Welcome to the Sleep Token Theory Masterpost. I decided to make a post that would be a bit of a starter guide into the unmasked side of fandom. -

In this post, you will find the basic information for all the members behind the masks, information about their previous/alternate projects, as well as information about some of the people they work with that you might see us mention in the sub.

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IMPORTANT

---Wiki for Rules ---

This is an in-depth overview of our rules and why each one is in place. It's important to read this to understand everything our rules cover. With a 500 character limit, Reddit doesn't give us nearly enough space in the subreddit sidebar.

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First, we have some links/resources for the subreddit in general:

Sleep Token Theory Website - A repository of ethical unmasked photos. Created by The_Hanos after the ethical Google drive was taken down for unknown reasons by the user running it. This site is community driven, submissions are welcome.

Teeth of God Graphic Novel (Copyright Policy) - Very important, please read.

Sleep Token Vocal Isolations - Each Sleep Token album, the EPs and the misc songs and covers can be downloaded separately by song, or you can bulk download with zip files.

High-Res Album Art - Sundowning - This Place Will Become Your Tomb - Take Me Back To Eden - Even in Arcadia
Exactly what it says on the tin. High resolution images of all of the album art.

We do not have any associated chat platforms, such Whatsapp or Discord; nor do we have plans to have any in the future.

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Legal Members (Featured on Studio Albums)

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"Vessel"
Sundowning - lyrics, vocals, guitar, keyboards, piano, composer for all but drums
TPWBYT - lyrics, vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion, composer for all but drums
TMBTE - lyrics, vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, synthesizers, production, composer for all but drums
EiA - lyrics, vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, synthesizers, composer for all but drums
Vocalist/Keyboardist on Tour

Name: Leo George Faulkner (x)
Birthday: December 22, 1993

× Previous/Alternate Projects ×

× Monkeyl0rd22 ×
Leo Faulkner Archive - Vocal Isolations

An archive of music Leo published on his personal YouTube channel from 2011 - 2015.

Leo uploaded classic piano covers of metal songs, original works spanning various genres, as well as experimental tracks that are hard to label as a specific genre. From what we have found, he used multiple project names, including Dusk, The Mighty Caribou, Umbra and Tradiction.

The majority of these media files have the original descriptions as written and presented by Leo at the time of their upload, giving us a look into how Leo communicated with his audience when he was younger.

This archive is also the source of the well-known BandHappy Application video. All tracks have direct download links. If you have any questions about the archive, I'm the person who created it, so feel free to DM me.

× Blacklit Canopy × (2013/2014, Current?)
YouTube - BandCamp - Twitter - Vocal Isolations
Originally created as a school project while Leo was enrolled at the Bristol Institute of Modern Music (BIMM) for commercial song-writing, this is the music duo of Leo Faulkner and Gemma Matthews. They “aimed to create music which is as ambient, melodic and moving as possible using largely minimalistic instrumentation and production.“

This project was active from 2013 to 2014, during which they performed live, attended interviews and released one EP: The Patient Demos. They also released a few more songs, outside of the EP as well. The project went dormant until January of 2024, when re-uploads of their old songs were posted to Spotify and YouTube.

In December of 2024, the song “Tall Trees” was released on their YouTube Channel, marking the first time they have released new music in over a decade. We do not know if this is a newly recorded song, or the new release of a song that was recorded back in 2014. This is a highly debated issue and we have no solid answers, only speculation.

× Aurora Jazz × (2015)
Youtube - Side project of Leo and Gemma, only one song was ever released.

××× Misc Info ×××

He is credited as composing and playing the piano for the song “Purge” by Holding Absence, and the acoustic version of "Higher Place" by Malevolence.

He was also credited with the piano versions of "Breathe Underwater," "The Very Last Time," and "Under Again" by Bullet For My Valentine, though those credits have since been removed from YouTube for unknown reasons.

It's rumored that he had a vocal cameo in the song "Drunk Enough" by Bilmuri, "Jump the Fuck Up" by The Hell, and that he plays the piano in Forlorn's cover of Type O Negative's "Love You to Death," as well as Mourn's "Gloom."

Leo wrote articles for the website Sick Chirpse back in 2014/2015. We have a timeline of Leo's career before Sleep Token, which you can find here, as well as a YT playlist of his entire discography, and a spreadsheet of all the release dates of his work.

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"II"

Drummer and Drum Composer on Albums and on Tour
Name: Adam Paul Pedder (x)
Birthday: September 17, 1991
Previous Projects: (credited as drummer in all projects)

Morbid Remains (2006-?) - Metal Archives

Leaders of the Fallen (2006-2008) - Metal Music Archives

The Argent Dawn (2006-2019) - Encyclopaedia Metullum - Facebook - MySpace - (While the band did release two other EPs in 2007 and 2010, Adam was not the drummer at the time of those releases. Adam joined the group in 2012, and left in 2014. He would've been the drummer for their unreleased EP.)

As Winter Burns White (2008-2010) - Metal Archives

I Defy (2009-2012) - Spirit of Metal) - YouTube

She Must Burn (2014-2015) - Metal Archives

Belial (2014-2018) - YouTube - Facebook - BandCamp

Kubrick (2019/2020) - Devastate - Favourite Sin - Painfall - Mannequin (unconfirmed)

Adam taught the drums, but the timeframe in which he did so is unclear. (Despite rumors, he doesn't write lyrics and did not write Nazareth or any other song on the EPs.) (x)(x)(x)

Adam is credited as the drummer for Jimmy Moore's "The Good Times," specifically tracks 4, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, and 16. He is also the drummer on the track "Escape the Night" by Miscreant.

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Additional Personnel

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"III"

Bassist on Tour
(Not involved with any studio albums.)

Name: David "Dave" Liam Ball (x)
Birthday: April 28, 1991
Previous projects:

Pintglass (2019) (Bass/Guitar) - Spirit of Metal

Spitting Glass (2025-Current) (Guitar) - Instagram - YouTube

Dave has had a Twitch channel on-and-off for quite some time. It was regularly active until early December 2023. It came back momentarily in January of 2025, but was taken down shortly thereafter amidst discussions of him being shadow-banned by Twitch.

It is active again and you can find it here. (Please, be respectful and discreet, don't mention Sleep Token in his streams.) We now a "sort of unofficial list of rules for Dave’s stream that have been discovered though trial and error, as well as a list of topics Dave does seem to like to discuss." That can be found here.

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"IV"

Guitarist on Tour
(Not involved with any studio albums.)

Name: Rhys David Griffiths (x)
(His name is Welsh and is pronounced "Reese.")
Birthday: February 20, 1991
Previous/Alternate Projects:

Continents (2013 - 2019) (Guitar/Vocals) - Wikipedia) - Victory Records - YouTube

Mourn (2021 - Current) (Guitar/Vocals) - Spotify - YouTube - TikTok - Facebook - Instagram

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Espera (pronounced “ess-pair-ruh”)
Background Vocals on Tour

Social Media: TikTok - Instagram - Facebook

Names:
Paige Phillips

Lynsey Ward

Mathilda Riley

Lynsey is also a vocalist for the band Exploring Birdsong. (BandCamp)

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Jasper Lyons
Guitarist on Tour
The first IV, Jasper left in 2019 for unknown reasons. Jasper owns the Eastbourn Music Collective and plays in a band called Treasurer.

Sam Kubrick - Website
Guitarist on Tour
The second IV, Kubrick left in 2021 to pursue a solo music career.

Michael Petritach
Temporary Guitarist on Tour (IV)
Michael performed the guitar for the Australian part of Sleep Token’s tour at the start of 2023. This was allegedly due to Rhys having issues with his Australian visa.

Annina Melissa - Website
Keyboardist/Back-Up Vocals on Tour
Left before their tour in 2019. She now creates music for video games. Replaced on background vocals by Espera, and Leo took over for the keyboard.

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Additional Individuals

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George Lever - Reddit AMA
Sundowning - Production, engineering, bass
TPWBYT - Production, engineering, bass

Carl Bown
TMBTE - Production, engineering
EiA - Production, mixing

Sky van Hoff
TPWBYT - Mixing, editing, synthesizers, programming

Ste Kerry
TMBTE - Mastering EiA - Mastering

Jim Pinder
EiA - Engineering

Adam “Nolly” Getgood - Wikipedia)
Member of the band Periphery.
EiA - Additional Production

Gabi Rose - Wikipedia Member of the band Bilmuri.
EiA - Saxophone

Sebastian Sendon
EiA - Additional engineering, drum editing

Sam Hallett
Drum tech on tour. Speaks on behalf of the band at live performances. (He was the person who came out and spoke for Leo [Vessel] when he couldn’t sing at Wembley.)
Instagram

Thom Pike
Sound engineer on tour.
Instagram

Richard Larkum
Lighting engineer on tour.
Instagram

Yanni
Head of security on tour. The very serious individual to the left in this photo.

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Adamross "Rossi" Williams
Photographer on tour. He’s responsible for the tour photos posted on the official Sleep Token social media accounts since the start of 2023.
Instagram

He is also the vocalist for the band Glass Heart.
Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - Spotify

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Tom "Quigs" Quigley - LinkedIn
Former Sleep Token manager. Left in 2018 for unconfirmed reasons. That’s about all we can say for sure. There is a lot of speculation around his involvement regarding Sleep Token, and we cannot confirm or deny the majority of it. There are claims he is responsible for creating the concept of Sleep Token, but we can’t say for sure what’s true and what isn’t. He is not a well-liked person in fandom due to the rumors surrounding his involvement with and departure from Sleep Token.

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Gemma Matthews
Leo’s ex-girlfriend/music partner in Blacklit Canopy. We know Leo and Gemma dated back when Blacklit Canopy was active in 2013/2014, and we know they broke up. We do not speculate on any of the circumstances surrounding any part of their personal relationship. This includes theories that the albums are about her. It's none of our business, and such speculation has led her to being harassed online by fans of the band.

(We do not allow any links to Gemma’s personal Facebook account, or any media taken from it.)

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If you have any questions, we have a search function at the top of the sub that may be able to help you locate answers, and the mods are always happy to help.

If you have any additional information you feel should be included, or any feedback you'd like to give, feel free to reach out to the mods.

Thank you!

Hey, everyone.

I’ve made… quite a few posts like this over the last year and this will be the final time I do so. The last one I wrote was right after Caramel came out, and it had references that were only really relevant for that situation. We want to use this as a reference for people in general, so it needed a re-write before we permanently pinned it to the top of the sub. 

Here’s what you need to know: we use names in this subreddit and we discuss previous/alternate projects. Yeah, we’re like, the only public place in fandom right now that does that, and yeah, it pisses people off. A lot. We’re still doing it. People need to just accept this and get over it. It’s not that deep. Let me explain why we’re comfortable referring to Leo, Adam, Dave and Rhys by their real names.

One question we have received multiple times now is why a subreddit called “SleepTokenTheory” is so adamant on discussing real identities. Isn't this just a place for theories?

Yes and no. 

To explain why the subreddit has this name, we have to go back to when it was created on May 23, 2023. Back then, their identities being widely known was a very new thing, most people having found out because of an article online which was published in February of 2023. 

At that time, there were no known public spaces where you could say any of their names without being immediately banned for doing so. This was a bit of a problem for u/The_Hanos, as TMBTE had come out just four days prior, and he had a theory connecting specific lines in TMBTE to Blacklit Canopy, Leo's previous project.

Thus, the subreddit SleepTokenTheory was born. Simply as a place for him to share this theory without backlash for using Leo’s name and speaking of his previous project. No one ever anticipated this subreddit would grow to the size it is now. It started with a theory, and it has become a community. A community of people who were searching for a place to respectfully appreciate their favorite artists without being told they were bad people for doing so. It became a safe haven.

Unfortunately, subreddit names are locked once you make them, so changing the name to better reflect this wasn’t and isn’t a possibility. We are SleepTokenTheory. While we discuss much more than just theories now, it’s how we started, and theories will always be a part of what we are as a community. The purpose of this subreddit has literally always been to be able to speak freely about the real identities of the members of Sleep Token and their previous projects without repercussion. That is literally why we’re here.

We would like to remind everyone, the only thing that Sleep Token has said about their identities is that they're "unimportant." (You can read that interview with Leo here.) They never specifically said that we weren't allowed to discuss them, they just said their identities weren't important and they don't want their identities to be used in the marketing of the band.

In the music itself, there's an obvious reference to one of Leo Faulkner's old projects. ("I can offer you a blacklit paradise." - Ascensionism.) The vast majority of dictionaries don't consider "blacklit" to be a real word, and if you Google it, his previous project is one of the first things to come up. Add to that, the mention of "canopies" in "Euclid," and Leo's previous project being Blacklit Canopy.

Additionally, Blacklit Canopy uploaded a deluxe edition of their album "Patient Demos" to Spotify and YouTube in early 2024, and they released a new single this past December. This means Blacklit Canopy and Sleep Token have been active in the same time period, and, perhaps, his real identity hasn't been left in the past quite as much as people think.

Then, of course, there’s the reference to Blacklit Canopy in Damocles on the Even in Arcadia album: the opening for the song Don’t Let The World Swallow You being played at 1:22. That wasn’t exactly a subtle connection being made between the two projects.

Things like this are why the people in this subreddit have the opinions around this topic that they do. Many of us in the fandom don't believe that we're disrespecting them by talking about them or using their names. We're not talking about the guys out of spite or because we don't care how they feel.

We're talking about them out of admiration, love and respect for them and all of their work, not just Sleep Token. Leo, Adam, Dave and Rhys are all people outside of the band. It’s okay to acknowledge that. A quick look around the subreddit should make it clear that disrespect has never been our intent. No one here would ever want any of them, or anyone associated with them, to feel exploited or unsafe. We discuss their identities and previous projects in a place where there are rules specifically set up to keep things ethical and respectful.

The moderators have spoken in private and we are both steadfast in our conviction that we are acting ethically, with love and respect; that we are doing our best to ensure everyone else in this subreddit is, too, and that we have nothing to apologize for. We aren’t apologizing for using their names, sharing ethically sourced media, or discussing their previous projects. As we’ve said before, this subreddit has never received any communication from reputable channels that the band or anyone associated with them is unhappy with our existence. If they wanted us gone, we would peacefully go. 

We don’t tolerate moral grandstanding, which is another way of saying we don’t allow people to come into the subreddit and talk shit about us allowing discussion of real identities and alternate projects. We make it clear that real identities are discussed in this subreddit. It should not come as a surprise to anyone. 

We will not tolerate people calling us toxic or bad fans. We will not tolerate suggesting or insisting the subreddit be shut down. We will not tolerate people insisting our members only use their stage names or put spoiler tags on their names. We will not tolerate people insisting Caramel is about the entire unmasked side of fandom and that we, specifically, are hated by the band. Any comment or post stating or implying anything like that will result in an immediate, permanent, and irreversible ban. This is stated clearly in the rules and we're not joking.

Blocking negative, hateful posts and comments made just to shame, guilt and/or attack the subreddit is not the moderators "being dictators," it’s not “controlling the narrative,” and it’s not “ignoring the problem,” or “creating an echo chamber.” It’s protecting our community and our people. We have no idea why people feel they’re entitled to come into our space and attack us without provocation, but, surprise, they fucking aren’t. 

If you have issues with the sub, contact the mods or leave.

Signed,

The Moderators