“Take Me Back To Eden” by Sleep Token

This (“Take Me Back To Eden”) is the title track of the Sleep Token studio album which came out on 19 May 2023 via Spinefarm Records. Sleep Token is another of the popular masked bands that managed to come out during the early 21^st century, with this particular act being from London and fronted by a singer known only Vessel or Vessel1 (compared to his bandmates, who are II, III and IV). 

It is Vessel1 who wrote and co-produced this song, accomplishing that latter assignment alongside Carl Brown.

As put forth by Sleep Token, the album itself is “part 3 of a trilogy” that began with “Sundowning”, their debut studio LP which came out in 2019. That would imply that 2021’s “This Place Will Become Your Tomb”, the band’s sophomore full-length, was the second installment in this “saga”.

The Lyrics of “Take Me Back To Eden”

The lyrics of this song are quite macabre and, in poetically adhering to that motif, it can also be argued so poetic that they’re borderline confusing. But by the time all is said and done, it can be ascertained that what the vocalist is most likely speaking to is being in a troubled romance with the addressee. 

And in terms of macabre lingo, what that stylistic choice appears to point to is a concept along the lines of the featured relationship having developed into a violent one.

But underneath it all is a sentiment of the vocalist wanting to salvage this union, despite how disagreeable it may have become. It is in the refrain that we find the title, but first Vessel puts first forth that he has “traveled far beyond the path of reason”. 

So Vessel stating a desire to be taken “back to Eden” afterward can be interpreted as Eden, in context, being symbolic of the reasonable, more-peaceful days of his relationship with the addressee, i.e. back to the euphoria stage, when they actually got along.

That conclusion is buttressed by the nature of the third verse, with the vocalist noting the human tendency to not appreciate “what we’ve got until we lose it”. And now, having grown wiser in romance, he is also able to advise us listeners that relationships are not kept alive based on love alone, no matter how much affection may be present. Rather, one has to “choose”, i.e. make a conscientious and continuous effort, to keep things going. 

But that said, in his present state, Vessel seems to be so consumed with anger that he comes off as one of those types of partners who can’t help but to play the back-and-forth game of toxicity with the addressee.