Latest news with #SleepToken
Tom's Guide
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
The Beats Pill is my favorite portable Bluetooth speaker — I take everywhere and it's less than $100 right now
It's summer (in case you needed me to remind you), which means more opportunities to head outside. But if you want to take music with you, the Beats Pill is easily my favorite portable Bluetooth speaker. And, right now, you can pick up the blue Beats Pill for just $99 at Walmart, saving you $50 on the regular price. It's a steal for less than $100, since it comes with mammoth battery life (24 hours) and an IP67 water resistance rating. Those two features combined make it the ideal outdoor companion, which is why I take it about with me, and make good use of it to stream workout music while I exercise outside, soaking in the hours of sunshine. The Beats Pill is a redesigned version of the company's first (and most popular) Bluetooth speaker, now with improved sound, 24-hour battery life, USB-C charging, access to Apple's Find My network and compatibility with Android and iPhone. Plus, it's IP67-rated for water resistance, so you won't get caught short in the rain. Sometimes, when working at home on my own, I connect it to my computer and crank up to maximum volume blasting out Chappell Roan's Good Luck, Babe! or Sleep Token's Caramel — and it never sounds distorted (although max volume is loud). These tracks sound exceptional on the speaker because Beats has finally overcome its bass problem. In its early years, the company was (in)famous for the bassy depths its headphones and speakers could drop to. That was good for certain tracks, but most music got swallowed by that lower end. That's not the case with the Beats Pill. The balance it just right (to my ears) and blends the highs, mids and lows with seeming ease. And, just like my favorite workout earbuds, the Beats Powerbeats Pro (which are also currently discounted by 20%), the Pill works (almost) as well with Android devices as it does with your iPhone. Since you'll be taking the speaker around with you, there's a good chance that, one day, it'll go walkabout. Fortunately, the Pill works with Apple's Find My network, so it shouldn't take long to get it back where it belongs.
Tom's Guide
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
This 5.1 speaker system transformed my PC gaming setup, and it's a steal at $240 off
If there's one obvious thing your speaker setup needs to nail, it's sound quality. Thankfully, the SteelSeries Arena 9 surround sound system ticks plenty of boxes. This 5.1 setup comes with surround sound speakers, SteelSeries GG for all the customization a user could ask for and some slick RGB lighting to boot. It's a whole soundscape in a box, and after 8 months of using them for all my gaming, movie marathons and music, it's easy to recommend. So, why get these over one of the best gaming headsets? Well, if you don't have neighbours to annoy, it's hard to beat feeling completely enveloped while playing intense, narrative-driven titles or high-stakes multiplayer matches without having your ears covered. Still, its price is a tall order. Fortunately, it's just got a major price cut, as the SteelSeries Arena 9 speakers are now over $240 off at Amazon. At this price, and to really give your PC an audio upgrade, this is a steal. Boasting an immersive 5.1 surround sound setup complete with a powerful subwoofer, finely tuned woofers and tweeters for front and rear audio, along with reactive RGB lighting, the SteelSeries Arena 9 take audio in the games, movies and music you play up a notch — whether that's on PC, Mac or PS5. If you're looking to leave gaming headsets at the door and unleash the full sound of the headbanging soundtrack of Doom: The Dark Ages while ripping your way through demons, or want to feel like sitting in a warm tavern, enjoying a game of cards with friends in Hearthstone, then the SteelSeries Arena 9 are up to the task. I've always tended to reach for a headset if I want to hear an enemy's footsteps in, say, Valorant or Call of Duty: Warzone, but now I needn't do so because the sound on the Arena 9 offers a truly cinematic 3D soundstage. Gaming aside, while some had remarked that 5.1 upscaling wasn't great at launch, I found it to be a great way to listen to my eclectic music collection, both through USB (Windows) or via Bluetooth (Mac). The chiptune-esque synths and djenty guitar chugs of Sleep Token's album ''Even In Arcadia'' sound great, with the right amount of bass hitting from the floor-based sub-woofer and everything folding in nicely from the desktop speakers. Beyond sound, the Arena 9s also offer a few touches that make adjusting sound a breeze. Whether it's to switch connection type or just hit mute when I need to make a phone call, the puck-like remote is handy to have. Plus, the control pad offers a whole host of EQ options and customization. Oh, and who needs smart lighting when the speakers come with their own? Thankfully, SteelSeries GG's settings for tweaking the lighting on your speakers are, quite frankly, very impressive. You can have them cycle through colors, set solid hues for each independently, and much, much more (don't expect the longer speaker to light-up though). Be wary, though, as the rear speakers can feel as though they're communicating with spirits from time to time. From a subtle scratchy, static noise to just sounding as though they've been dunked underwater, I've heard some strange sounds on occasion, but it's not a dealbreaker in the slightest. In any case, If you want to be able to jump scare yourself by making a horror game antagonist sound as if they're right behind you, or want to upscale your music, the 5.1 SteelSeries Arena 9 can help. Now with a $240 discount? That's not a bad deal to make your games sing.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘It's all fan-driven. People are in absolute raptures': how mysterious masked rockers Sleep Token took over metal
On Saturday, Sleep Token headlined Download festival in Leicestershire. Topping the bill at the festival is something of a rite of passage for artists of a certain musical bent, proof that you are now among the biggest bands in metal and hard rock: Metallica, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Guns N' Roses are all former headliners. Last month, Sleep Token's fourth album, Even in Arcadia, debuted at the top of both the British and American charts. Their most recent UK tour took in the biggest venues in the country: the same is true of their forthcoming US tour. In 2025, Sleep Token could reasonably claim to be the biggest British rock band in the world. But they wouldn't, because Sleep Token operate behind a veil of anonymity. They have given virtually no interviews over the course of their career. The band's frontman and chief songwriter is known only as Vessel; the other members are referred to as II, III and IV. They perform live wearing masks, hoods and body paint to conceal their identities and promote a fictional mythology: it's too sprawling and complex to explain here – one fan has apparently produced a 35,000-word thesis on the subject – but it involves the band being a mouthpiece for a deity called Sleep. Their gigs are referred to as Rituals, their albums as Offerings, their social media posts frequently open with the word 'Behold' and end with the word 'Worship'. Like Hogwarts pupils, their fans are divided into 'houses': one is called Feathered Host, the other House Viridian. It's not an approach entirely without precedent – the 70s progressive rock band Magma developed a mythology about a planet called Kobaïa, even singing in its 'language', Kobaïan – but it's hard to think of anyone who has turned it to such commercial advantage. 'No one saw this coming – it's all fan-driven, it wasn't pushed by anyone else,' says Luke Morton, editor of hard rock magazine Kerrang!. 'I think it was during the pandemic when they really hit their stride – there was an escapist element, this world you could lose yourself in. TikTok had a large part to play in it – they just found this new audience that are so fully into it. I saw them in 2022 at Hammersmith Apollo, and there were people in floods of tears, in absolute raptures, just losing themselves in this world.' Of course, it takes seconds of Googling to discover Vessel's real name, and indeed a video of him aged 18, offering his services as an online piano tutor. But the striking thing about Sleep Token's fans is that they don't seem to want to know, or at least want to pretend they don't. Their online forums are governed by rules forbidding 'providing information that leads to identifying members'. 'Stop trying to break the spell,' counselled one fan on Instagram recently. 'Just love it the way it is or leave it.' Whatever you make of all this, it's at least an intriguing corrective to the idea that 21st-century music fans want artists to be relatable – as like themselves as possible – and that they essentially view music itself as a gossipy extension of artists' lives, always scanning lyrics for clues to feuds with fellow stars or coded vitriol aimed at former partners. Instead, Sleep Token's success seems to key into a supposedly old-fashioned, rather Bowie-esque idea that pop stars should be distant, remote, fantastical figures, their music a portal into a world very different from your own. And yet, Sleep Token's success has proved controversial. Even in Arcadia attracted some scathing reviews – Pitchfork called it 'sanitized pop-rap with all the sexed-up verve of Droopy the dog' and their fans 'dumb as hell'; The Needle Drop deemed it 'plain and uninspired' and 'metal for Disney adults'. To which any hard rock fan might shrug: so what? Ever since the debut album by heavy metal's founding fathers Black Sabbath was dismissed by Rolling Stone as 'claptrap' and 'a shuck', the kind of artists that play at Download and feature in Kerrang! have traditionally struggled to attract praise from the mainstream music press. But Sleep Token have attracted opprobrium from inside the hard rock community, too. Their initial success was adjacent to the progressive metal subgenre, a world of complex rhythms, lengthy songs and impressive technical proficiency: they are big on a sound called djent, which essentially means tricky riffs played on muted, low-pitch guitars. They always boasted a melodic sensibility, but it has become gradually more pronounced over their career: on Even in Arcadia, djent and what Morton calls 'big, crushing breakdowns' are outweighed by the influence of R&B, hip-hop, dance music and straightforward pop. Some voices have started questioning whether they really deserve to be called a hard rock band at all, among them – unexpectedly – TV presenter and author Richard Osman: 'It's not hard rock,' he protested. 'It's the least metal thing I've ever heard.' Indeed, so much criticism has flown Sleep Token's way that Doc Coyle, of US metal bands God Forbid, Trivium and Lamb of God among others, recently felt impelled to take to the internet in their defence, penning an article decrying 'pretentious gatekeeping' and 'a toxic heavy metal culture': it's perhaps worth noting that Sleep Token's fanbase skews young. For his part, Morton thinks their success is evidence that 'tribalism is a thing of the past': as he points out, elsewhere at this year's Download, McFly – a manufactured 00s pop band with a vaguely punk-ish lilt – are headlining a stage, which would have been unthinkable at the height of their fame. 'There's a backlash among metal elitists, but elitism always exists in heavy music, it has done since grunge happened. There's a backlash to any sort of band that gets popular,' he says. 'Nu-metal happened and people moaned, emo happened and people moaned. What I've seen more of is a quiet adoration for how big this all is: a 'rising tide lifts all ships' thing. If you don't like it, fine.' But amid the mythology and lore, it's hard not to notice that some of the lyrics on Even in Arcadia imply a certain weariness on the part of Sleep Token's leader. 'I swear it's getting harder even to exhale … I try not to talk about how it's harder now,' offers its most-streamed song, Caramel, adding 'this stage is a prison, a beautiful nightmare'. Perhaps the real existential threat to the band's continued success might not be the criticism they've attracted, but Sleep Token themselves, whoever they are.
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Sleep Token: So, there are no hard-rock headliners any more? Nobody told this lot
The rise of Sleep Token has been one of the biggest and most curious success stories of modern rock. The brainchild of masked, anonymous frontman Vessel, with a band of equally enigmatic, numbered musicians, the British collective have turned the art of tease and mystery into a genuine phenomenon that, apparently, has yet to find a roof. They don't give interviews, and what few vague insights they did offer the press in the earliest days comes to about 1,000 words in total. What they do communicate to fans is usually in symbols, or cryptic clues in artwork and lyrics. For 2021's This Place Will Become Your Tomb album, the numbers referenced turned out to be coordinates to places such as the Mariana Trench and Point Nemo, the most remote place on Earth. For all this apparent attempt to shun human contact, they've been greatly rewarded. Their fans are legion, poring endlessly over the band's lore and lyrics, selling out two nights – 'rituals', in Sleep Token parlance – at the O2 in December almost instantly. Last month's fourth album, Even in Arcadia, a genre-crossing mix of heavy, downtuned metal, R'n'B, dreamy pop and vibey electronic washes – went straight to number one in the UK and America, setting records for most vinyl sales for hard rock in the modern era, as well as netting the highest weekly streams. Drummer II will even perform at Black Sabbath's final show in July. On Saturday night, they hit yet another high water mark, headlining the iconic Download Festival at Britain's spiritual home of rock, Donington Park. Where Friday's headliners Green Day gave a masterclass in gigantic stadium rock, Sleep Token deal in something to rival the theatrical bombast and enormous production values of Beyoncé or Lady Gaga. If rock doesn't produce headliners any more, nobody told this lot. Their staging – revealed by a curtain drop that looked perilously close to going wrong – took the form of a massive, multi-level, structure tying in with Even in Arcadia's gardeny artwork, featuring cliffs, ornate archways, a massive doorway, and the band's logo sigil in a dazzling array of lights. Petals rained down non-stop from the roof during the heavy opener Look to Windward, while during Emergence, an actual waterfall began to cascade down the craggy backdrop, fuelled by apparently 60 tonnes of liquid contained in the stage roof. Then there's Vessel himself, cutting a sort of kabuki figure, pacing slowly across the stage in an ornate, armoured robe, with his shredded chest and arms blacked out. He's a curious fellow, leaving most of the grandstanding to his more extrovert bandmates. But this just makes him all the more compelling, even if the recent Top 10 single Caramel finds him declaring, 'This stage is a prison, a beautiful nightmare'. As with the music, his vocals aren't always standard rock fare. Often, he sounds like an otherworldly version of Sam Smith, laced with emotion and frailty when he isn't screaming to the heaviest bits. That they can pull of a show of such magnitude is impressive enough. That they can manage it with their mystique only growing in allure speaks to a band completely assured in what they do. As statements go, it's about the only thing Sleep Token have ever not been coy or ambiguous about. No further dates
Scottish Sun
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Reality show winner and pop star ‘unveiled' as mysterious masked performer President ahead of Download Festival slot
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THE identity of a mysterious mask-wearing performer who leads new band President has been revealed ahead of its Download Festival performance tomorrow afternoon. The hard-rocking act launched its presidential campaign out of the blue earlier this year with a series of cryptic social media posts. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 4 President is playing a 30 minute set at Download tomorrow afternoon Credit: Instagram More recently the band announced its first rally (headline gig) is taking place on July 30 at The Garage, London. It quickly sold out. Two crushing singles, In The Name of the Father and Fearless, are aural manifestos, acting as a rallying cry for rock and metal lovers to pledge allegiance. Speculation over President's identity has been rife ever since the first images of its frontman wearing a creepy rubber mask went public. A place on the Download Festival bill before a physical release indicated the band's members had some gravitas in the industry. The consensus is that the singer Busted frontman Charlie Simpson. President's songs bear a striking resemblance to Charlie's trademark gravelly vocals, particularly from his time leading Fightstar in the early noughties. That band reunited last year for a sellout gig at Wembley Arena to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Charlie won The Masked Singer disguised as a Rhino in 2023, and it seems the experience has inspired him to launch a more serious masked side project. Not only that, but fans have spotted a gap in the front teeth of the singer, which Charlie is known to have. Beyond the vocal and facial similarities, though, is the fact that the trademark for President's music on Spotify belongs to King of Terror. The Masked Singer crowns Charlie Simpson winner as Rhino revealed The sole director for that firm on Companies House is one Charles Robert Simpson, while documents show his wife Anna holds 50 percent share stake in the business. Though the mystery may be solved, the concept is still creative and refreshing. Faceless acts aren't particularly unusual in modern rock - Ghost have been doing it ghoulishly well for years and Download headliners Sleep Token are currently the genre's biggest poster boys - but President's committal to its theme remains intriguing. And mystery still surrounds the remaining members of the group with former Bring Me The Horizon star Jordan Fish and members of Sleep Token and Bullet For My Valentine tipped to be involved. If you're at Download this weekend check them out on the Dogtooth Stage at 4.25pm tomorrow. 4 It appears Charlie Simpson is the man behind the President mask Credit: Getty 4 Charlies is best known for his work in Busted with James Bourne and Matt Willis Credit: Getty
