#obtain

Cause I've seen other people complain about it more so I wanna talk about it.

So lately, the band hasn't been doing much at the moment. They're presumably taking a break which obviously is fair. I've seen several people complain that they've been away for too long but in all honesty It's not really that bad compared to... a lot of bands. Slipknot have released nothing new since 2022, Tool was something like 2019, and I've heard of bands being inactive for over 10 years before coming back.

Anyway because they've been away the only thing they've been putting out is merch. Like, way too much merch. Someone said another of their couple dozen variants of the EiA vinyl they put out is pretty much the exact same as one that came out a year ago. It's out of control. People are tired of the emails and the demand for more money when a lot of what gets put out isn't very good in quality anyway...

Now obviously I know nothing about how any of it works so take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt but from what I heard the majority of those sorts of decisions come down to the label, not the band, although they do get some influence. People are blaming the band, blaming RCA (which I think is probably the main reason for this) and also sometimes fans for continuing to buy all this stuff, for the sake of Buying the Stuff. So basically a bunch of us are unhappy because at this point the band's image gets somewhat spoiled by that whole situation and then that censorship thing that happened a while back and consumerism being consumerism, which is a reasonable thing to be upset about.

So what can be done? Well, probably not much. But there are a few small things we can do that, if enough people get on board, might, just might, slow down the emails and the dreaded Obtains, but if not they will at least help you to not be wasting money on something you aren't really sure you want until you've already paid for it and have it in your hands.

Unsubscribe from the emails

Now obviously a big complaint when it comes to this issue is the amount of emails. Next time you get one, there should be a link on or around it to let you unsubscribe. The Apple Mail app made it so that it appeared as a button above the email itself.

The majority of people subscribed are doing it for tour dates, I imagine. But since they aren't touring at the moment, I'd say wait until they're back and then resubscribe. I typically just look at their Instagram page for that or if you get a lot of ST content on socials anyway you'll probably find out pretty quickly regardless.

Simple solution but easy to forget, it's what a lot of mailing lists rely on. I think this one is especially helpful when it comes to the limited time items which sort of link into what I'm going to talk about next

Give it some time before making the purchase

Something I've been doing recently is letting an item sit in my cart, or just not spending money on it immediately. Instead I'll give it some time, be it days, weeks, or months, before buying it to make sure that I still want it, and there's nothing I need or want more than that item at the time, and hey it might even go on sale if I wait a bit longer. When it comes to those limited edition, "Act With Haste" items I understand it is a bit different. It doesn't really sit right with me that "Nothing Lasts Forever" seems to often be used to justify selling a decent portion of their stock as numbered items to pre-order. It's a marketing tactic designed to stop you from thinking before making that purchase, encouraging you to just buy buy buy before you can't get it anymore. I've caved into these before, hell I still do from time to time, and I'm sure everyone has at least once. In those instances I would say the best thing to do would be to give it as much time as possible. If it's a pre-order item leave it until the last day so you can make your mind up on whether you actually want what's being sold or it's just FOMO from how it's being marketed. Though for me I've found the more they use that strategy the less I care for what's being advertised, anyway...

Look into what you're buying

Look into the place you're buying it from and their practices. Are they ethical and sustainable? What do the reviews say? What is the merch made of (for example if it's a shirt, is it made from a durable material you would be comfortable wearing)? These are good things to look into so you can make sure you're getting a product you'll enjoy, and will use often. An example of a merch store I like is MerchJungle. Their shirts are made ethically and out of cotton, which I found makes them comfortable and not as difficult to tear or get holes in. That being said everyone's preferences are different, so make sure the company you'll be buying from are likely to meet your personal standards.

Don't feel too bad for the band

Of course, merch is a big part of how bands make money, Sleep Token included. But if you're buying every merch release without really thinking about it, with that being part of the reason I can assure you, Sleep Token will be okay. It's completely fine to want to support them and doing so by getting some merch that you actually want from time to time... but they aren't gonna starve or stop making music because you didn't buy the new jacket, okay? I promise.

Of course, if you want a shirt or something it's better to buy an official one than something off of Temu or another factory that relies on slave labour (touching back on my last point a little), but another important thing to consider is the work of fanartists.

Although it can be kind of tricky to find them nowadays because of the RICO Incident, there are plenty of artists who make Sleep Token stickers, plushies, keychains, jewellery... simply out of love for the band. It's important to love and support these fanartists so I encourage checking out fan-made merch if you want to see something made from admiration rather than the same designs slapped on t-shirts by money hungry corporations.

And hey if you do art as a hobby or like making things, you could try making your own things inspired by the band. Could even be as simple as kandi inspired by songs or lyrics.

(Oh, and buying secondhand is always good too, but just be careful because an unfortunate amount of second-hand merch is sold for the same price or higher!)

Anyway, hopefully some of those are helpful. This kinda became a bit of a ramble about advertising and consumerism but I found myself thinking about these things for a while because labels are being labels and corporations are being corporations and Instagram commenters were being Instagram commenters-