Part two of my “avoiding Ticketmaster and O2 venues but still seeing the bands I like tour” kept me in Manchester for my first ever visit to the Co-Op Enormo-Giganto-BeastRectangle (a much better name than “Co-Op Live”) which genuinely is as obscenely big as my new name for it suggests as, for context, you can fit the capacity of Cardiff’s CIA/Utilita Arena into it three times over and still have space left for everybody to dance – it really is vast, which initially made me think that this show might not have been the best idea since a band who tread the boards of intimacy within metal could easily have that passion lost in such a space. Nevertheless, I popped to the bar for an £8.95 pint and once I had stopped crying over that, settled in to a good viewing point for the show.
Support tonight came from the former lead singer of Attack Attack! Johnny Franck – a.k.a. Bilmuri (2) who opened up with a pulsing beat, exciting lights, a saxophone solo and then….. very quickly descended into very, very boring pop-punk in a very generic style, fronted by an edgelord determined to talk as much like a ‘bro’ whilst giving thanks to god as possible (the line “This song is about busting the biggest nut possible” just after saying how he was thankful to god for being present just screamed of somebody desperate for attention. Thanks, but no thanks. Musically terrible and I hope to never see Bilmuri live again.
Thankfully Franck was not the reason that 23,500 people had braved the wet weather (and sharing trams to the venue with football fans since Manchester City were playing in their stadium which is literally next door) on a Tuesday night and the anticipation of the headliners was absolutely noticeable between bands. Being a bit of an old fart I have been lucky enough to see a number of shows which I would consider to be when a band hits their absolute peak and it genuinely feels like something “big” is happening, and this felt like such an atmosphere as the lights went down.
Indeed this was such an occasion as Sleep Token (10) deserve every single bit of the hype currently behind them. Tonight does indeed feel like the night that they prove to everybody as to why they are headlining Download just 3 albums into their career, and all my concerns about the Co-Op Enormo-Giganto-BeastRectangle being too big are unfounded as it dawns on me that I am seeing a Download headliner perform with a stage/sound system/lighting rig the same size as Download (seriously, the stage is as big as the Download Main stage), with exactly the same stageshow, in a venue that is ¼ of the capacity of Download. So yes, somehow this night does feel like an intimate show with 22,499 other people present (not that it feels overly-full mind, thankfully the venue capacity allows room to move, unlike certain O2 venues).
Anyway, the band themselves were absolutely musically perfect tonight. Songs were played tightly, but with enough passion that band members were able to play with some improvisation when needed, and Vessel as a frontman is truly every bit of the performer that he needs to be, throwing every shape he can find across the stage in ways that remind me of any given Papa on a Ghost tour. This is in every sense a performance as well as a gig and the enormous production value is worth every penny of the entry fee.
The setlist is carefully constructed of 3 sections separated by interludes – the first being from 2019’s Sundowning, the second being from This Place Will Become Your Tomb from 2021, and the final set being exclusively from their most recent 2023 release Take Me Back To Eden – all sets are the greatest hits of that respective album and the final set is the one where the audience truly does feel like it is worshipping at the Altar of Sleep Token, as the band run through Chokehold, The Summoning, Granite, Rain and Ascensionism in incredible form.
With the kind of stage-show that truly takes Sleep Token into the upper echelons of arena size bands at the moment (for me this show is only matched by the likes of Ghost, BMTH and Parkway Drive right now, as so many other arena bands are lagging behind with such production values). A swift encore of Take Me Back To Eden and Euclid before the lights go up (and the PA blares forth Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody, which makes for a wonderfully happy end to an already euphoric night) and every single worshipper makes for the door, looking like they have been part of something special.
Sleep Token are in that position which so many other bands have been over the years. They have a huge fanbase and have exploded onto the metal scene despite being something a little different to what we may all consider metal to be. Bring Me The Horizon had the same thing happen to them, as did a certain band called Slipknot, and Korn/Limp Bizkit before them. Some folk won’t like them and that is absolutely what differing music tastes have, but others will steer away just because of the hype and that is often a shame as the hype is very much earned in this sense.
Consider me converted, tonight was something special.
Sleep Token are in that position which so many other bands have been over the years. They have a huge fanbase and have exploded onto the metal scene despite being something a little different to what we may all consider metal to be. Bring Me The Horizon had the same thing happen to them, as did a certain band called Slipknot, and Korn/Limp Bizkit before them. Some folk won’t like them and that is absolutely what differing music tastes have, but others will steer away just because of the hype and that is often a shame as the hype is very much earned in this sense.
Consider me converted, tonight was something special.
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