10 Amazing Metal Bands That Totally Defy Genre

Here’s a contradiction for you: Sleep Token are a metal band that spends the majority of their time not being metal at all!

No, instead, this shadowy collective are just as heavily rooted in piano- and clean guitar-driven indie/pop, establishing a calm aura in their dulcet songs that is then suddenly shattered by the arrival of heavy, Meshuggah-esque “djent”. With only two three-song EP’s to their name at time of writing, Sleep Token are still just on the brink of not only their commercial potential, but also their capabilities when it comes to experimenting with their two hugely different dynamics.

For fans of this intriguing outfit, it’s impossible to forget that first time you heard a song like “Calcutta” or “Fields of Elation”, and the explosions that occurred within your brain as such sweet pianos and angelic vocals suddenly flipped to fiery guitars and guttural percussion.

But it’s not only Sleep Token’s music that is invigoratingly postmodern: so too is their image, as every member remains masked and anonymous aside from the frontman known only as “Vessel”, who sings his hallowed hymns to the deity Sleep. “I ache for your eyes and the way you breathe. / And I wake saying your name” he softly hums, only making the forthcoming beastly devastation all the more unanticipated and cathartic.