Having personally heard this album first, this wonderfully blue tracklist was in charge of delivering a impression to last, and it sure did. Anyone who knows Sleep Token will agree that the first thing to notice about them is Vessel's absolutely unreal vocals, and for many it is their favourite thing about this band. The mature, pain-laced angel of a voice is the glue that holds everything together in this album, with an impressive vocal range and techniques presented. Even then, its amazing how the rest of the band can match Vessel's prowess so easily, and at times surpass it.
What always amazes me about this band is how they use conventionally heavy elements in such a delightful and soft way. Heavy drop tunings on seven or eight string guitars and blast-beat-esque double kicks comfortably lie alongside haunting piano melodies and ambient electronics, proper breakdowns like the one in Hypnosis get to share the tracklist with full acapellas on Fall For Me and acoustic ballads like Missing Limbs. Their range and versatility is amazing throughout, being able to find order and structure in what would otherwise be conventionally chaotic. My favourite being Telomeres, which starts off as a soft, somber declaration of love accompanied by a piano melody, but by the end of it there's a guitar solo reminiscent of 2000s rock and an intense drum solo that shouldn't fit but does so surprisingly well.
They don't hold back with using electronics to do the job. The atmosphere and ambience are so well-crafted in all the songs, leaving you feeling like you've been thrown into a dreamlike state for the fifty-two minutes you've listened to it. They're so unconventional as a band that it's amazing they even exist, but disappointing that they're not bigger than they are.
If you glimpse their lyrical content for longer than five seconds, it's easy to tell their songs are mostly, if not entirely, about love. Whoever broke Vessel's heart, albeit rude, did the world such a favour for indirectly birthing so many quality songs. I love how poetic the writings are, they're so creative with their metaphors and unbelievably smart with their structures, it's just a pleasure to take in.
While This Place Will Become Your Tomb is much, much softer and tamer than Sundowning, I think it's for the better. I enjoy how mature and reserved this album is, and it serves its purpose much better than if it were to have something the likes of Gods on the tracklist. Sleep Token left their mark in the world with Sundowning to show that they're a band that is very capable of making whatever they want, but This Place Will Become Your Tomb is their trophy of thematics, that they're able to make something that feels complete and whole as a piece of art. Everyone loves, romance is well and alive, and this album is their reflection on it. Worship.
Rating: 10/10