Few bands in recent history have enjoyed a rise as meteoric as Sleep Token. Obscured identities, a villainous mystique and three celebrated albums in three years have coalesced to make them one of the most talked about bands in the world.
They’ve found huge success with a polyamorous sound where crunching djent riffs, sultry hip-hop turns, and sugary pop motifs are all equally at home in their atmospheric prog metal melting pot.
Though frontman Vessel and drummer II are the only two members credited as songwriters across their discography, their guitarist IV, has hugely impressed during their theatric live shows. Thankfully, while the guitarist’s identity remains a mystery, the gear he uses for his arena-crushing performances is not. As the band embarks on their biggest US tour to date in support of latest album Take Me Back To Eden, we detail everything you need to sound like IV, including our pick of budget alternatives.
How to sound like IV: Guitars
The most striking of IV’s riff machines is his custom-built Jackson eight-string Monarkh. Crafted by Jackson’s master builder, Mike Shannon, it features a 28” scale length, Fishman Fluence active pickups, an EverTune bridge, and an eye-catching Pale Moon Ebony fretboard.
Notably, the guitar doesn’t feature a multi-scale or fanned frets, unlike guitars he has previously touted, like Jackson’s X Series Soloist SLAT8. However, this was built before EverTune’s breakthrough with multi-scale guitars.
The band plays in Drop D#1 tuning (D# G# D# G# C# F# A# D#) and, as revealed by his guitar tech in this 2023 video for Jackson, IV “likes long necks and heavy gauge strings”, with 084-010s his set of choice to provide a thick, rounded tone. He also likes to pick hard, so don’t be afraid to dig into those strings.
IV also tours with Misha Mansoor’s signature Jackson SoCal Strat ($2,699/£1,999), which gets its outings for the band’s softer material, like Aqua Regia and The Summoning’s seductive outro.
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(Image credit: Jackson)
(Image credit: Jackson)
How to sound like IV: Baritones
Away from eight-strings, baritone guitars play a big role in Sleep Token and, again, IV has a custom shop model as his number one.
Its 30”scale length takes his long neck love to a whole new frontier, while its striking Pale Moon Ebony fretboard and Luminlay side dots combine with a roasted maple neck for another standout design.
For this build, IV has opted for Lundgren M6 pickups, a brand brought to the fore by Meshuggah’s Fredrik Thordendal. D’Addario 24-84 gauge strings are said to be his preferred choice, keeping that same thick, cable-like consistency across his riff-making fleet.
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(Image credit: Gretsch)
(Image credit: Harley Benton)
How to sound like IV: Tones
(Image credit: Adamross Williams)
Since IV’s guitar tech let slip that he uses a Kemper modeling amp live, the band has been listed as using Quad Cortex floor modellers on the road. It’s widely believed (although not officially confirmed) that Neural DSP’s Archetype Gojira plugin was used extensively on latest album, Take Me Back to Eden. Having worked with producer George Lever for their first two records, his presets would be a good starting point.
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(Image credit: Neural DSP)
(Image credit: Valeton)
How to sound like IV: Effects
(Image credit: Adamross Williams)
Sleep Token don’t go overboard with effects, the focus here is on coloring tones to match the mood of the moment, so both modelers featured above should deliver suitable palettes.
The Summoning’s outro employs a clean tone spiced with a little flanger, so try and sculpt a flavorsome tone that still lets plenty of the chime of the guitar to cut through. Rolling the gain off a Soldano SLO-100 crunch channel will give you the right tonality. IV also uses an envelope for some gritty lo-fi vibes during the song’s breakdown, while the Hypnosis intro sprinkles a tremolo effect onto IV’s rhythm tone.
Generally speaking, the band’s spooky aesthetics come from the synths and ambient layers that dwell beneath IV’s teeth-grinding rhythm tones. If you wanted to replicate the synths from The Night Does Not Belong to God, for instance, you’ll want a bright clean amp like a Fender Twin, a slow delay and a shimmery reverb with bass-heavy EQs to eliminate some pick attack.
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A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He’s also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.
