So there’s been a lot of talk lately about the band Sleep Token. If you’ve never heard them before, well, let’s just say they’re….different. In this case, at least for me, different doesn’t necessarily mean good. While I could go on for paragraph after paragraph detailing why I hate their music, that’s actually not my point in this article.
I’m a fairly eclectic music listener, and I enjoy most genres of rock music. So, if you happen to like Sleep Token’s music, I’m not shitting on your taste in music. What annoys me is the classification of Sleep Token as a metal band. It seems the band and many of their followers insist on labeling them as a “metal” band. Look, if adding a few chunky guitar riffs and a screaming vocal part or two of a song that is 75% to 90% R&B-flavored pop music makes it metal, then you probably believe that a single blade of grass is a salad, and a chicken nugget is a 12-course Holiday meal.
There have also been a few vocal musicians in metal bands who have accused people with an opinion like mine of being a metal gatekeeper. Fine, if that’s what you want to call it, but Sleep Token isn’t a metal band and shouldn’t be categorized as such. I don’t think many people would let you get away with calling Megadeth a country music band… because it’s apparent that they’re not. I’m not even the biggest fan of labeling bands or trying to pigeonhole them by saying they’re a specific genre or sub-genre, but I get that it’s done for reference purposes. However, I think mislabeling bands as something that they’re not is even worse.
Sleep Token is fine if you like what they do, but again, just don’t call it metal.
Listen to two songs by Sleep Token below for a sample of their kind of “Metal”:
Parody Image created by Co-Pilot AI.
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