Holy toledo, it’s really been the year of Sleep Token, hasn’t it? While it would be nice if a handful of critics would stop calling the genre-bending act a “new” band (they’ve been around since 2015-16), the fact that they’re being recognized on a level enough to miscategorize them is probably just fine with the mysterious band.
Anyway, the four singles the band has released this year have all managed to gain major traction, reeling in over 17.5 million streams on Spotify alone in just a month. In particular, “The Summoning” has done for Sleep Token what “To The Hellfire” did for Lorna Shore, in a way. Both songs have experienced major viral success across the board, and for Sleep Token, it’s led to quick sellouts of their overseas tours – even moreso than before this year. Considering they’ve already put out two full-length albums, a handful of singles, and a couple short EPs, they’ve certainly got a large discography to choose from.
What’s even more crazy is that “The Summoning” is the #5 song on Spotify’s Global Viral 50 (so, songs all across the world), while also a staggering #1 on the USA version of that chart. “Chokehold” is also on the latter list at #11, among such luminaries as Catch Your Breath’s viral single “Dial Tone”, SZA’s huge new music, and…Linda Ronstadt? Truly a time to be alive.
Owing in large part to the song’s changing nature, it doesn’t seem like “The Summoning” – or Sleep Token, in general – will be going away anytime soon. And considering the band’s propensity for branching outside of typical genre confines (whatever genre they’d even be classified at this point), seeing them do it again wouldn’t be a surprise either.
