it, to remind us that none of us are alone in this world. None of us are alone in our feelings, or in our experiences, no matter how isolated we may feel in them.

[EDIT: After making this post I found yet another magazine interview, in which Vessel kind of.... confirms this whole theory?

"He is everyone. He is you. There is a power in music that binds us all, every note relates to another."

The power of music uniting people and allowing us to see ourselves in each other and connect through that was exactly what I had in mind when I formed this theory, so it's kind of validating that I'm interpreting things correctly to see it put so bluntly lol]

If you made it to the end of this, thank you for hearing me out! \owo/ I had been wanting to make a post about this for a while as it seemed a very clear-cut take to me that I didn't think would be controversial. Speaking with the person I mentioned at the beginning who had a similar theory kind of scared me off it, since they said they received some outright hate for it, but talking to them also really got me excited to dig into my theory and provide my sources and show everyone the breadcrumb trail of how I arrived at this conclusion. So I hope at least a couple people enjoyed it!

If this is received well maybe I'll be brave enough to actually post about some of my song interpretations ^^; As I said, I don't think they're all about any one thing. My favorite quote from the ones listed above is this one: "Sleep Token draw from the most profound experiences we have in life and, most crucially, where they intersect." The intersectionality of it all is what's most interesting to me, so that quote was a little bit vindicating to read, lol. It's not all about romantic relationships, to me. It's about how every experience we go through in life, how we feel about them, how we react to them - all of those experiences overlap and intersect and color each other. It's about how everything you've ever been through will affect everything else you ever go through. But now I am genuinely rambling ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thank you again for reading, and feel free to slide into my DMs to talk about this god-given band whensoever you wish.

[spoiledleaff]

NAZARETH. NOW. PLEAAASEEEEE!

✿ — okay, okay, haha! i know that this analysis is probably one of the most anticipated of the ep's songs, so i hope that i've done this analysis justice! :'D i'm also just gonna take a super quick moment to tag @excelsior9173, @laceandeights, and @pyrographic-memory!! i hope you all don't mind! :')) this is just because you all were so incredibly sweet with interacting with my original post, i figured i'd take a chance and tag you! :D there was also a super sweet anon who also asked for a nazareth analysis, but they asked on anon so i just hope that they see this, haha! :)

✿ — for a little bit of context, this ask is in reference to >>this<< post i made briefly going over my whole hc for the two ep!! :D you can also find my full analysis for calcutta >>here<<!! :)

anyways!! this post is gonna be another massive theory//headcannon post that will be focusing on the sleep token ep, two, and the second song, nazareth, as well as my hc that these songs are quite literally the basis for ii's backstory! :D i'm super proud with how this analysis turned out, and jericho is gonna be next up on that list! >:Dc followed by jaws and maybe even granite to tie it all up! :))

✿ — TWO + CALCUTTA.

↳ this is just a quick little summary of what we've analyzed so far!

this hc stems from the fact that every song from this ep are the only songs on spotify to list a 'vessel ii' as a composer alongside 'vessel'. and, of course, the ep is named 'two'! :D haha!

finally, i like to interpret calcutta as a song about hopelessness and about experiencing a growing sense of despair that can only come from loving another person that you cannot obtain. while sleep and their influences might be vessel's own personal prison—vessel is ii's calcutta; he is ii's prison that ii willingly crawls back into every night, just to have a moment where it is just the two of them. and i think that it is in this moment in time where sleep extends their influence to ii, intending to weaponize ii's jealousy and possessive thoughts to bring vessel closer to sleep. and this is where we've left off to prepare for our analysis of nazareth! :)

✿ — NAZARETH.

↳ tw + cw : discussions of death, jealousy, possessive thoughts, guns, domestic assault + murder. this one is a doozy!! please take care of yourself if you choose to continue.

✿ — before we deep dive into those lyrics, let's talk about what nazareth means! :)

✧ — as a name, 'nazareth' might mean 'a watch tower', but it's also been connected in the new testament with the word 'netzer' meaning 'a branch' or 'a shoot'. however! this doesn't mean 'shoot' as in with a gun, but 'a shoot' as in 'a growth that occurs from newly chopped down trees'. but!! this still has a chance to relate heavily to how sleep views their blessing specifically in vessel, mainly with how it is the consequences of the actions depicted in this song that leave a shoot of despair and resentment growing in both vessel and ii.

✧ — additionally, nazareth holds significant meaning in the new testament of christianity! nazareth is actually the childhood home of jesus, and it is in a synagogue of nazareth where jesus preached a sermon that eventually led to him being chased out of his boyhood home.

↳ but! why was jesus chased out of nazareth if that was his childhood home? well, when the people of nazareth demanded that jesus perform a miracle, jesus refused to do so because the people of nazareth did not have faith in him. the people of nazareth where so upset with jesus, that they wanted to throw him off a cliffside. now, this!! this is perhaps the most vital connection we have from the title of the song to its meaning! because, the reference of jesus' rejection by the people of nazareth could be interpreted as a very clear and intentional mirror of sleep's relationship with vessel.

✿ —alrighty!! these are pretty much the most important points i can make before we officially dive into the lyrics! the relationship between jesus and the people of nazareth is something that is absolutely imperative to keep in the back of your mind while we continue with the lyrics! >:Dc

✧ — as always, this is all a byproduct of my own personal opinions and headcannons, but i like to think that nazareth is a song about the drastic measures that sleep would go through in order to keep vessel tethered to them, using ii's pre-existing jealousy against vessel's current partner (as discussed in the calcutta analysis) as a weapon. i know i said that i wouldn't go through every single lyric in the previous analysis, i realize i kind of did anyways, haha! regardless, here is my interpretation of nazareth's lyrics. :)

✧ — super quick!! while calcutta, and later also jericho, are told from the perspective of ii, i think that nazareth is specifically from sleep's pov, talking directly to ii!! please keep this in mind while we continue! :D

' and i'll see you when the wrath comes // knocking on your bedroom door with money // building you a kingdom '

↳ this is sleep's promise to ii. throughout the entire course of the song, this is what sleep promises to ii. but what does this mean? i think this is sleep telling ii that they will be there when ii's anger and jealousy inevitably takes over—there will be a point in ii's life where this wrath will metaphorically knock on the door of ii's consciousness with money, with a deal that is too good to pass up. ii has alienated himself so much from vessel and his partner that it is with his jealousy and with his anger that he is building his own kingdom, he is growing too comfortable with all of these awful, awful feelings that are only further amplified by sleep's manipulation; ii is the king of his own misery, and sleep is there with him every step of the way.

' drippin' from the open mouth // i'll show you what you look like from the inside // and i'll see you when the wrath comes around '

↳ i think that these lines really start to illustrate for the audience just how much of a master manipulator sleep is as they continue to actively antagonize ii in regards to his immense jealousy of vessel's partner. using graphic imagery — perhaps even projecting the image of vessel's partner dying and bleeding out and dripping blood from their open mouth, already illustrating what they want ii to do — sleep continues to acknowledge ii's negative emotions, further reminding ii that his wrath will make itself known and sleep will be there when that happens.

' tonight, tonight, tonight // you have the answer '

↳ whereas sleep's previous words feel like a promise, these ones feel more like a taunt. a scathing reminder — a borderline prophecy — that sleep knows ii's fate. they're taunting him with this, though still trying to provoke ii.

' let's load the gun // make her eat the tape in the bathroom mirror // see if she can guess what // a hollow point does to a naked body // let's fuck her up '

↳ previously, sleep has been daydreaming about the violence that they want ii to unleash on vessel's partner, but here?? i think ii's sanity has finally snapped, and he currently has vessel's partner tied up and scared for their life as these lyrics are being sung. i think that the previous lyrics were nothing more than sleep's violent daydreams, but this verse is sleep describing all the things they want ii to do while vessel's partner is in the room with them.

↳ these lyrics are graphic, and it's deliberate. sleep wants vessel's partner to be afraid, they're toying with her life right in front of her eyes—sleep doesn't just want vessel's partner gone, they want her to suffer.

✧ — as a super quick interlude, i would just like to address sleep's motives before we continue with the rest of the analysis!!

in our calcutta analysis, we did briefly discuss why ii might be envious of vessel's partner—the reason being that ii might be envious of vessel's attentions being so divided between himself and vessel's partner, with ii feeling as though vessel doesn't care about ii when he's able to be with his partner, only defaulting to ii's company during the nighttime, when she is not available to be around vessel. which, to be fair, is honestly a totally valid human emotion! ii doesn't think of harming vessel's partner until sleep begins influencing him and taunting him. in calcutta, there isn't really any graphic displays of ii wishing any harm, let alone violence on vessel's partner—there is an instance where ii was rude to vessel's partner by completely dismissing her importance in vessel's life, but these wishes for violence don't make themselves terribly known until sleep starts taunting ii. but why would sleep be jealous alongside ii? well, i think that while ii has a very natural + human experience with his envy, sleep's jealousy is completely irrational and inhuman; it's completely possessive of vessel. sleep isn't used to vessel, or ii for that matter, interacting with anyone outside of sleep's influence. i think that sleep, as a deity, is used to being the center of attention—quite literally the center of worship. to them, vessel's partner feels like a threat, a distraction to vessel's worship. sleep doesn't simply want to occupy vessel's mind during the night, they want to occupy his mind and his attention at all given times. i think that knowing how ii shares those sentiments — albeit to a much more human and less completely dangerous degree; 'i'm whole again // for just a moment // 'till the morning comes' — sleep is able to poison ii's judgment and weaponize their shared jealousy to take vessel's partner out of the picture. i think the meaning behind the title of the song is that little hint that we need to properly understand sleep's motives! just like jesus when he refused to give the people of nazareth a miracle because they did not have faith, sleep is acting in a very similar way, albeit much more twisted. instead of simply rejecting vessel, sleep is rejecting his partner, the supposed source of vessel's sudden lack of faith. okay! back to the analysis >:Dc

' manifest pain at the core of pleasure // i'll see you when the wrath comes around '

↳ i think this line is meant to be split up between being addressed to vessel's partner and being addressed to ii. sleep has been an open antagonist throughout the entirety of this song; they want vessel's partner — and by extension, the audience — to absolutely suffer. sleep wants vessel's partner to think of vessel as she passes, sleep wants her to think of all the good times she's experienced with him + all the wonderful moments of her life she's spent with her loved one, and sleep wants her to die thinking of him; they want her to feel immense pain where there was once pleasure.

✿ — BIG, BIG TW FOR A DESCRIPTION OF BODY HORROR + GENITAL HORROR!! i totally understand if that's not your cup of tea!! please skip this next indented section!!!

↳ in a much more... gruesome approach, i think that this line might also be able to be taken quite literally—this is how ii kills vessel's partner. ii either shoots her in the heart, or... he might have also shot her in her lower abdomen, specifically targeting her reproductive system. sleep is so desperate to cause vessel's partner immense pain in the moments leading to her death that they are willing to have ii do anything to desecrate her humanity + any semblance of love she might've held for vessel—sleep wants vessel's partner to die with a twisted memory of vessel's love. regardless, because of this sentiment, i think this line specifically is a jab at vessel's emotions. of course, i always wanna insert my trans! ii headcannon into literally anything i write regarding this man, haha! so there's also a possible symbolic disconnect there if you really wanna think some sad thoughts :'D

↳ of course, we end with sleep's taunt towards ii, a reminder of what his rage + jealousy has forced him to do.

' tonight, tonight, tonight // you have the answer '

↳ this reoccurrence of this line had me going through the lyrics of all of the ep's songs quite a few times, because i never really remembered there being an actual question that might've been phrased or even referenced throughout the course of the ep. then, of course, i realized i'm writing a story for sleep token and quickly backtracked, haha! :'D i think this supposed 'question' is more-so implied in the aspects of ii's character that we see throughout the ep. i think that, deep down, this is another manipulation tactic used by sleep.

↳ vessel's partner is important to vessel, but obviously not to sleep. i like to think that ii was much more hesitant to accept sleep's blessings and their influence than vessel was, but his actions tonight have made it 'clear' that ii will do what he is told, even if that means harming vessel in the process. his allegiances are ultimately with sleep, not with vessel.

↳ (not really, haha! like i said, i think that this is another manipulation tactic used by sleep against ii. i think that, at this point, sleep is still obsessed with vessel and only vessel. ii is... interesting to them, but more-so in a useful sense than a 'hey, i actually kinda like this funky little fellow' kind of way, haha! sleep loves vessel, like, in a toxic, yandere kind of way. they want ii to feel guilty about what he's been coerced to do; they want ii to forcibly alienate himself even more from vessel, because ii loves vessel as well! and sleep unfortunately does know this.)

' let's load the gun // (they won't be missing you, they won't be missing you) // let's load the gun // (see you when the wrath comes, see you when the wrath comes) // let's load the gun // (see you when the wrath comes) '

↳ this is all sleep; ordering ii to load the gun, mocking vessel's partner over never being missed, and once again taunting ii over how easily his jealousy has gotten the better of him. this is where it all happens, and this is where it all ends.

↳ something i noticed while listening to this song on repeat, haha! now, i'm not experienced with music in any way, shape, or form, but to my uneducated ear, it sounds like there are two separate breakdowns towards the final minutes of the song—one following immediately after when vessel finishes singing, and another following a small piano-based transition that ends the song. i think that these two breakdowns symbolize our timelines!

↳ the first breakdown is when ii finally gives into sleep's demands and shoots vessel's partner until she's dead in the bathroom. the second breakdown is when ii completely loses it over what he's done.

✿ — to put it all together!! i don't think that ii can be entirely blamed for the murder of vessel's partner. with this story + interpretation, ii was entirely coerced, borderline possessed and overpowered by sleep's own possessive thoughts toward vessel, and inevitably manipulated into doing an extreme action when he wasn't in his right mind. (am i condoning this sort of reason in real life?? hell no!! but, as a very gentle reminder, this is fantasy! and like to think that i'm allowed to have my brain read too deep between the lines of a sleep token ep and come back to this silly little blog to report my findings and my daydreams, haha!) but ii's jealousy and wrath have made themselves known, and sleep was especially quick to monopolize on that—weaponizing ii's own emotions in a way that would directly benefit sleep through the murder of vessel's partner. this song is a warning; it is a threat and it's especially graphic and unsettling because sleep wants that reminder to forever haunt not only vessel, but ii as well, for the rest of their lives and their servitude to sleep. ii was the one holding the gun, but it was inevitably sleep that forced him to pull the trigger.

✿ — and that's it!! :D this concludes my analysis + narrative interpretation of the song nazareth from the ep, two! :)) once again, as a friendly reminder, this is just my own interpretation of the lyrics through a strictly narrative lense :) i don't think this could be actual sleep token canon, haha! i just think that this would make a very fun and interesting story for my own selfish reasons, haha! next up on the list is jericho, and then i'll for sure be making an analysis for jaws to tie everything all up! :) please feel free to let me know what you think of this analysis! :D this one was definitively a challenge to get through, but i've no doubt that jericho is going to be even harder in terms of angsty emotions as that one focuses more on ii's consequences and how they impact his relationship with vessel. :'D ahhhh, i'm not readyyyy, haha!

[courtneylovehatepage]

wait,, i always forget that sleep token said that sleep was a “man” (or a masculine presence since he’s nonhuman) and refer to sleep as he/him so like who’s the “she” in all their songs?? i always thought the whole “now He rests” after tours was abt vessel but i guess it’s sleep? bc in vessel’s 2017 metal hammer interview sleep is exclusively referred to with masculine pronouns. is the “she” the ex-lover? can someone smarter than me let me know please 🙏

[ivys-thick-juicy-thighs]

okay next question! i wanted to ask your take on the meaning of "i see you go half-blind when you're looking at me" from granite? to me, this could have multiple meanings, so i've been wondering about yours.

Ok time for me to put on my psychology nerd hat and fucking dive into this.

This song to me is about a toxic as fuck relationship that is in the beginning stages of ending. In the first verse, the person he was in a relationship with says something to him—or more likely—at him that makes him realize that this is now at a stage that is irreparable. Whatever was said starts a fight (which would’ve been a very common happenstance) and in the argument all logic is disregarded. My theory is that he was involved with someone who displayed a lot of narcissistic tendencies or was just straight up a narcissist. Following this pattern, a massive fight completely lacking in reasonable arguments, is to be expected.

In the chorus, he says that he is more than just someone who happens to be there all the time, he is IN THIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM “I was more than just a body in your passenger seat…” but that they disregarded his feelings and love for them. “Between the second-hand smoke and the glass on the street, You gave me nothing whatsoever but a reason to leave, You say you want me but you know I'm not what you need, But I am…” basically he’s saying that even though they began this relationship with good intentions (or at least he did), that in the end they were nothing but a disaster waiting to happen.

The line you are asking about “I see you go half-blind when you're looking at me” I think is about him noticing and pointing out to them that they only see him as…for lack of a better description “a pain in their ass.” They’ve lost the ability to see the value that he brings to their relationship, and his value as a person as a whole. They see him as an inconvenience to them, because he is now noticing the pattern of their shitty behaviour. And for a narcissist, that is the end of the world. Game over.

[palahnyook]

so one of my next books to read is monstrilio. it's a story about a mother whose son dies and she decides to keep a piece of his lung and feed it until it gains sentience.

and. of course i thought about sleep token. about vessel and sleep becoming so intertwined that you don't know when one ends and the next one begins. about sleep being some sort of victor frankenstein that in the very beginning is amazed by its (her?) creation, a person modified to its/her own image and likeness. but it/she ends up disliking him, is even afraid of him — except perhaps, for certain moments, in which she chooses to love him.

and there you have it, the duality of why some songs talk about sleep in a lovey-dovey way while other are so brutal. why in some songs vessel seems to swear eternal love and in others there's nothing but a wish to escape and leave sleep behind, but a wish to feel something other than hatred for himself, even if he doesn't recognize the person who's looking back at him in the mirror.

it happens when you spend too much time with someone, i guess. you end up becoming an amalgamation of them (it occurs with everyone you've been around, too; i haven't seen my father in years but i still stick my tongue out when i'm concetrated just like he does, i raise my voice like my mother and i complain in the same tone as my sister) and sometimes those people whose gestures you take as your own are not just those you love. but also those you hate.

an ex-lover, someone who brought to your life nothing else but pain, a friend you don't speak with anymore because they did something horrible to you.

the truth is i'm not myself more than i am a piece of everyone who has ever spent time with me. and therefore, vessel probably has more of sleep inside of him that he wants to admit — the frankenstein reference — but he shows us who he is in bits and pieces and he really just seems to want one other thing, something universal. to be loved, and to connect.

and i really hope he knows. just how much he means to us. that the web he has weaved is beautiful, and resistant, and drizzling with the morning sun and little droplets of water from which we nurture. and that, by sharing himself with us, he's becoming intrinsically a part of ourselves.

[elkkiel]

Favorite This Place Will Become Your Tomb song?

Oof ramble alert here we go:

Descending. Descending will always and forever be my most precious baby girl from Tomb and I will defend her to the ends of the earth. It's a bit of an acquired taste (I didn't like it until after a few listens) and people don't really get it, but I genuinely think that it's one of the best songs on the whole discography. It's dark, sexy, ominous, off-putting, and utterly enchanting in the best ways possible. It makes my skin-crawl but also I want to go crawling on the ground too looooool

It's a good overview into the dynamic between Vessel and Sleep, the characterization of both, and maybe some insight into Vessel's experience with romance up to that point. Like, idk, it just summarizes the whole thing really effectively imo. You've got this toxic relationship where both parties know it's toxic. One keeps coming back despite the hurt and potential degradation they'll face because of it, and the other knows this and likes it.

The thing that really does it for me is the vocal style. I think there's a bit of a difference between music that's consumable vs music that communicates, and Descending def falls into the latter category for me. As in, it wasn't made to sound "good" or "pretty" in the way that most people would consider something "good" or "pretty" sounding. The choices made were the most effective in communicating the story Vessel wants to share (imo), even if some of those choices sound kinda "weird"

Setting up a dialogue of sorts using different vocal styles is such an interesting creative choice! I've never seen a song do something like that before, so the uniqueness alone captured my heart. Like you've got Sleep as this pretty high-pitched tone, and Vessel representing himself through a super uncanny, nasally, just kinda *weird* deeper register. And!!!! The thing I REALLY love is the pitched-up pre chorus!!!!!!!!!!!! Like the difference between Sleep sort of "telling it like it is" in a high tone to manipulate (ex. "you come crawling back to me" — like yup, isn't that proof of how much you need this?) vs Sleep just bullshitting (ex. "I've been left no choice, can't you see that?") in a *faked* high tone to manipulate is SO cool to me!!!!

I still want to do some more deep diving to really solidify my analysis, but this is my rough interpretation as of right now. Anyways stream Descending because she is so beautiful and gorgeous to me, and she's probably the most underrated song on the whole discography

[acecubus]

I am thick tar on the inside burning.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the process of tar making, but as someone who made some themself (thanks to historical reenactment) and knows at least a tiny bit about the (medieval) basics, the fact that Vessel even came up with that line always blows my mind.

Because it basically means: something that took a long f*cking time to prepare was destroyed in a matter of mere seconds because something seemingly harmless got through a crack, set the insides on fire and ruined everything you worked on for so long.

It's one of my favourite lines in the whole song, and it fits so well with the theme it goes for - in my opinion.

Vessel, you mad genius, you can not imagine how much I love you for that, for real.

[cr1ms0n4nd-ac3]

Now that I think about it, the more I think about the stage improvement. The more I describe how it goes.

In my opinion, the post-old and new ST stage we've seen is like a Bridge Portal of the

Past and Future.

Here is why!

To me, it all started with a simple stage back in pre-2023. It's like a human stage where Vessel and the others will perform for their fans.

But for post-2023, aka the new improvement that we first discovered.

I realized that it was like a light crystal cave that will always be held in ceremonies. I mean, the ones around the ceilings and around the stage? And when it lights up in each color? That, is exactly how I describe it. It seems to me that Vessel is interested in colors and crystals, he thought to improve this stage, just to represent the crystals synchronizing rhythm. Which is why I like about it.

And THEN!!! THESE IMAGES WE'VE SEEN IN 2024 NOW!!! I HAD THIS IDEA QUICK RIGHT IN ME!

The new stage improvement is like the portal for the future, and also the bridge for the future.

Because the light things are there, it was like one of each crystals is expanding. But the past still lingers, but the runwalk tho? It was like a bridge, in each songs, the lights will light up the runwalk. Even the light things!! But the piano improvement and the espera's mics, it was like when you reached the end of the portal. You are now back to Eden.

Yep, you heard me. This is like Vessel's comfort place, a place where he can enjoy music and to sing forever. The past may be gone, but we shall move towards the future.

Welcome back to Eden.

[ancientbygone]

i don't think i ever brought up this idea outside of conversations in DMs but. with the broader interpretation of the album trilogy as Vessel rediscovering his own separate identity after being no one and then being Him with Sleep, with the idea that throughout the trilogy the point of view of the lyrics has shifted from (almost) exclusively Sleep in Sundowning to a mixed/changing one in TPWBYT to exclusively Vessel in TMBTE. looking at the album art with all that in mind made me rethink some things. i know we all know them, but still. for visual reference.

i mean, i assume the main biggest interpretation of the band's logo is it being a holy symbol of sort, one dedicated to Sleep? that's what i see often, anyway. but then there's the fact that. again. the album covers. Sundowning doesn't have any visible signs of the logo whatsoever, and TPWBYT does have it but it's so small and pretty easy to miss and plays no important role in the actual illustration, and in TMBTE it's front and center and part of if not the focal point of the whole cover artwork. and yeah, you could interpret that as Sleep gaining more and more power, recovering from near death back to His former glory. but if you look at it through the lens of Vessel's rediscovery of identity, the band logo ceases to be a religious sigil tied to the source of his anguish and becomes his own creation, one of, if not the biggest building block in his own new self. it's his and Sleep can't take it from him and, as they become more and more apart as consciousnesses and as people, Vessel is able to put it - put himself - at the forefront of his art. idk i'm fuckin rambling

[sleep-token-confessions]

We are all listening to the same guy cry and sing his heart out. Confessions could a place where you say your theories and maybe a few things you’re insecure about. But a bunch of posts recently feel like they’re being written in bad faith and it making it a place for discourse of “these people are being fans wrong.”

If I wanted discourse, I’d be on twitter.

Not trying to silence anyone or fight it out, I just want to say that frustrations about the fandom itself are getting a little tiring. We’re all just here to have a good time at the end of the day

.

[spoiledleaff]

No no you cannot just post that 'silly little hc'??? And not expect me to ask you about it??? I need the rest of your lecture notes ASAP lol

✿ — yesss! haha! i was really, really hoping that someone might be intrigued enough to maybe ask me about this further; it's honestly so near and dear to my heart, especially since diving deep into storytelling and character development is a massive passion of mine! :)) for a little bit of context, this ask is in reference to >>this<< post i made briefly going over my whole hc for the two ep! :D

anyways!! this post is gonna be a massive theory/headcannon post that will be focusing on the sleep token ep, two, and the first song, calcutta, as well as my hc that these songs are quite literally the basis for ii's backstory! :D considering that nazareth and jericho are two of my favorite songs in all of sleep token's discography, i'll most likely address those two songs in a separate post! :) for now, i just wanna throw these thoughts out there, haha!

✿ — TWO.

well, first of all, where does this hc originate from? i'm so glad you asked! :D this hc stems from the fact that every song from this ep are the only songs on spotify to list a 'vessel ii' as a composer alongside 'vessel'. to my knowledge! calcutta, nazareth, and jericho are the only songs in the entire sleep token discography that lists a 'vessel ii' as a composer alongside 'vessel' or 'vessel 1'. naturally, we can assume that this is our one and only ii! :)

and, of course, the ep is named 'two'! :) yes, of course, this ep is the band's second compilation of music, so the name is a little bit on the nose, haha! but i also like to think — in the same vein that this ep is ii's backstory — the ep one is vessel's backstory :) which, who knows, haha! maybe i'll do my own narrative analysis of the one ep after this >:Dc

✿ — CALCUTTA.

↳ tw + cw : discussions of death, jealousy + possessive thoughts.

✿ — first up on the ep is calcutta! :D gosh, i do so love this song, haha! but, first of all, what does calcutta mean?

✧ — as a general idea, calcutta is actually the largest city and the capital in west bengal of india! it's a bit of a melting pot of sorts, especially for practicing different religions such as hinduism, muslims, and, of course, christianity. though, since 2001, the city has officially changed its name to 'kolkata'.

↳ another interesting thing that i discovered while doing some extra research for this post is in regards to the etymology behind the name 'kolkata'! :D the word is initially taken from the name 'kôlikata' which was the name of one of three villages in the area that merged together to form the city of kolkata. in regards to the etymology of the name, 'kolikata' is thought to have been a variation of the bengali word 'kalikkhetrô' which translates to 'field of kali'.

↳ okay, so!! interestingly enough, kali — also known as kalika — is a prominent figure in hindu mythology and religion! kali is oftentimes worshipped as a divine protector and as one who bestows liberation; she is associated with aspects of mortal life such as time, change, creation, power, and!! the most fascinating bit!! she is also associated with destruction and death. this little tidbit of information becomes even more interesting when considering the next song featured in this ep, nazareth. but!! back to calcutta! :)

✧ — additionally, there was also a dungeon stationed in fort william, calcutta in the 1700's that held british prisoners of war after the fort was overtaken in a seige. the dungeon was known as the 'black hole of calcutta', and a written account from one of the soldiers that was imprisoned there detailed brutal conditions that were so inhuman and cramped that they had its prisoners dying from suffocation and heat exhaustion. to support this reference, in the opening shots for the calcutta music video, vessel is shown literally crawling out of an unknown crevice, presumably a hole. haha! i don't know why i worded that so weirdly, but you get the point! :)

✿ — these possible little sneak-peeks of the possible history behind the name of this song are so fascinating to me, haha! but, what about the actual song?

✧ — of course, this is all up my personal feelings and interpretations about this song, but i like to think that calcutta is a song about hopelessness and about experiencing a growing sense of despair that can only come from loving another person that you cannot obtain. as much as i would love to break this song down lyric by lyric and piece by juicy little piece, i think i'm going to focus on specific lyrics and sections that really resonate with me! :D ...which is apparently almost the entirety of the song, haha!

' i am caught, tangled in // wrapped and quartered '

↳ when i first heard this lyric, i was immediately reminded of the black hole of calcutta. to be caught, to be tangled in, only to be executed in a brutal manner that was typically reserved only for individuals who had committed high treason against the kingdom of england. when dissecting it, it's an absolutely morbid and grim line that opens this entire ep!

' and i ache for your eyes and the way you breathe // and i wake, say your name // and i wake, say your name '

↳ personally, these lines scream!! unyielding yearning + unrequited love. especially considering that this line follows after vessel singing about how 'for just a moment // missing pieces find me'?? it feels like every slightly good emotion or feeling that's described in this song is almost immediately crushed by a haunting reminder of how temporary that sensation is.

' you are more than warm belief // melting skywards '

↳ something that i find to be one of the more interesting little references in this ep is that two of the three songs hold roots in christianity + and even calcutta holds a lot of religious symbolism and ties to hinduism. this line feels like religious symbolism being directed to a mortal body—one i can only assume might be vessel. this happens a lot throughout the course of this ep, where there are multiple lyrics that hold heavy references to religious symbolism and/or religious imagery. but there's something so distinctly mortal about how these lyrics are executed, that associating these lyrics with sleep just feels completely incorrect. at least to me!! a gentle reminder that this is all my own person headcannon :)

↳ i'd like to specifically bring your attention towards the terminology that's used in these lyrics! i believe that ii saying that vessel is 'more than warm belief' is ii saying that vessel is more than what sleep is trying to make of him; he is his own person, his own identity that is more than just his devotion to sleep. now, my favorite part is this next bit! 'melting skywards'. sleep token is known for their constant references to water as a form of symbolism, and i think that it's no different here! this might be a bit of an extra long stretch, but i think that ii is worried that vessel's 'warm belief' towards sleep will melt him—ii is worried that vessel's devotion might quite literally be the death of him, or at least the death of his identity, instead choosing to leave ii behind and become completely enveloped in sleep's identity.

' more than silence broken // i'm whole again // for just a moment // 'till the morning comes '

↳ this line feels like a small snippet into vessel's and ii's relationship together, specifically their bonding through music as their time together is 'more than silence broken'. it's through these moments in time where ii feels whole again with vessel and the music that they've made by his side.

↳ i think the most interesting part of this line is the lyric ''till the morning comes'. my favorite thought behind sleep's and vessel's relationship is that sleep is the dominant force during the night, whereas vessel is the dominant side during the day. however, considering that sleep — especially during this era of sleep token's music — is considered a widely negative and toxic personality in their relationship with vessel, wouldn't ii look forward to the daytime?? a time of the week where sleep isn't such a domineering presence in both his and vessel's life?? well! i like to think that this song takes place early in vessel's borderline infatuation with sleep, so even the hours of daylight would be spent with vessel obsessing over sleep and possibly ignoring his relationship with ii in favor of his relationships with sleep and his own personal lover—more on this young lady next!! >:Dc

' oh, she said you'd better believe it // i said you don't know // oh, you said you'd better be there // i said you don't even know '

↳ now, we've finally come to a relatively popular theory in terms of vessel's life before sleep's influence—the possibility of his partner! :) now i will say that i do agree with the theory that vessel did have a longterm partner before sleep and the other vessels hehehe--! especially when considering the music videos for jaws, the way that you were, and possibly even the love that you want and the couple of feminine actors that make an impactful and/or reoccurring appearance in sleep token's music videos!

↳ okay! time to break this puppy down >:)c there are three separate sets of pronouns here — 'she', 'you', and 'i' — so let's identify who might be talking! i believe that 'she' is referring to vessel's partner, 'you' is in reference to vessel, and 'i' is ii. i believe that this verse establishes ii's jealousy towards vessel's partner — something that sleep will weaponize against them both in nazareth.

✧ — ' she said you'd better believe it // i said you don't know ' : to me this feels like vessel's partner is trying to address ii's jealousy, affirming that they are here to stay in vessel's life whether ii likes it or not + ii dismissing them, 'you don't know'.

✧ — ' you said you'd better be there // i said you don't even know ' : this feels like borderline damage control to me, which would make sense if we consider this first half to be from vessel's pov. vessel can see the animosity between ii and his partner. when vessel says, 'you'd better be there', i think he's referring to ii's presence in his life. you'd better be here, you'd better stay with me, etc. etc. and when ii replies, 'you don't even know', i think this is said with the opposite intentions of when ii was dismissing vessel's partner. here, i think ii is almost comforting vessel; his intentions are more genuine when he's addressing vessel, while remaining more hurtful when regarding vessel's partner. i think that this is where sleep finds ii.

✿ — to put it all together, i think that ii cherishes his time spent with vessel during the night, because it's just them! no partner and, at this time, sleep's influence is still small in vessel's life. it's just them. but his attentions are split up — it's being wrapped and quartered — between being with vessel, tolerating his partner, and beginning to catch the eye of sleep themselves. but, in these moments, when it's just ii and vessel together in the dead night, ii feels whole. during the day, vessel seeks out his partner, but in the night, vessel seeks out ii—his missing pieces find him, even for just a moment. however, even in the morning, when vessel moves on, ii is still waking up saying vessel's name. in conclusion, while sleep and their influences might be vessel's—vessel is ii's calcutta; he is ii's prison that ii willingly crawls back into every night, just to have a moment where it is just the two of them. and i think that it is in this moment in time where sleep extends their influence to ii, intending to weaponize ii's jealousy and possessive thoughts to bring vessel closer to sleep.

✿ — and that's it! :D that's my analysis of calcutta from the ep, two! :)) as a friendly reminder, this is just my own interpretation of the lyrics through a strictly narrative lense :) i don't think this could be actual sleep token canon, haha! i just think that this would make a very fun and interesting story for my own selfish reasons, haha! i'll still probably make another post for nazareth and jericho, but please feel free to let me know what you think of this silly little analysis in the mean time! :D i always love hearing other people's opinions and thoughts on these sorts of topics, haha!

[aaron-is-comatose]

okay sleep token oc lore moment

this is loosely based off of the actual sleep token lore, i had this idea starting from last night jkfdsjkdf

also, i know sleep canonically goes by he / him prns, my version goes by they / them mainly because it makes more sense for my lore. also nonbinary god :3

all i have currently is how sleep can take advantage of someone, how sleep lures people into a dreamworld (sort of), and what happens when someone is fully within sleep's grasp. anyway, all my current lore is under the cut

sleep can take advantage of weakness. a weakness can be feelings of insecurity, a bad situation that may be happening, a bad mental / emotional state, etc.

the way sleep can take advantage of this is by giving you things you want in your dreams, how that happens im not too sure of yet, i have an idea of sleep transporting you into a dream world where you get to experience things being right, or whatever you may want. I do know that sleep likes to tease people by only giving those dreams Sometimes in the beginning. partly as a way to also test people, to see if they are most likely to fall for sleep. once that's been established, people can get access to the dream world much more often, and may even get to experience it nightly.

sleep may also get to appear in dreams but it might be in different forms, whichever works best on who's dreaming.

as for costumes, i kinda feel like this is such an obvious idea now as a whole, but i love the idea of the masks and costumes being a way for sleep to take away your identity. the more time you spend in sleep's dreamworld, the less you remember about yourself, and the more you become a vessel for sleep.

and the consequence of losing yourself to the dreamworld is by flat out not existing in the real world anymore. i don't know if anyone has heard stories of people just randomly disappearing, not for foul play, but it would be something like that !! i just find that concept so interesting :p

I also really like sleep as an example of a bad coping mechanism !! here's some messages I sent my partner explaining the idea (also included is an idea for what missing victims of sleep would look like in the real world).

anyway, i think that's all the oc lore i have so far !! i might edit this if or when i come up with more things :p hopefully this all makes sense