This Place Will Become Your Tomb | Sleep Token | Lore Explained

This Place Will Become Your Tomb | Sleep Token | Lore Explained

Here is my interpretation of the story behind Sleep Token’s 2021 album This Place Will Become Your Tomb.  

** What follows is my personal interpretation of lore. I base my explanations on the lyrics, music video imagery, band interviews, and fan theories.

Background info: There is a hidden code on the album booklet that contains coordinates that lead to Point Nemo which is the “Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility.” It is the place in the ocean that is farthest from land. It’s also known as “space craft cemetery” which where the most spacecraft debris resides.

There was also another set of coordinates that led to Davidson Seamount which is A Whale Fall location off California –basically a whale tomb at the bottom of the ocean.

Numbers associated with each song tells the depth in fathoms which gets progressively deeper as the album goes on.

Track 1) “Atlantic” We last left off with Vessel having survived a suicide attempt. He jumped into a body of water and nearly drowned if it wasn’t for Sleep saving him. While he was drowning, he got a glimpse of the nightmare realm where Sleep resides and learns there is a secret portal somewhere in the ocean that leads to Sleep’s lair. Now, after saving Vessel from his suicide attempt, Sleep was pissed and wanted to end things with Vessel, but Vessel begged her to stay—saying he’d do anything to keep her. Sleep says she needs time to think things over and forces Vessel to go to the hospital to recover from his suicide attempt. He lays there in the hospital wishing he were dead, wanting only to go to sleep so he can return to her. But she refuses to speak to him until he has recovered fully.

Track 2) “Hypnosis” This is Vessel longing to return to Sleep. Wants to be devoured by her once again. Possibly dreaming about times past. I imagine during his stay at the hospital perhaps the drugs he’s on gives him insomnia which is driving him mad since the only time he can reach Sleep now is when he is asleep.

Track 3) “Mine” Vessel is begging Sleep for an answer, reminding her how they were meant to be together. He decides that even if she tries to end things with him, he won’t let her.     Track 4) “Like That” Vessel finally gets to speak with Sleep. He offers himself up like a sacrifice, asking for her to hurt him as he knows she gets a sick pleasure out of hurting him. He doesn’t enjoy the pain, but he is willing to endure it just to be near her. She takes the opportunity to get her fix and tears into him. Yet, when it’s all over, she still decides she wants to end things with him.     Track 5) “The Love You Want” This is Vessel’s reaction to being dumped by Sleep. He is completely cut off from her and can’t even reach her in his dreams. He’s not just going to lie down and die, no, he goes to seek her out. Now, I talked about how Sleep reigns over the nightmare realm which can only accessed while you’re asleep—BUT there is one other earthly way to access it. Somewhere in the ocean there is a portal that leads to the nightmare realm. The location of this portal is unknown but that doesn’t stop Vessel from searching.   Track 6) “Fall for Me” V essel goes on a mission to find this portal. He sets out to search the deepest parts of the ocean to seek his lover. Now, it’s pretty impossible to get to some of these places so, I think he does this by astral projection. By freeing his consciousness from his earthly body, his can travel the ocean without need for air or any special equipment. This is not without risk, however. Because he is leaving his body for another realm and because he is traveling so incredibly far, if—say—the astral projection of himself were to get eaten by a sea monster, he will essentially die as his consciousness will cease to exist. I believe this is Vessel setting out on his perilous adventure and traversing the deep.   Track 7) “Alkaline” The first place he searches for the portal is Davison Seamount where he encounters the bones of an ancient dead whale. Here, I believe he has a conversation with the whale, (Now, I don’t think the whale actually speaks back, but it’s sort of Vessel talking to the intimate bones about what he’s doing there.) He tells it about Sleep and tries to explain what it is about her he loves so much but he finds it difficult to put into words.   Track 8) “Distraction” The portal was not at the whale graveyard, so he keeps looking. The farther away from his earthly body he travels and the longer he is away, the more he risks his death. If he is separated from his body for too long, he won’t be able to return and will either die or become one of the phantom-like ghosts that haunt the waters for eternity. Already he can feel his soul fracturing and growing weaker the farther he travels. But he decides it’s too late to turn back. Either he will find her, or he will die trying.   Track 9) “Descending” As Vessel travels the ocean deep, he begins imaging how his meeting with Sleep with go once he finds her. He begins falling down that spiral of depressive thoughts of how bad things could go. He starts to make up the conversation in his head and grows fearful that he will only meet rejection when he finally sees her. He is slowly coming to terms with the fact that this journey could all be for nothing.   Track 10) “Telomeres”   Vessel searches the spacecraft cemetery at Point Nemo. He doesn’t find the portal there, but he does discover a clue that leads him to believe the portal is at the deepest part of the ocean. He’s already been away from his body for too long and he begins hallucinating—seeing Sleep everywhere he turns. Traveling 35,000 feet under, will most definitely cause the permanent separation of his consciousness from his body. Doing this will effectively bring his death. Will he do it?   Track 11) “High Water” In answer to the question will he sacrifice his life for this lover who probably doesn’t even love him back? Absolutely. Vessel dives deeper and deeper. He feels his soul separating and the tether to his early body slipping from his grasp the farther her goes. As he swims, he tries to ask himself if this was worth it. During this whole journey he’s been in denial about Sleep being faithful to him. He thinks there is someone else, but he doesn’t want to face that possibility. However, the closer he gets to her, the more his is forced to come to terms with the fact that she may never take him back and she may have even moved on already.   Track 12) “Missing Limbs”  Vessel makes it to the portal at the bottom of the Challenger Deep, officially sacrificing his life as he crosses over. Here I imagine him laying eyes on Sleep for the first time it what feels like eons to him. And the look that passes between them tells him everything he needs to know: She’s moved on. She doesn’t love him. He shouldn’t have come.