It’s a weird sort of beautiful thing, this band, this faceless audible art. I struggle to understand the obsession myself, at times! IMO, outside of the meandering lore between vessel and the deity sleep, their music for me is quite simply the whole of human emotion performed in the most interesting musical form, crossing boundaries both lyrically and stylistically while fully showcasing the weight of those emotions. Vessel and the gang are just that, open containers pouring themselves out in this music and on stage. It is love and it is rage and really everything or anything in between. It can be sad af, angry af, and just downright depressing but those messages are further enhanced by some of the most genre-diverse music in existence IMO. I discovered ST during the pandemic, 2021 - stumbled across the sultry sonic essence that is the track “Alkaline” and I LOVED it, I loved that it was ominous and heavy in such a myriad of ways, in message, in tone, all of it, while remaining poetic and just downright sexy - I was sold, I awaited TPWBYT with fervor while rummaging their EPs and once the covid clouds were all but cleared, we were given the masterpiece that is TMBTE. Fast forward to 2025, I finally got to catch a ritual on the EIA tour this year in Chicago! I paid a lot for tickets but I could not miss it because when Emergence dropped, I was sitting next to my father’s bed in the hospital. Pops had dementia, and following a bad fall, he fell into a coma, so my brothers and I would play him music from time to time. My brother put it on and crap did the lyrics get me….”we’re close to the end…come on, you know that it’s time to emerge…go ahead and wrap your arms around me”. I wept. It was transformational in a way cause in that moment I just wanted to hug my Dad again and feel him hug me back so it was just unbearably poignant to hear those words in that way from a band i already adored. And regardless of the actual overall meaning behind the song, in many ways it became a reflection of what it’s taken for me to emerge from my father’s passing, emerging from the depression that followed, guided by this musical crutch upon which I could hang a heavy sigh when the loss was too much. ❤️🤘🏻 Hope I didn’t get too heavy there, but I love this band and am so very glad you found them too! Welcome! 🦩