Sleep Token - Sundowning (2LP)

Sleep Token’s debut full length, Sundowning, arrived on November 21, 2019 via Spinefarm Records, and it still feels like a revelation that snuck in at sunset. The rollout became part of the myth. Through the summer and autumn that year, the anonymous collective unveiled a new song at sundown, letting the album unfold slowly, like a ritual. It suited the project’s whole language of “worship,” but it also let the music breathe. You learned the record in pieces, then finally lived with it as a whole.

What a whole it is. Sundowning opens with The Night Does Not Belong to God, a soft hymn of piano and layered voices that teases the dynamics to come. Vessel’s falsetto sits right up front, tender and precise, before guitars and drums swell up under him. The Offering follows with a darker pulse, a proper lurch that hints at djent weight without losing the seductive phrasing that runs through the album. That push and pull is the key. You get R&B smoothness in the melodies, then a drop-tuned hit that doesn’t feel like a gimmick. It feels like the song arriving at the truth it was circling.

Levitate and Dark Signs lean into shadowy synths and late-night crooning, the sort of tracks that make people ask, is this metal, is this pop, is this something else. Higher answers by climbing from glassy keys to a huge, sky-opening chorus, then the guitars carve the air clean. Give is a quiet standout, stripped back and intimate, with Vessel almost whispering in your ear. Sugar brings one of the most instantly memorable hooks in their catalog, sticky and sleek, then jagged and cathartic by the end. The sequencing helps. Say That You Will glides, Drag Me Under bites, and Blood Sport closes the circle with a patient build that finally crashes like surf. When that final chorus hits, it feels earned.

If you have followed the band’s story, you know Sleep Token keep their identities hidden and frame shows as ceremonies. That mystery invites projection, but Sundowning works because the songs are clear about their obsessions. Devotion, longing, submission, surrender, all of it rendered in the language of romance and reverence. In interviews around this era, Vessel leaned into that idea of veneration and ritual. You can hear it in how choruses are constructed like vows, in how the quiet parts hush the room rather than simply set up the next riff.

The production favors space. Pianos ring and decay, bass moves like a tide, drums hit hard but never crowd the vocal. When the guitars arrive, they feel like architecture more than flash, great dark beams holding up the roof. That makes Sundowning one of those albums that blooms on a turntable. If you can track down Sundowning vinyl, the dynamics feel deeper and the ambience softer around the edges. It is the kind of late evening record that makes you pause your conversation to look at the dust dance in the lamplight. For collectors, Sleep Token vinyl tends to move fast, so if you see it at your local or you want to buy Sleep Token records online, do not wait long. I have even seen copies tucked in the modern metal bin at a Melbourne record store, the sort of place crate diggers looking for vinyl records Australia wide swap tips about in group chats.

Context matters, too. This was a debut album following two EPs, and it set the table for the bigger rooms and festival slots that came later. Fans latched on to Blood Sport, Sugar, and The Offering as live staples, and the quieter pieces gave shows their breath. The critical chatter at the time noticed how comfortably the band blurred lines, how they could sit next to Deftones and James Blake on the same playlist. That crossover appeal didn’t feel calculated. It sounded like a group writing exactly what they wanted and trusting the aesthetics to hold.

Years and albums later, Sundowning still feels elemental, the first proper statement of a vision that has only grown larger. If you are building a shelf of Sleep Token albums on vinyl, this is the spine that holds the rest upright. The songs remember the night, the rooms are big, and the emotions run bright and strange. Put it on as the sun goes down and let the record keep time for you.