I was late to The Sleep token party something I've since learned is a huge loss to me oh how I wish I could have experienced this band in real time as opposed to only hopping on at the Zenith what a ride up it must have been it was a name that I'd heard a track her or there popped onto my radar but no more until recently that is it's such a shame that I never more than scratched the surface as that's all it would have taken the band members are completely Anonymous and portray enigmatic characters awesome they reject the idea of genre and make whatever they want love that they did a three album long concept about a God and its vessel okay I'm in where do I sign I'm royon Chaine and this is exploring the [Music] concer as soon as I found out that the final track of album 3 ends with a sample of the first track of album one I knew this video was going to happen I can't resist it's a problem so whilst I read enough to understand the dynamic of the band I stopped short of reading any LW as this is so much more fun when I'm presented with the lyrics laid bare upon the music and given the chance to craft the story in my own mind feel free to leave a comment with anything that I get wrong I genuinely love to know more about the story of this art I'll get more into which tracks blew me away later on as we cover them but I was pulled into this band by a couple of songs from the most recent finale of the trilogy take me back to E I didn't listen to the entire Saga in one go until a few weeks later when I had a few hours worth of driving to do on my own whilst I obviously couldn't devote my entire attention to the lyrics I controlled a couple of tons of steel I was all struck nonetheless these three albums Sund Downing this place will become your tomb and take me back to Eden stitched together seamlessly into a threea structure of devastating sadness captivating combat and blood curling rage let's get our teeth into this the usual disclaimer here the opinions and interpretations I'm about to express on my own and are in no way influenced by anything the band themselves or any of you on rdit or genius may have said now let the night [Music] fall before I address this song I just want to talk about the name of the album for a moment Sund Downing at first I thought this was just a cool Visual and interesting word to call an album but after a Google search that I thought would bring up info about this album I actually learned that it's a mental condition associated with Alzheimer's where people experience confusion and display rtic behavior when the sun begins to set that term is wonderfully fitting for the album about to experience who provides a great insight into this song in particular this feeling is immediately captured by the first lyrics of the album lines that struck me as odd on the first listen but I couldn't quite Place why with the knowledge of the above I can see it the sentence begins but goes nowhere when you live by daylight with angels at your side in order now bestowed By the Light of the sunrise and that's it we're going to the precourse without any condition having been stated the first word is when but we aren't told what happens what happens when you live by daylight well that's exactly the point vessel is losing himself as the night fall ws and do you remember everything only till the sun recedes once again and the Night Comes Down Like Heaven in the daytime he can remember who he is and what he's lived through and aims himself toward but as she comes back for him as the night begins to fall this all Slips Away In Spite of this loss of sanity and individual Consciousness he describes it as Heaven a blissful return to his preferred State he has given himself over to this power that she has over him willfully handing over his life but she taunts him staying tantilizing just out of permanent grasp the whites of your eyes turn black into low light in turning Divine we tangle endlessly like lovers entwined I know for the last time you will not be mine so give me the night just as the night draws in to strip him of his sanity she Fades to black as well eluding his attempts to bring her into closer Focus he sees her as a god wrapping himself around her ethereal presence and tumbling through the depths of his own mind he is self-aware that he knows he's deluded to think that this might be a two-way street he begs for just one [Music] [Music] night after a gentle opening we are thrst into one of the heaviest songs on the album for track number two I them to get used to with s token the offering Builds on its pred is begging tones and sees vessel throwing himself at the feet of his God pleading for it to take him fully into herself end this halfin half out suffering you've got diamonds for teeth my Lord so take a bite of me just once this is a giving an offering in your favor a sacrifice in your name but I know you've got a taste so just take a bite of me he panders to her describing in terms that evoke both Beauty and power elegant and deadly playing to her ego he asked her to deal him the final blow relieve him of his curse and take him into her permanent custody you've had a taste I know you like it now take the rest she teases him refusing the offer give in again and let me lay my arms belong around you so take a bite I want to know I want to take a bite he begs for a rest for a reprieve he wants her to end his suffering even if that means joining her and becoming what she is taking a bite of her becoming to her what she is to him or perhaps what he hopes she might be we're entering dangerous levels of dependence here with an alarming amount of apathy from the other side get used to that it's going [Music] nowhere we are lulled into the next track ushering us into a peaceful Slumber perhaps the very Slumber we were begging for the clamor of the previous song in this state we attempt to assert our worthiness to our god arguing for our own importance I can lift you up and I can tell you won't remember my cracking Bones the trauma we can't regrow he's still full on knowing that she is leaving but desperately attempting to instill the idea that she would be better with him who else would be willing to give their all their life their soul just to help her achieve her own dreams even at the Unseen detriment of his own he wants the best for her even if it means her leaving him behind will you levitate up where the Angels inhabit will you levitate where I won't reach you he dreams of a perfect life for her one that he no longer believes he a part of he is heartbroken by this realization but a Moment of clarity Dawns as he understands that it is not he who has left her behind the Godlike facade begins to slip for the first time and we imitate a story of perfect days a ballad we fabricate as you forget your words again and is that all you need to merely pretend to be falling in love with me finally almost three tracks in we see some defining from vessel acknowledging that she is not perfect she has led him astray for her own ends this plants the seed of his growth and the glacially slow Dynamic shift between these two once again here sleep token use a repeat of refrain to close the song as we bounce between the various textures placed upon the pallet this serves to both Hammer home the meaning and feeling of each song and give us a picture of where we're heading although I'm going to focus on the lyrics as that's kind of what this series is the music Paints the picture as much as the words I'm close about music theory though so someone else will have to do that [Music] video as vessel begins to find himself again we feel more of the deep bass and Hip-Hop elements come together leading vessel from the darkness and back into the light he attempts to capture his lost memories of a time before was nothing but a vessel for her where I was raised there was no street lights just pitch black and passing headlights and where we met there must have been dark signs Omen in your eyes he acknowledges that his life before her was not exactly Stella struggled to find light in a dark world but importantly he begins to understand the advantage she saw in this the lever for his manipulation he does not describe her as bringing light but of an omen for darker days still and I missed the man I was the moment we left off and I hate who I have become every time I wake up despite the darkness that you lived in before he now Pines for it understanding now that this God he has attached his life onto and twined himself around is no such being he seeks to sever the relationship return to the person he was before she spotted the dark signs in him just as he now sees the ones in her I won't break and bend to my basic need to be loved and close to somebody I love this line used as a backing to the main chorus this is something that I've definitely been guilty of in my life that feeling of being wanted adored is more intoxicating in its pure form than any opioid could ever be well heroin addicts might argue that point but you understand the imagery I'm going for vessel finally understands the Folly of what he's been doing with her devoting his very being to just becoming a thing for her to love something she never truly did and likely never will and here ladies gentlemen others is where my interpretation of this story might lose you and that's okay as I said in the intro this is my interpretation of this work it doesn't have to match what the artist has said or what you might yourself might hear have a disclaimed that enough now I think I have haven't I okay here it goes I believe for that for this song higher we switch characters I think you can read this as vessel immediately wilting on his attempt at Independence and going straight back to it but I don't see it like that I see an abuser coming down hard on her captive prey making sure that he remains exactly where she wants him all the while framing the act as her doing him a favor you say you won't Begin Again capitulate and let me in cuz I a fire in your dry as bone the opening L is an oblique threat pointing out that she could destroy him with ease if she so chose making it clear what the consequence of his leaving her behind would be you are killing me slow and I know we instigate go back and forth lacerate unless vessel is an unreliable narrator which I don't think he is this line is almost gaslighting in nature framing their oneway abuse cycle is something they both do to each other she claims that he is the one doing damage that they both engage in this war this is not the story that we've been told so far and we're exhausted by all this pretending that we just can't resist the violence and you need a Melody I only need the silence but each time we battle the blood and the fury takes us a little higher more manipulation abusive manipulation she frames their combat as a two-way street again and then doubles down on this blaming his need for emotion and drama is the reason for the conflicts in the relationship and then finally the final nail in the toxic coffin she claims that each of their skirmishes bring them closer vessel stands no chance against there I am granting you more more than the debt that I owe she is doing him a service she is the one giving him her time and herself not do the way around this song is a banner for abusive relationships seriously though if this song feels familiar to you either assess your behavior or speak to someone you trust depending on which side of the coin the familiarity [Music] lies the battering of manipulative language has worked we are back with vessel and we are back where we started deifying her and begging for any scraps of attention that she deems to throw our away it feels more like her pet than her lover one mistreated and unwanted wait won't you wait for me don't you bathe in rivers don't you feel alive and when I see you waking up and it sends me shivers how you love like weapons kill the agulation is now tinged with fear he is aware of the threat that he is under and CS to her will both out of genuine wonder and adoration but also now duplicity from the horror he feels at the side of he's just witnessed so take aim at me for once just take Aim and break me apart very similar requests to those thrown out in the first two tracks he wants her to use him as she sees fit to take him in so that he might get close and rewarded with some semblance of the affection of love he still thinks that she's capable of and you know I'll be yours when the moment is perfect I will fire and forget till we both lay broken and you know I'll be yours just want to be worth it I will run like the wind till you follow me again his Devotion to her is utter he will sink himself down to her level perform whatever act she commands of him even if it breaks him so long as it brings him parity with her he Longs for her to chase him for once he's lost truly [Music] We Begin the song in an ethereal lional Purgatory space the ambience sets the tone for the song that's about to come vessel is lost in The Ether convincing himself that he's home you take the dark and carve me out a home I picture you when you are all alone I know how we got here he's convincing himself that she's in need of his love and protection that their dependence has a c before it that he is as necessary to her happiness as she is pivotal to his he implores her to accept this fact as he sees it if you want to give then give me all you can give all your darkest impulses I'll be watching for your enemies to let them know that they contend with me I want to know you're out there he offers everything he has plant himself at top her Hill and vows to defend it with his life and yet receives nothing by way of response let alone reciprocation vessel has had the depths of his desperation and delusion something that the music of the piece portrays wonderfully in this open Warfare I won't fight fair and in your waking moments I will be there vessel needs to wake up something needs to jerk him Kicking and Screaming from this rivy before it's too late for him the heaviest track on the album snaps us from the dream that vessel is lost within and plunges into this origin story of the Goddess that has left in there perhaps in response to bringing up her enemies letting him know how outmatched he truly is no more Taking Chances no more teeth to bite with no more smiling faces I am alone again her followers have left her she is in the most vulnerable position that she ever been in broken and beneath her pier in need of a new vessel to launch her back to the heights she once held so maybe vessel is powerful I see the gods avert their gaze from me my [ __ ] form is but a wreck beneath them and there are always people I can call on it's all so easy for me she is thunderous in her anger quite whether or not she herself is a God or some other sort of being is unknown but she Revels in her contemporaries looking down upon her mistreating her vowing to find someone to pass on her suffering to something that she will do with EAS do you like the way it feels like fire from the heavens carving past the surface into you she finds vessel and begins the process of infecting his mind with a virus inflating her ego as she devours his readily within the larger Narrative of the piece I see this as a flashback to the beginning of their Union from her perspective telling not just of how how but also why she felt the need to find herself a vessel and treat him so and we stay with her for the next [Music] one from the heaviest song of the album to in my opinion the best this song does the death tones dance of riding the line between creepy and sexy and pulls it off in a way that very few songs ever really do and you play a twisted little game but I know in a way you need to complicate it believe that though we never eat we still know how to feed we still know how to bleed she taughts him in an almost pantomime lullab of her first verse in chorus finding his attempts to low her into falling in love with him cute and precious like a puppy nibbling at her fingertips she understands his need to see this is something other than what it is and laughs off the idea of it although she does Br ringly admit sugar I've developed a taste for you now she acknowledges that his charms are having some effect on her a buding affection is growing in return something that he will no doubt wish to Foster but she makes the ground rules abundantly clear changing her address to one more direct and abrasive while no less dismissive she accepted his invitation to take a bite and has enjoyed the taste more than she thought she would do you want to see how far it goes do you want to test me now my love you must be crazy if you think that I will give in so easily you want the full force of my affection and power are you sure you want to open yourself up to that without fully understanding what that entails and what it will mean for you she awaits his [Music] response as his God turns up the heat vessel asks again for Assurance that he'll be taken care of and that he's not being deceived this track dances through the Infinite Space that the Ethereal atmosphere creates the last drip of Hope before vessel understands the depths of his error is that a word you said my love or just a gesture in tongues well I live to guess your sorrow and you live to empty my lungs he's unsure of her intentions if her words are true if she'll stick to them in the end but he knows that regardless he's powerless he lives for this back and forth and welcomes the inevitable consequence of it oh is that a glint in your eye is that a blade in your palm well I am yours tonight so will you lay in my arms perhaps it's just this one line that tips it over the edge but this album is beginning to feel like the relationship between a doating owner and their unruly cat he can see that she plans on slicing him wide open and yet comes in for a cuddle regardless he's a lamb to the slaughter a moth to the flame or funeral P you've got me up in a frenzy again I know you're planning to leave in the end he is self-aware enough to know that he is spiraling that his heart is in danger and that she almost certainly will not hold up her end of the deal and yet here he stays seemingly content won't you say that you will let the impulse to love and the instinct to kill and Tangle to one won't you say that you will even if you won't this is the saddest line of the album so far he's clearly aware of what's Happening Here but his denial is so strong his mind's so poisoned his body so addicted he cannot peel himself away from this situation that seeks to end him act one is almost over the curtain is not far from dropping and I'm afraid that it only gets more Bleak from here vessel doubts on the object of his desires even as he sinks further to the depths and I know the Angels tonight are as Lost for Words As I Am to merely behold you as we lie down together if the last song played like a ethereal dream this song feels like the ghost of even that the last of the light vanishes from view as we sink to a depth that can no longer pierce the sun has gone down and vessel is glad for it just as he was in the opening track drag me under again deep into your love I know this is Rich coming from me doing what I do in this channel but this song contains a vocal more than it contains lyrics this feels like a VMV song as much as it does a sleep togon the words spoken don't matter as much as the feeling evoked and that feeling is bliss loss hope and despair all in one this is a fitting end to the album but as ever with sleep token there is one more track after the curtain has fallen a soliloquy to let the audience know without doubt where we [Music] are now I said sugar was the best song on the album but maybe it's this one I think think depending on the day I might change my mind I think today it's sugar but tomorrow it might be blood spot in this song vessel Wills himself to have the strength to leave her but ultimately knows that he doesn't I want to roll the numbers I want to feel my stars align again even if the Earth breaks like burnt skin the heavens just won't open up for me he wants to try again take a chance on something new escape from where he is but what if there's nothing else out there for him what if he crashes and Bur burs he falls to his own doubt and addresses her directly internally would you invite me in again won't you pay for your arrogance won't you show me your weakness this is the Crux of the song for me and the entire album in a way he wants to break free he wants to be the man he wants was but he can't cut his mental ties to her he thinks every thought only in relation to her so when thinking of leaving all he thinks of is what she would think of it would she ask him to come back humble herself to him I made loving you a blood spot I can't win so let's play heartbreaking realization he's backed himself into a corner from which he has no good Escape he can't continue loving her she will continue to eat him alive but he can't leave either as he's too deep at this point there is a moment here where I considered that potential of this album is actually about drug addiction the history of music is laced with countless songs written by men portraying their addictions as women a solid 2/3 of metall work for example I don't think this is one I think it's a fantasy that The Man Behind The Vessel mask is using to work out some issues with a real breakup he had but if someone in the comments copies in a quote from him talking about how all these songs are about heroin I would not B an ey somewhere the atoms stopped fusing I'm still your favorite regret you're still my weapon of choosing and out there stuck in a Quantum pattern Tangled with what I never said you say it doesn't matter I can't help but to feel that this is the mask slipping slightly this line feels the most raw the most real the most outside of the narrative being told of it God dominating a helpless hungry devote describing himself as her favorite regret as a gut punch especially since she is still his go-to first choice all of these things IE the previous 11 Tracks that he wanted to say wanted to express all shut down by her clear and total apathy I feel this one deep it's crushing beautiful devast ating and a fitting end to a fantastic debut album there's some phenomenal songs on here and even its weakest moments are well above average we follow the story of a man torn trapped in a one-sided love affair which he is the victim the punching back the downtrodden we see his moments of strength get crushed his hope rekindled his doubts subtly reassured is he lost forever I guess we'll find out in act two of the trilogy although the title doesn't fill me with much hope I'm not sure why I just did a tease for the next part it's not a separate video or anything it's it's right [Music] now [Music] act two begins how act one ended with a slow lonely piano and a forlorn Voice singing of Hard Times vessel's situation hasn't improved if anything it's worsened he now seeks an end call me when they bury bodies underwater it's blue light over murder for me adding to my feeling that the actual end of the previous album was the penultimate track we continue on with the lyrical theme of drowning that was pre and drag me under being submerged in water can be used as a visual metaphor for being cleansed something The Vessel comes to later but initially he equates it with destruction seeing immediately of dead bodies as a sense of inevitability crumble like a temple built from future daughters to Wasteland when the oceans reced merry in the morning earn your bitter fodder it's easier to try not to eat so flood me like Atlantic bandage up the trenches anything to get me to sleep I was unsure whether or not to capitalize the final word there the double meaning very much intentional as he names her directly I chose not to though as he's staring into the face of what has become his everyday life and recognizing the Doom that it entails wishing for it all to end I woke up surrounded I was like frozen planets just orbiting the vacuum I am they taught me through the damage consequence and how it's a pain they know they don't understand sobbing as they turn to statues at the bedside I'm trying not to crush into s so flood me like Atlantic weather me to nothing wash away the blood of my hands I'm not sure if this is the aftermath of an actual attempt at taking his own life or just his imagining of how it would go the fact that he has people there who care about him and are saddened and that he does not mention her Presence at all makes me think it's the latter although references to this moment in a later song on a Later album imply that it might have been real either way the other submerging metaphor comes in here as vessel asks to be cleansed this verse precedes a syn section that leads into the first guitar and drums of the album signifying the start of an Awakening Don't Wake Me Don't wake me up don't you wake me up choosing as I am to hear this is a fantasy about having had people care for him in a hospital ped whilst he is actually asleep with her I hear this is him preferring to stain a dream where he almost died rather than returning to the waking day with her the you here is specific specific he doesn't want her to wake him from his R well no such [Music] luck sleep token make a habit of having the second track of each alen be one of the heavi and this track is no exception I understand the structure the first track sets the scene where we are in the relationship then the second this sleep flexing her muscles showing her control over vess lift me out of my own skin of all my doubt take from me leave nothing left take everything she wakes him from his dream of death and he begs her to make it come true we've seen this verbiage before but now deeper into the relationship and the story between these two death has become his fantasy rather than having her loving back he wants to become a shell as that will be less painful sink your teeth split my skin just make me bleed give me all that I want again drawing parallels to the second track of the previous album we have a beg to be bitten previously this was under the pretext of her taking a bite and liking the taste deciding to welcome him into be part of a union this time he just wants her to bleed him out and leave him to die you know you hypnotize me always appealing once again to her ego this has worked previously it's the only thing that seems to have any real effect on her actually so he tries it again admitting that she will always infatuate him that she is truly breathtaking in hopes that she may literally do so and you make it more than I could ever feel before and I am almost under on first hearing this I remember thinking wow she's actually killed him but no she didn't she did what she's always done before fed him Hope just enough to get him to believe again whatever The Man Behind vessel went through or was feeling to write this story I hope he's okay [Music] this is starting to feel a lot like watching someone you care about repeatedly returning to an abusive relationship saying things like I know we can change or she promised it'll be different this time stuff like that a bit rough I have waited Paralyzed by my own will viciously reminding me still I am born to believe and I'm certain that you and I are a crushing course driven by a holy Force I know you can see that you will be mine I actually hate this well not really I love the music but it's agonizing vessel blames himself for his feelings displayed in the first two tracks gastl into thinking this is his flaw to think that she is abusive to him they will be together and it'll be great she just doesn't see it yet that's why she behaves the way she does did you not say we were made for each other I'd like another song or two from her perspective to see how she gets into pivot so violently to once again feeling that it is she who's trying to make this work and he who is the [Music] problem but there is nothing forthcoming in that regard as we stick with vessel his aggression picks up a touch the effects of the Allure she placed over him beginning to wear off like tolerance to a drug it doesn't appear to be lasting as long as it used to trapped under the surface of your words there is a new intention back to the drowning metaphor which alongside the alar paint the picture of this middle act vessel speaks of these intentions as new but they feel extremely similar in nature to those disgusting sounds like Take Aim and gods of fighting and warfare but rather than it feeling directed outside like vessel protecting his God this feels more inward talking with braces on your tongue just to provoke my combat new weapons to snap those final strings just to watch me fall back do you like that she lashes out at him telling him to leave her if that's what he wants knowing that he won't she toys with him but there's something else Happening Here the tides May finally be beginning to turn push down into membranes and layers creating a slow dissection I stumble into your T trap in addition to your collection he recognizes what happens as he gets deeper nothing particularly new here he's known that this is a trap act one but the difference here is that he doesn't fact seem to be getting deeper with her there is something there fall into your eyes like a grave all that is inside all your anger or your disgust or your resentment bury me to the sound of your name all your pain she has perhaps unwittingly invited him in deeper and he can see her for what she is anger disgust resentment pain the refrain of do you like that takes a new meaning is he ask her if this is who she wants to be this Revelation and emotion flows into the next track one of sleep token's very [Applause] [Music] best it's at this point that I'm going to tell you this is my favorite sleep token album I don't know if I prefer this or their first EP in terms of their all their work but from this track to the very end of the album was one of the very best runs I've seen any artist have this song is an incredible work of Pop metal a song that I return to almost daily lyrically it's become one of my favorite imagery of any song so let's take a look at it you lie an inch apart on your own Continuum now keep the freak Show talk to a careful minimum yes vessel a bit of bite in his tone and words towards her he wants to present his argument and not have her talk back he also tells her how it is she's apart from the rest of the world separated from others by her own design he is finally speaking to her as an equal putting her in her place I'll find a different Harbor to lay my anchor in and you'll find a different way to keep from setting sail again he's crushing her here this is so uplifting to see within the story of the album he's standing up for himself letting her know that whilst he can find someone else rather easily should he ever break free she will not find it so easily as she intentionally keeps herself at a distance this song feels similar in meaning to the death tone song Phantom bride another death tones comparison in this video although it's definitely apt when asked by a friend to describe sleep token I refer to them as drama kid death tones and I mean that as a massive compliment and I stand by it but I'm still full of the love you want still waking up beneath it all I reach for you on faith alone after the tongue washing he gives her he then extends the Olive Branch she has all of these full laws and all of these ways to push him away but he is there nonetheless willing to give her a chance to claim the love that she wants he has seen who she truly is beneath the mask and seeks to draw her into the light she is not forthcoming seems your heart is locked up and I still get the combination wrong or are you simply waiting to save your love for someone I'm not too many swallowed keys will make you bleed internally someday maybe you believe that in the end you'll be better off that way the best verse of the video video is right here the extended lock metaphor the damage from swolling Keys is perfect do I need to explain what this is saying it's right there take a bow vessel both inside the story and out what a song What A Journey what an entry into this novel that we're reading fantastic also there's a drum feel towards the end of this song as it gets heavier that is one of the best moments in the entire album just because this video is focused on the lyrics doesn't mean that I don't also think that two is the best thing about sleep token because he is anyway vessel has told her what thinks of her and set out his store for where he wants the relationship to go what will be her [Music] response C wait is there a trap missing no she just doesn't respond oh no vessel please don't do this again in a city of ice there are burning Cathedrals turning the skies into glasss and through echoing Futures and the buckling sutures that hold shut the wounds of the past in the depths of her coldness there are moments of warmth sufficient to entrap him in this hell that he knows he really should Escape her minimal efforts are just enough her soothing sensation on his battered mind just about adequate in keeping him where he is so won't you fall for me through a fractured existence won't you fall for me won't you fall for me from reality to the rhythm of Eternity won't you fall for me all the power that he grabbed by the throat in the previous song has ebbed away the ruse exposed the bluff called he's back to prostrate begging her to show some of the warmth that has become his drug my insecurities surround me like lions in the den and I feel like I'm losing touch with what I am again slowly I remember why I cannot pretend that I never think of you in all this screaming silence oh God I wish you were here yeah this is once again painful he is so devast L dependent on her for any semblance of happiness that even though she causes him nothing but pain and anguish he Longs for her as otherwise he is left with not but emptiness she has hollowed him out and turned him into nothing but a shell for her to occupy when she sees [Music] fit vessel crash something that feels like a love song another appeal to her ego but in reality is lamenting what's happening to him as exposed by the previous song every once in a while something changes and she's changing me it's too late for me now I am altered there is something beneath as alluded to in the previous song she has taken from him everything that might have identified him as an individual and bent it to her own Vision her own means remember that line of it's too late for me as it will be very important momentarily she's not acid nor alkaline caught between black and white not quite either day or night she's perfectly misaligned he can't make out exactly what she is he's so caught between this infatuation for what she can bring to him but also revulsion at what she's done to him that she has become all things at once she is both the light and the dark I'm caught up in her design and how it connects to mine I see in a different light the object of my desire in the process of breaking him in she exposes more of herself allowing him an insight into what makes her tick he understands both more and less at the same time adding to the dichotomy of the song I'm dying to melt through to the heart of their molecules till the particles part like holy water he needs her to feel the same way about him as he feels about her he wants to leave a piece of himself in her soul as she has devoured and manipulated his either born in Hell or Heaven Sent either way I'm into it he's gone I've said it before I know but this time I feel it in my mind's eye he's entangled in her web and she's a SPID slowly devouring him as he smiles at her and begs for more again if any of these feelings resonate with you in your current relationship please speak to someone about it this one's more about the music The Desolation the devastation than any lyrical thing but I'll explore them nonetheless this is The Rock Bottom the point of no ATT I can tell I'm falling farther again but I won't turn away it's too late for me he sinks to the depth previously unfathomed but he is calm in the face of it not fearing what may await him but embracing the inevitability of it all the first mention of it being too late the note made in the previous song and the Soul crushing refrain that we will end on cuz I am broken into fractions and I am driven to distraction again there's massive room for interpretation here as with most of these lyrics in my reading of this line she is the distraction he's gone all in on this sinking vessel double meanings of fun and I swear she's not like any other more than I could ask for only now as I'm going through this and writing about each line in turn am I really feeling just how utterly destroyed he is lots of this brings forth memories of breakups I've had and I'm sure it does for most of us but man this one must have been [Music] abysmal sorry I need to correct myself I said we hit rock bottom in the previous song but we are in fact still descending well perhaps not as vessel once again shows signs of life just take it all for nothing again at last discover you can't recall my name his bitterness at how she's treated him seeps through the cracks after bleeding him dry and leaving him to rot she returns to do the same again presumably The Wider world that she's so fearful of as in the love you want bit her again and she comes back to refill her tanks with some of vessel's remaining life you come crawling back to me but I'm already on the ground so what would you do for me he's still down in the depths where she left him and she has the nerve to come to him for help no not this time what do you offer in return if the answer is yet more nothing then nothing is what you'll get I won't repeat what I've said beforehand my love Withers and chokes in perfect awe and again we're alluding to the love you want here he won't do another song and dance about what he can offer to her what they can offer to each other that's done and the love that he sang of is close to evaporating forever why don't you just say what you wanted to say for once yes vessel here we go he's coming back what have you got sleep are you going to be honest with him are you going to be honest with [Music] yourself hm so teles the title of this track is a Vaguely Familiar word to me I remember Googling this after seeing the track listing to check that I was correct and yeah I was T are proteins that attached to chromosomes and protect them an odd title for a song but I think we can assume that this is vessel returning to his role of loving protector is it reciprocal this time you guide me into safety and silence as you breathe me out I drink you in ahuh she is protecting him this is an interesting turn of event in a symbolism of a protective cap on the end of something vitally important I never thought vessel would be the latter and we go beyond the farthest reaches where the light bends and wraps beneath us and I know as you collapse into me this is the start of something I know people who've had this song at their wedding and I get it this is as romantic as sleep toe can get and outside the context of the album I could see how it might feel like the ultimate Declaration of undying affection but in context my red flags are flying all over the place get out of there vessel this is not going to end well the chances of this being a genuine commitment from her a legitimate drining of their lives into one are so minimal that I'm not sure they exist this is surely just another manipulation to keep him around to stop her favorite vessel from finding another Harbor your eyes and your limbs are instruments to pick apart the distance within she makes him feel whole again but the gaping holes that exist in his soul are no longer there isn't that sweet no she's the one who tore those holes in the first place I want to grab him by the shoulders and shake this is absurd snap out of it let the tides carry you back to me the past the future through death my arms are open the bitterness of her leaving and returning has vanished and he accepts it so long as she returns he doesn't care where she goes the time she's done it before and the time she'll no doubt do it again she will return to a willing vessel this bit is very real it reminds me of one of my dad's favorite songs this Old Heart of Mine by the isy brothers the story of a man who helplessly Loves a Woman more and more despite how repeatedly and callously she hurts him this can't continue the bow has to [Music] break another interesting piece of nomenclature here as we discuss high tide as opposed to the deaths we have suffered under for the most part in this album long metaphor I wonder if this is us finally rising to the surface for the album finale or if there are hidden current set to carry us farther into Jeopardy for the time being I was to avoid my own questions and we both bury that history deep but you know I can hold my breath forever okay so they're going to see if they can make it work he's Ving to ignore his own doubts and misgivings in order to try and get this thing to work but they both know this is a precarious position to be in for the time being you're still a perfect reminder of what all these scars on my arms are for if I can hold myself together there's that bitterness again rightfully so and it appears that the suicide attempt at the dawn of the album was not a fantasy but a reality the blood that trickled from his wrist to his palms has not been washed clean despite him plunging to the bottom of her ocean he doesn't know how long this codependent ruse can last and I chok myself on sacred Vapor waiting on some holy favor basking in the Solace of regret the veneer of her Divinity is slipping away his god- tinted visor coming slowly off to reveal the creature that he has really attached himself too her scant devotion is something that he has to be thankful for despite how little it actually does for him he knows now more than ever that he has made a mistake it seems my hell is your high water wash me clean again before I pull myself beneath waves these recurring visits this spiral pattern where she Ventures off becomes depleted then returns to him for sustenance is all that's keeping her alive and he is willing to keep doing it when the mouth of infinity buries its teeth in me I'll smile through the agony for you and I know you still bear the weight of your own existence and you'll never bear the weight of two again vessel punches me in the gut with these lines despite everything he loves her too much to allow her to see how much he's suffering he knows she struggles to deal with her own problems and so is not capable of carrying the weight of his as well he doesn't want to overburden her for the time being I will admit my defeat again I will accept that I can't pretend we will ever be together she will never reciprocate his love and finally he knows that at best she will continue to use him as she has done to this point he will keep this going so as not to be left with nothing but knows that nothing more will ever come [Music] and so as the curtain Falls we once again find ourselves listening to our narrator sign off with an outline of where we leave off emotionally heading into the third and final act in this mab story just let me know if nowadays the outer rounds of Heaven don't keep up on the charm offensive anymore failing to remind you what you're living for this is his role in her life now she goes and does her Godly thing and he's there to boost her morale at the cost of his own whenever she requires it to temper your belief in all my promises to swallow my desire and choke on it he Longs for her to leave him or for himself to conjure the courage to leave her he's trapped desperate desolate cuz it still makes my blood run cold to remember what they did before the stories that you never told to me the parts of her that he's seen the parts of the story he does know he's petrified of the danger she places them both in and how little of the truth he actually knows my polite advances won't last for long the eager apprehension is wearing off again we allude to his dwindling desire to keep this relationship going and it's current form but he knows that he cannot simply sever himself from her as he is in far too deep I'd give anything to balance your conviction with certainty to fall asleep without you're lying next to me to sever my connection with everything he Longs for her to love him or failing that to leave him or failing that for death we end act two in much the same place as act one only worse off and it still makes my blood run thin to remember what you are to him and I'll live like I've got missing names for you wait what last minute twist ending there's someone else I don't think there is I believe that this is in his head as she remains emotionally distant from him vessel imagines that she is more open and honest with some other imaginary man rather than facing the truth that she just doesn't have any emotions to be honest about this is a theme that will return to you in the next album and so here are the album ends on a note of utter Devastation and hopelessness if you clicked on this video hoping for an uplifting journey through fantastic music I'm sorry uh Instead This is the dissection of a Broken Man pouring his soul out over 3 hours of crushingly devastating honest brutal score I love this album even more having picked it apart and I don't know if I I could love it any more than I now do can vessel come back from the brink of disaster can he summon the strength to escape sleep's crotches why am I teasing it again it's it's right [Music] now [Music] [Applause] sonically the third act begins where a second left off the ambient noises blending well when crossfaded implying that not much if any time has passed between the two lyrically we find vessel justifying his current situation when we were made it was no accident we were tangled up like branches in a flood he implies that they were made for one another designed by the same deity as accompanying pieces but has he forgotten she is the deity who designed him she tore us under all that made him who he was and repurposed what was left if he's Tangled it's a knot that she tied I come as a blade a sacred Guardian so you keep me sharp and test my worth in blood he sees himself in this protective role a weapon for her to utilize in her war against the other gods the idea of her being the one to protect him appears to be gone he is once again glorifying his own role in her very selfish story you've got me in a choke hold too right she does mate she is choking the life from him and he is smiling at the thought of it a sadist and a masochist but not in a healthy way this is toxic and bound to spill over beneath the stormy seas above the mountain peaks it's all the same to me it makes no difference I've seen my days unfold done the impossible I'll turn my walls to Gold to bring you home again he still feels that he can earn her love her true love rather than this cruel mocker of it that she has offered thus far he will move Heaven and Earth to make it happen to see her smile it could be sweet were not so sickening so show me that which I cannot see even if it hurts me similar to missing limbs he alludes to sides of herself that she keeps hidden from him and he asks once again to see them this story is paced very slowly so far and I worry for vessel that we are running out of time for him to truly arise from this beat down he has taken can he step [Music] [Applause] up here we are the song that brought me to this band a case which I'm sure is common in a lot of his newer converts and once again we follow the pattern of track two being a heavy sultry sexy one but keeping with the death tones theme for those who don't know a general rule with death tones is that if a song is about sex it's sad and if it's about violence it's sexy we have a song that plays like a sex Jam that when you dig beneath the surface it's anything but I've got a river running right into you I've got a blood trail red in the blue something you say or something you do a taste of the Divine quite the jump here sleep is a wounded animal and rather than jumping into his protective mod Bessel smells blood is this his chance to bring her to his level or raise himself to hurt you've got my body flesh and bound the sky above the earth below he once again reiterates that he belongs to her in all ways that one person can belong to another he would and has done anything and everything for her killed in her name Raise Me Up Again take me past the edge I want to see the other side wants to see the hidden parts of her life as sent to become a God so they can join her on the pedestal live as she does alongside her won't you show me what it's like his forlorn cry rings out begging to be brought Skyward up to where she dwells above him to levitate alongside her become all the things that he reveres in her she isn't biting though oh and my love did I mistake you for a sign from God or are you really here to cut me off or maybe just to turn me up he's trying it he's laying it on thick once again appealing to her ego in order to get what he wants from her although there's something a little different this time he appears to be addressing her more as an equal than before less a devote wanting his Queen to step on him more of a lover want in a ring cuz these days I will be lying if I told you that I didn't wish that I could be your man there it is laid bear he wants to become equal an item officially he wants to become the imaginary other man from missing limbs or perhaps this is him embodying that fantasy either way I can't see this going the way he helps it [Music] [Music] will in this song the bitterness once again rears its head but again from less of a subservient perspective it feels as though vessel and sleep are being drawn closer together in terms of their power over one another despite what Chokehold implies he's growing stronger becoming less of a toyer to play with and more of an equal to contend with dangerous sulur on your breath granite in my chest you won't ever have to talk about it she's been spitting fire not in the battle rap sense but in the cruel verbiage towards the loved one sort of way she has finished her latest tiroid but he can still smell the sulfur on her breath it weighs on him like bricks crushing the love he tries to keep a flame he knows that mature conversation is not something that she's capable of I was more than just a body in your passenger seat and you were more than just somebody I was destined to meet I love this chorus it's peep pop Mel anyway what vessel is saying here is that he was more than just her sidekick as she returned to the grace of godhood and she wasn't just someone fated to be his life for a short time going back to Chokehold he feels that they were made for one another eternally between the second hand smoke and the glass on the street you gave me nothing whatsoever but a reason to leave oh what a ly she's abusive violent repulsive she offers him nothing by way of reason to stick around with the power and balance between them eroding day by day he has less and less of a reason to do so you say you want me but you know I'm not what you need but I am the love you want Vibes here he has seen yet more of her vulnerabilities the things that she D admit to herself are there he knows that they are meant to be together she just can't see the wood for the trees when you sit there acting like you know me acting like you only brought me in to get below me she is still blows a about the relationship telling him that she only wants him for sex and her own nourishment nothing more he knows this is a lie and he pushes her to admit it he calls out her aggressive traits as masks that she hides behind and warns that time is running out to admit to to herself how she really feels you only drink the water when you think it's holy so keep an eye on on the road or we'll both be here forever the threats are made can he follow [Music] through for those wondering aquaa or Royal water in English is a substance that can dissolve gold I wonder where this one's going well my love is an animal call cutting through the darkness bouncing off the walls between teeth on a broken jaw following a blood trail frothing at the mall he is a wolf howling at the moon he is restless eager bloodthirsty he describes himself in verbiage that we have yet to hear from him he normally seems either resigned to his fate or desperate for love now he appears to have desires that stretch Beyond just sleep beyond the vessel that he has become he wants to reach out beyond what he has seen thus far he wants to reach out beyond what he has been thus far the theme of this album is all too clear and changes a foot the perfect start to a perfect War Putting Down The Roses picking up the sword all the while she has accused him of being every bit as responsible for the conflict in the relationship as she is perhaps she's right perhaps vessel was an unreliable narrator or perhaps he finally reached his potential and is now capable of standing toe to- Toe with her well my past is a holy book a call from Olympus ringing off the hook more braggadocious bravado hyping himself up as a force to be reckoned with and perhaps he's becoming one he Likens himself to Gold several times in the song but the title and lyrical refrain of Aqua reer threatens to expose the LIE of it all perhaps he is her undoing but more likely she is his Gold Rush acid flux saturate me I Can't Get Enough cold love hot blood rush into your heart when you're thinking of and here it is this new golden vessel is still hers still something she can dissolve and manipulate as needed he knows though that the balance of power is Shifting she loves him just as he loves her and the space for her to deny it is running out she can't hold back her feelings for him much longer [Applause] uh I am not going to explain in this video what Vore is um that will definitely get it AG gated I've already said the word suicide a couple of times so yeah not risking that one if you want to know you can Google it although the lyrics Do kind of spell it out you have become the voice in my head only R course were left after death your viscera welcomes me okay we reverted to typ a little here we're almost back in the offering SL sugar era of asking her to bite him but this is a little more than biting this is a desire to actually be eaten once he has died since he is already completely devoted to her he wants her to use every piece of him to further herself will remain stuck in the throat of gods will the pain stop if we go deeper we okay interesting so this is reciprocal she is also dying in this scenario ah is there an external threat to them both and he is offering himself to feed her strength so that she might live or is this all another fantasy scenario where White Knight vessel gets to fall in his sword so let's get swallowed whole I want to go where nobody else will ever go this speaks more to desire that vessel has expressed previously in the album I've wanted to see more of her world and how the gods live he wants to chase her down the rabbit hole and never return this is reflective of his desire in Tomb to see more of her now he's ascending past her and want to see what she sees there is always something in the way follow me between the jaws of Fate so I can have you to myself for once okay so this is confirmation for me of what this song means in the story there is no external threat there's no desire to die in the sense of Life ending his desire is now to leave behind his mortal form the thing in the way and join her as an incorporable being and dying in the heavens at her side are you in pain like I am he once again reaches out to her emotional side seeking to know her [Music] deeper ladies gentlemen others gather yourselves get ready as our story moves into its final moments we are here at the Crux the turn is about to come the balance of power will now shift and not return for the remainder of the story well I know what you want from me you want somebody to be your reflection your bitter deception setting you free so take what you want and leave bitterness something we've been feeling more and more from vessel since this place will become your tomb but now as before and take me back to Eden there is a sense of self-awareness even superiority he's looking down at her judging her as being beneath what he's quickly becoming she appears pathetic to him go ahead do that thing that you do it'll bring you no joy as it always has who made you like this who inced your dark gospel in body language again as he has done all album vessel questions her on why she behaves the way that she does why does she pretend to be this dark evil figure when really she's in pain and desperate for love in the same way that vessel is himself he was right on the money with the love you want and is only just now starting to fully understand that half algorithm half deity glitches in the codes or graps in a strange dream the theme of Technology keeps returning mostly since Aqua Reger this metaphor in my opinion is vessel comparing his growth to hers he is advancing exponentially like the modern world of tech where she a god of the old world stagnates he's quickly overtaking her tell me you guessed my future and mapped onto your fantasy turn me into your mannequin and I'll turn you into my puppet Queen again he sees of for what she truly is a manipulator and what's more the use of the word guest here is telling as he's now questioning her Divinity something Sun dining vessel would absolutely never dare to do you're going to watch me Ascent there's nothing she can do to stop him now the process is too far gone she showed him enough of herself for him to learn but not enough for him to trust her and now just like countless antiquated inventions she will become Obsolete and I know what you want from me you want the same as me my Redemption Eternal Ascension setting me free so I'll take what I'll want then leave and here we are the table's turned the roles reversed irreversibly this is the beginning of the end for sleep and her dominion over vessel her position of strength dissolved she no longer holds The High Ground will vessel allow her to rise or twist a knife [Music] okay if I haven't already lost you with my interpretation sleep token fans allow me to do so completely this track is one that I know the fan base holds particularly dear and one that means so much to many I don't wish to detract from that in any way but within the story with this three album cycle I feel like this song may be disingenuous I'll explain why but I believe that this song is the from the perspective of sleep once again manipulating vessel let's take a look I raised you in the dark cut you reading by the sunrise you wanded from the path through the Silence of the hillside the opening line appears to reference dark signs a track where vessel discusses where he was before sleep found him and how he wishes it could return to before she did this to me reads like sleep reminding him of what he was when the relationship began how hurt and pathetic he was and how she made him the man that he is today and don't you know I could see it even then I was trying to hold back the darkness can you see why I think this is another manipulation no I was always here to protect you that's why you became stronger because I was there to guide you you woke me up one night dripping Crimson on the carpet I saw it in your eyes cutting deeper than the scars could run she now gets specific recalling an incident of vessel attempted to take his own life by cutting his wrists perhaps the very attempt that is referenced in Atlantic she was bringing up times from Sund dining a tomb that paint vessel is weak and in need of her love and Dominion I want to help you but I don't know how I cannot fix your wounds this time I don't believe you when you tell me you are fine please don't hurt yourself again now there are several ways to read this as I'm sure you're already writing in the comments perhaps this is vessel speaking to her having seen how weak she is perhaps this is sleep genuinely coming to care for vessel and not wanting him to hurt anymore there may be some truth to that even within my interpretation but leopards can't change their spots this is what abusers do I'm the only one who cares for you it's not my fault that I can't always help you you need me [Music] this song I Feel adds cerence to my interpretation of the previous one this is vessel's response he isn't falling for it anymore why are you never real whenever you appear you leave me with that Grace I'm trembling with fear but I know that you will disappear just say awake whisper in my ear the vision of sleep that cares about vessel that loves him takes care of him that guides him from the darkness into the light is not real he can feel her in dreams but the moment he awakes she's Vapor well I believe that somewhere in the past something was between you and I my dear and it remains with me to this day no matter what I do this scar will never fade at some point in their long and stored history there was a genuine connection of some kind between these two he knows that but whatever it was it only served to hurt him and it's a pain that he will never forget don't wait cuz this could be the last time you turn up in the Ries of my mind he's warning her that the choke hold she has him in is loosening by the day if she wants to keep him around forever she needs to find a way to tighten it again perhaps by giving him the Ascension that he wants flowing with the tide rather than swimming against it just let me go or take me with you and there it is the ultimatum either release me from your grasp or allow me to become your equal no longer will the status quo maintain it ends here one way or [Music] [Music] another here the album takes a step back slows right down and strips be the situation that sleep and vessel Now find find themselves in he questions everything he knows about her every motive for every action do you roll with the waves or do you duck into deep blue safety The Aquatic Motif that spread across the previous album comes up again here with vessel asking if she is willing to flow with the events of the present or she would rather hide in the past as alluded to in the previous few songs do you pull at the chains or do you push into constant aching each and every day does she want to change or is she happy with the suffering that she currently exis in that they currently existing it's becoming more and more clear that vessel is not going to stick around much longer she needs to either break free from her Antiquated ways or be left behind is there something you give that you will never receive in return do you know what it is has she ever acted out of love done something for someone else without expecting to benefit from it directly has she ever had a single selfless moment is she even aware of the concept are you trying to live like everything is a lesson to learn can you ever forgive yourself does she have any designs on changing her ways on updating her behavior patterns in order to improve her life does she feel that she doesn't deserve to and that's why she continues to swallow her keys and my reflection just won't smile back at me like I know it should and I would turn to a stranger in an instant if I could vessel looks inwards now with the only lyrics in this song that aren't posing questions and assesses where he is and his desire to become somebody new and there is something eating me alive I don't know what it is maybe not that you conceal your feelings they just don't exist this is where I fear he might be right he clings to the delusion that she does care for him that it is real but it doesn't look like it is even if it were functionally she shows no real affection so it may as well not be do you ever believe that we can turn into different people it's getting harder to be myself he doesn't want to leave her behind he loves her but for this to work she needs to change something she is unwilling to do vessel wants to become someone new he's expressed that multiple times now but she shows no impetus to join him the curtain is beginning to draw I've tried so hard to fix it but nothing seems to help I cannot hope to give you what I cannot give myself real he knows finally he can't destroy himself to make her happy as an unhappy person cannot adequately bring joy to someone else he needs to leave her in order to ascend beyond the man he is now do you wish that you loved me it'll be so much easier if she loved him back for real not as a manipulation tactic not as something she denies the existence of real love but that can't happen this song serves as a moment of quiet contemplation before we come to the final stretch of this 3our Epic this song can feel like a step backwards in the story back to vessel praising sleep and begging for her affection but placed here where it is in the album I see it as one last appeal to her one last attempt at getting her to change along with him for so long I've waited so long that I almost became just a sto statue fit for nobody and I don't want to get in your way he's been here a lifetime Clinging On to this desire and hope for the life that he still feels they could have together but maybe as alluded to in Granite he is not right for her maybe she should leave him behind rather than taking him with her but I finally think I can say that the Vicious Cycle was over the moment you smiled at me the love he feels for her is real her smile is enough to brighten his mood to shift a bad day to a good one in an instant but is that on its own really enough just like the rain you cast the dust into nothing and wash out the salt from my hands so touch me again I feel my shadow dissolved will you cleanse me with pleasure I see traces of Atlantic here again with this idea of cleansing him scrubbing clean his past woes and dragging him away from the depression he was in when they first found each other but again these are the kinds of thoughts and feelings that I can imagine an abuse victim having when convincing themselves to go back to their for a partner I'm coiled up like a venomous serpent Tangled in your transcend I'm certain You've Got Your Hooks In Me well back now to the kinds of imagery used in the summoning where he sees himself as a weapon for her to wield a soldier in her arm I think this is him appealing to the vanity of that for one final time and I know I know the way that it goes you get what you give you reap what you s and I can see you in my fate perhaps after all this time all this shared suffering all these things they've done perhaps they now do deserve each other perhaps they are made for one another now when I open my eyes to the future I can hear you say my name so rain down on me he wants this future together this ideal partnership that he can see stretching out Beyond the Horizon this fantasy that he continuously builds for the two of them where they are respected equal but no such World exists [Music] [Music] and so here we are the title track the finale of this Saga borrowing the customary epilog of course the breaking point the final word the end I dream in phosphorescence see you drifting past the fog but no one told you where to go he's letting her go and she's drifting away from him she perhaps is unaware but he knows that she will be lost without him but you cannot allow this to keep going any longer with her un willingness to change we died through Crystal Waters Perfect oceans but no one told me not to breathe and now the weightlessness recedes we rejoined the metaphors of the end of sunding and the rest of tomb where vessel is sinking deeper into her Waters unaware that they'll drown him he has reached his last gasp of air and it's time to surface my my those eyes like fire I'm a winged insect you're a funeral P I adore this imagery he's a moth to the flame helpless to resist destined for death she is all that he desires but again that alone is not enough come now bite through these wires I'm awaking hell and the gods grow tired reset my patient violence along both lines of a pathway higher grow back your sharpest teeth you know my desire the technology metaphor again as vessel baits her into trying to bring him down the motif of her biting him has been used throughout the story but never quite like this he doesn't want her to take a bite and taste the sugar he's baiting her to attack him so that he can take her down I will travel far beyond the path of Reason take me back to Eden this this is ascensionism coming to fruition he'll become more than he was before more than she has ever been he will break free from her grasp and live beyond her in a way that she is incapable of doing godmother rise up I need you to see me for what I've become she knows him only as the broken vessel that she crafted for herself she doesn't fully comprehend what he is now and the threat that he can now pose to her when they go head to head I guess it goes to show is it not that we've no idea what we've gotten until we lose it and no amount of Love Will Keep it around if we don't choose it if you wanted me if you wanted this it was always there for you it's too late now you didn't choose me goodbye and I don't know what's got his teeth in me but I'm about to bite Back in Anger no matter of self sort fuel will bring back the glory of innocence and here it is he's finally Breaking Free of the joke C Le leaving her behind as he is now strong enough to do so and she's too weak to resist but he knows that the marks that she has made on him will last a lifetime he will never be the man he was before when we were made it was no accident we were tangled up like branches in a flood a ghostly reminder of the opening track on this album the Spectre of the hope he once had for their relationship the last vestages of what might have been but is now over I have traveled far beyond the path of reason take me back to Eden it's done he's surpassed her it's over every line of this song is a reference to something I'm not going to list them all but wow what a masterpiece this is I'd say uid is in the running for Sleep token's best song and for one of the best album closes of all time the main story already finished vessel runs us through the tail One Last Time lamenting over what might have been just run it back give me five whole minutes this feels like a voice note that one might send to a jilted lover one you know they might not want to listen to he's asking for 5 minutes of her time just to say what he needs to say then they can both move on if my fate is a bad collision and if my mind is an open Highway give me that Twilight two-way Vision give me one last ride on a sunset Sky linee time for one final death tones comparison this feels quite sex tape to me we're done but what if we had just one more night one more ride if this is all we're meant to be let's just do it one last time call me when you get the chance I can feel the walls around me closing in perhaps vessel's second guessing his Newfound Independence maybe he isn't as strong as he thought he was or perhaps he's just trying to convince himself that he does need her because he misses her just running forward a lifik wires as I see the past on an empty ceiling he has advanced Beyond her but he still feels Nostalgia for the times they spent together as painful as they often were memories do this even if there are a few positive memories spattered among negative ones in times of loneliness you remember the good yet in Reverse you are all my symmetry a parallel I would lay my life on so if your wings won't find you Heaven I will bring it down like an ancient byon he still feels that want to protect her to provide for her to see her happy he sees himself as her weapon a power to bring her all her desires call me when you have the time I just need to leave this part of me behind he wants closure he wants to speak to her one final time in order to properly leave her behind and move on probably not a great idea but in all this confusion and doubt it probably feels like a good one do you remember me when the rain gathers and do you still believe that nothing else matters referencing previous albums blood sport in particular as he seeks to question what hold he still has over her does she still think of him as he clearly still thinks of her with regularity the Night Belongs to you this bow has broken through I must be someone new finally finally he's ready to move on he reverses his stance from the opening song that the night does not belong to God it does she can have it he's giving up for real this time despite having previously expressed as much he'll move on to the next chapter in his life without her in the daylight the whites of your eyes turn black in the low light in turning Divine we tangle endlessly like lovers in Twi I know for the last time you will not be mine so give me the knife ah medus rest the final 2 minutes of this album of this Saga are Perfection ending where we began with a full long Cry of loss and what might have been but with entirely different context and meaning is genius this song This Album this [Music] band [Music] in case the previous 15,000 words weren't enough to clue you in I adore this band and their storytelling going through and writing this has only made me love it more on my first few lessons I pieced together most of what the story was but I intentionally avoided making my mind up entirely until coming to write this as I knew I eventually would I'm sure the story story is different in your head now that I've finished writing I'll go and check genius and readit and see what other people think the story is I'm sure some of you will tell me that I'm categorically wrong and that's fine obviously I disagree but that's the beauty of oblique story T it it's open to interpretation I'd love to read what yours is in the comment section but alas for now I must leave you this has been exploring the concept I've been roting Charmaine and until the future drive safe [Music] [Music] know oh