Billy Seagrave Headed to Manchester’s Albert Hall for All Music Magazine, to join the ritual, that has gathered pace behind enigmatic and mysterious band Sleep Token, supported by Northlane.
Openers tonight were Northlane, an Australian Heavy Metal band from Sydney who are gaining a big reputation down under. Much of their set was made up of their latest album “Obsidian”.
The band comprises guitarists Jon Deiley and Josh Smith, drummer Nic Pettersen and vocalist Marcus Bridge. Northlane’s musical style has been described as metalcore, progressive metalcore, alternative metal, industrial metal, progressive metal, alternative rock, and nu metal. The band’s debut album and their second album, “Singularity”, have been considered as the typical metalcore albums comparable with the work of After the Burial and Born of Osiris, and to contain elements of progressive metalcore. As frontman Marcus Bridge, channels his energetic alter egos of power performance of alternating vocals, deep growls and booming lyrics, tied in with the bands energy, will surely see the band return in the near future to headline their own shows, it is clear by the packed hall that many fans had turned up early in order to take in the opportunity to catch a band on the rise. Highlights where “Xen”, as well as the powerful, “Carbonised”, whilst finishing off with, “Cypher”, and the real crowd pleaser, “Talking Heads”.
SET LIST
1/ Clarity
2/ Plenty
3/ Echo Chamber
4/ Xen
5/ 4D
6/ Carbonized
7/ Quantum Flux
8/ Clockwork
9/ Bloodline
10/ Cypher
11/ Talking Heads
Nobody knows who the enigmatic figure behind Sleep Token is, but their mix of tech metal and R&B is inspiring religious fervour. The members of Sleep Token are a masked, anonymous collective of musicians said to be united in their worship of an ancient deity identified by them as “Sleep”, who appeared to the band’s lead singer, “Vessel”, in a dream.
Manchester’s fabulous Albert Hall is full to the brim, as Sleep Token take to the stage, and when the lights went out, the atmosphere electric. The lead singer, known as ‘Vessel’ appeared at the back of the stage, backlit and the band opened with the new song, “Chokehold”. “The Summoning”, followed, another new song making its live debut. Then to complete the opening was, “Hypnosis”.
A frantic start to proceedings, and it’s easy to see why Sleep Token are hailed as such an exciting band to see live. All members of the band were masked, and the backing singers were hooded, but this did not take away from the amazing sound being produced and the vibrant live performance.
The crowd seemed to know every word to every song, and the atmosphere was so powerful and poignant, non-more than ‘Vessel’ stood on stage with the opening keyboards of, “Atlantic”, that started out so laid back and mellow, before exploding into full metal, simply a stunning and magical moment that seemed to galvanise the band and crowd, to another level. This gave way to “Alkaline” before the last debut live song of the evening, “Granite”. The set finished with “Higher”, and “The Love You Want” before they finally left the stage.
Sleep Token returned with an encore of songs from their first album, Sundowning “The Night Does Not Belong to God”, and “The Offering”, before finally leaving the stage, to a wonderful reception.
SET LIST
1/ Chokehold
2/ The Summoning
3/ Hypnosis
4/ Mine
5/ Dark Signs
6/ Nazareth
7/ Like That
8/ Aqua Regia
9/ Atlantic
10/ Alkaline
11/ Granite
12/ Higher
13/ The Love You Want
ENCORE
14/ The Night Does Not Belong to God
15/ The Offering
FOLLOW SLEEP TOKEN
FOLLOW NORTHLANE
