Girl. I’ve never paid attention to the sleep token fandom besides art until Caramel came out these 30 year old’s are MESSYYYYY

I’ve been staring at caramel and the line “I thought I got better but maybe I didn’t” really is sticking with me (ha.) I know that feeling well, so well that it felt like a gunshot to the foot the first time I heard it.

Healing is linear. New trauma creates setbacks that you didn’t account for- the past three years of my own life have been a testament to that. I went to therapy for it, developed the coping mechanisms. But it feels like trying to catch a skyscraper with a sauce pan, life being so chaotic on top of these mental struggles that leave me in shambles. I’m technically at the best point I’ve ever been in my life and am the happiest, but it feels like the world’s still caving in on me all the time.

Is that how the vessel feels too? I see so many artists come out with how horrible being famous is, how degrading and demeaning it is. Things are good, but at the cost of what? Entirely new problems he never considered when trying to claw his way out of hell? Are we all just crawling along, rocks imbedded in our knees just slowly bleeding out? Is our art really the only thing that’s keeping us from going insane? Is success of said art destined to destroy what we once loved and drive us over the edge anyways? Is there a grotesque beauty in the certain doom that comes with creation?

I guess the only saving grace is the fact that in spite of all of this, life goes on. Music still inspires us, art and the expression of this suffering keeps us going in the name of solidarity. Healing does happen, eventually. Eventually, eventually, eventually. It will be better, eventually.

I’ve been sitting here all day with Caramel after having to snatch off my munch bib (mistakingly thought it was gonna have the same absolute pussy eating vibes as sugar and boy was I wrong) and it’s been really interesting to try and pick apart the obvious and jarring peek behind the mask of Vessel.

It reminds me a lot of Noid by Tyler the Creator, an insiders look to the absolute mortifying and terrifying reality of being shoved into the light of millions all at once. Your personal identity and privacy exposed, your boundaries repeatedly crossed despite the obvious mask that screams “DO NOT TALK TO ME.”

I’m interested a lot by the continued use of “them” referring to the audience, and “you” referring to maybe the individual listener. This fear and bitterness towards the collective, and this cautionary beckoning of still wanting to be heard by the individual.

Stick to me, walk beside me until you feel nothing as well. I’m trying to decipher what that means on a deeper level; maybe asking the good of the collective to stay during this transitional period, to sing the top line with him.

It’s funny, I don’t often think of the other side of the parasocial relationship with celebrities, of the person’s connection or loss thereof with the crowd as it gets too big to contain. Boy am I thinking about it now, wondering what that does to a human being. Paranoia from being utterly exposed, despite you taking every step to get here. Over all it’s a fantastic think piece, and despite the sad lyrics I was in fact shaking my ass so well done!

Ahhh I realized that the Caramel emblem squiggles and wiggles around because it’s melting. Because sugar melts and becomes caramel. Aha. Haaaaaaaha. Alright fine, whichever person on their team came up with that one pat yourself on the back that’s a fun little detail

Praying to Sleep that Caramel is just as much of a chronically obsessed munch song as Sugar, I NEEEEEEEED a new anthem Vessel please you’re already twinning with chappel roan’s outfit now give us a metal Giver song !!!! PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

OHHHH LADIES. CARAMEL IS THE NAME OF THE NEXT SONG, WITH CLEAR CONNECTIONS TO THE ORIGINAL SONG SUGAR FROM THE SIMPLE WORDPLAY TO HAVING THE NEW SINGLES BANNER HIDDEN IN SUGAR ON SPOTIFY!!! MY FAVORITE SONG IS GETTING A SISTERRR

I’m so so so excited to see how the writer is going to incorporate that obsessive, grotesque but delicious language into the new era of rebirth and war with Sleep. The original song is such a gut punch, with (say it with me now) Vessel practically vomiting the lyrics out in a mental spiral as the obsession with Sleep (and vice versa) spirals out of control.

How has Vessel’s intense obsession changed with so much time passing? Caramel is the result of a long period of heating up sugar, slowly cooking it to the point where it burns and becomes something new (just like this entire album is about him becoming someone new.)

DONT EVEN GET ME STAAARTED on the Morningstar, such a brutish weapon that bludgeons AND stabs to represent Caramel as a song. Such a soft gentle name combined with something so brutal has got to make for an interesting song. Maybe about how his love has been turned to something new, obsession honed into a fine tuned weapon that he uses to crush the skulls of Sleep’s monsters and puppets.

Not to mention Emergence’s B side on the vinyl being that beautiful piano sheet music they teased ALONG WITH THE SOUNDS OF SWORDS AND FIGHTING. Ouuuugh we are at WAR like proper war and I am so so excited for this development in a METAL BAND ALBUM THATS SO COOL!!

Also. Vessel I know you’re just an oath breaker paladin you can’t hide from me, you can’t hide your love for dungeons and dragons.

SO. Right lads, the sleep token playlist with Emergence and Sugar, the 2nd and 9th song on each album. The weather man announcing on March 29th about the Taste of May, may may may may. Monday, April 1st. (Prepare for incoming April Fools joke perhaps)

Pyrolysis, the heating of sugar into caramel which was the secret message in the weather forecast by that cool dude. Obsession with Salted Caramel is Hedonic Escalation.

God, this is so so exciting because Sugar’s my favorite song from all the albums. The eerie softness descending into an obsessive madness of devouring as much of someone that you can no matter the consequences, it’s extremely satisfying and disgusting the way he sings it and as someone who can be intense I really identify and love it.

A reprisal would be so interesting, would be so exciting to have another song about cannibalism and Vessel’s crazy ass oral fixation. PLEAAAAAASE god have it be something like that, it would send me into a spiraling madness like no other and I would enjoy every second of it. As a lesbian and a massive horrific munch, I need it in my soul and would benefit exponentially from it.

Saw this video of Vessel awkwardly staring back at a group of excited fans screaming for him and it never really hit me until now like yeah. What the hell is the socially appropriate reaction to people screaming at you but like. In a fun way. Especially when you’re trying to be mysterious?

Is that awkward? Is it overwhelming? I think I’d probably cry, that feels like so much. Seeing the faces of these people who you’ve affected somehow, despite never speaking a single word to each other personally.

I wonder if it’s all gotten too big. I wonder if it’s relieving that the stage is further up now, that the barrier is farther back. Would you miss it? Miss that connection? The more you reveal yourself, bit by bit as your mask recedes, the further away the crowd becomes. The bigger it is, the less faces you can make out. The story is bigger than you now, there’s artists on the team and on the internet that build bigger skyscrapers of love and ingenuity off of your concepts better than you ever could.

Is that crushing? Is that exciting? Small worlds and quiet bubbles can be lonely but safe, allow for more creative freedoms and experimentation. Do you miss it? Miss those small venues of a few hundred people who had no hope of finding your name, because your band was too small for people to stalk you and find your identity? Are you still there, in that small venue after all this time? Can you see outside the windows, the people spilling into the streets chattering excitedly about your ideas and your stories you tried to convey?

The slogan is that nothing lasts forever. I guess all of this is a testament to that fact.

He should shake ass next time people start cheering for him though, shake things up a bit (literally lmao)

I did not manage get any tickets pre sale and general sale despite being one of the first three thousand in line 😔 nobody speak to me for seven fortnights while I recover from the back that I won’t be able to tell the white boy to twerk.