Look to Windward

As one of many Sleep Token fan's when the album tracks were first listed a few weeks ago, there was much speculation about what the tracks were going to be about, and to some fans what genre's were ST going to be manipulating into their rather infamous style of blending, breaking and manipulating everything from Pop to Metal and everything in between into a new sound. But while some fans were pointing to the Latin and Greek influenced titles, the reference to ancient tragedies and folklore, one name stood out "Look to Windward". Listen, I'm Scottish and also a Geek, and I know Vessel is definitely a geek as well, so I suspected this wasn't a coincidence.

Look to Windward is a Sci-fi Novel by Scottish Writer, Iain M. Banks which was part of a series "The Culture" which followed a Post-Scarcity interstellar civilization. And Look to Windward specifically talks about the civilizations role in war, and specifically the role of war in, intervening in "lesser" civilizations with the aim of making them better or perhaps more "civilized". So how does this narrative fit with the song itself and perhaps the album itself.

First clue is in the series itself, "The Culture", A culture includes many things; Language, Music, Artistic styles, Body Language, Food, etc. Perhaps in a way Vessel might be saying "We don't have a genre, we are a culture all to ourselves" and "The Culture" who is trying to intervene in Sleep Token's process is "fans" who dox or bully them for being one genre or not another. When we look at the lyric's the opening verses of "Will you listen as my form starts to fission" already opens up to a familiar theme in Sleep Token music, which is Sci-fi, we see it later on in Album with Emergence which was released as a teaser before the Album dropped on the 9th of May (Today).

The line itself evokes an idea that Vessel isn't a whole person yet, and that throughout the album and perhaps his future, he seeks to become whole again (or perhaps for the first time in his life). "Losing this war of attrition" attrition is the act of wearing something or someone down through harassment, but its also a military act of prolonging a war enough that the enemies own means of defending themselves become less effective. A technique that is used by "The Culture" in Banks' books. Again, the fans critique's of something that Vessel never proclaimed outright, or rather a "fact" that has been inferred through the breach of Vessel's privacy, the "fact" being that Vessel stated he "specialised in Progressive Metal" earlier on in his life. With the inference being that Sleep Token was mean't to be purely progressive metal is being used against the band, when that was never the point.

"Will you halt this eclipse in me"

An eclipse is the overshadowing of something light, typically the moon over the sun but I fear that doesn't need to be explained all that much. But what Vessel is saying is something to the effect of, that his creativity, his willingness to pursue new heights and to bend and break genre's is his creative light, and that this constant argumentation over what Sleep Token is, is casting an unnecessary shadow on his creative energy. In short, he wants this argumentation to stop, because its wearing away at his energy to continue being who he is.

"You pray for sound, I pray for silence"

Vessel again just wants quiet to consume him so that he can recover what energy he has to be himself again. But he also recognises that fan's want to support, they want to worship the art that he wants to make, and that there is a war between the fan's and those who criticize them, alongside what Vessel and what the rest of Sleep Token want. "You know it isn't over until i say its over" I believe this is over the speculation after their doxxing that, since the doxxing, many fans and trolls have speculated that Sleep Token was going to disband. This is Vessel doing two things at once, he's quashing the fears but leaving the door open for himself later on. In essence, he's giving fans and trolls an ultimatum, they can either stop speculating about what he and Sleep Token are, or aren't and just enjoy the project while it lasts, or he's going to walk.

"I am the Demon of Sodom, I am the blood of an Angel"

This is obviously one of many Bible references that Sleep Token have made over the years, Sodom is one of the two cities in the Bible that was destroyed by god due to perceived depravity, while stating "I am the Blood of an Angel" perhaps implies that Vessel carries an air of innocence with him. There's an attribute to him that many do not like, some may say is demonic in the strongest sense, while he perceives it as a act of purity, and that there's conflict between how the world see's him and how he see's himself. "The fate of the Fallen, no one knows where i came from" again, when it comes to fallen angels, we know where they are, but we regularly forget where they fell from. Again pushing this idea that Vessel has "accepted" that there are people who see him as fallen, but he wants to push a counter to that, and the counter is who he is as a person, where he came from, his whole being not just where or what he is now.

"Even at Stratospheric Depths"

This is an example of an Oxymoron, something cannot be stratospheric and also deep at the same time. This points to a feeling of limbo, or vertigo, the feeling of being dizzy by being pushed and pulled between two different points, perhaps, points of view.

It's clear to me that Vessel is asking, if not outright demanding for the speculation about him and his life to stop, and for those who are true fans to give him some quiet, from his life and to appreciate the art for what it is, and appreciate the band not as a genre or a box to tick, but instead to appreciate it as a culture, learn its ways, appreciate it and Vessel will continue to produce what he feels is fit for how he feels.

Side Note: While we were all looking at the "glitches" in the music videos thinking that Vessel was fighting sleep, perhaps, Vessel was fighting a monster that he kind of created, and that's his own "fanbase", just food for thought.