After listening to This Place Will Become Your Tomb and Sundowning, I was dying to get more of Sleep Token, and I knew what I wanted to try next. A facet of every new artist discovery journey that is bound to be interesting is the first release, whether it's an EP, a single, or occasionally an artist that releases an album straight away. The One EP is no exception, and it's not only a stellar debut of three songs but a promising birth of their sound (and from hindsight, really cool to see how it started).
Thread the Needle, despite being the tamest song on the EP, is still quite a solid first impression. This would've been, for the band and any new listeners in 2016, the first song chronologically, so I think it was a strong pick. The six-and-a-half minute track starts off with a pretty safe section of Vessel singing over a soft instrumental that is akin to a pop ballad. Almost halfway through the song, they suddenly introduce the rest of the band, complete with low-tuned guitars, drums and ambience. They go back to another short verse before returning to the ambience-laden rock sound, and finally ending with a breakdown-like section. It's a solid track to showcase their sound, albeit a bit disconnected.
Fields of Elation is the shortest track on the EP, yet longer than the average song at four-and-a-half minutes. The soundscape is still the focus of the track, although this time it has noticeably more layers, as well as putting it on some of the vocal sections. There is a lot more ambient work put into this one, but the vocal melodies are relatively more intricate too.
When the Bough Breaks is an seven-and-a-half minute juggernaut of a song, and is quite a piece indeed. Sleep Token decided to go slow and draw the tension out with this one, starting with a vocal harmony, almost acapella verse. It moves on to this soft rock interlude that eventually intensifies into a powerful chorus, which is one of the best moments in this EP. It then slowly transitions out into a darker sounding instrumental before finally ending with another breakdown-like section.
One showcases a lot of the initial distinctive features of Sleep Token that would later develop into the more refined and matured sounds we hear on Sundowning and This Place Will Become Your Tomb. Despite it's chronological inferiority, I find it actually stands quite well on its own against the two full-length records, and in certain areas I enjoy it more, like for it's longer song lengths and slower, calmer pacing. I am quite satisfied with Sleep Token's first release, and I find it a formidable display of their developing sound.
Rating: 8/10