If you've checked out any of my verse music playlists, you may have noticed that I hold a very deep fondness for Sleep Token! After being introduced by a friend at the end of 2023, they quickly became my favourite music artist of all time, and many of their songs are permanent favourites too. They are the only band I have ever wanted (and managed!) to see live. Gilnoruil's singing voice claim is Vessel.
So many of the songs fit for my various stories, so as a project one afternoon I did a 'deep-dive' into Sleep Token's music catalogue. This is what you will find on this page, divided by verse! Won't you come and dance in the dark with me? ;)
Please note that some of the song descriptions contain SPOILERS for the respective story, so please mind them if you want to read the stories!
Lyrics on this page © Sleep Token.
General - Spans All Verses
Rain (TMBTE)
Gilnor’s signature song. Literally all of the lyrics fit to his character and his discovering of love with Halla.
“And just like the rain, you cast the dust into nothing, and wash out the salt from my hands. So touch me again, I feel my shadow dissolving, will you cleanse me with pleasure?”
Euclid (TMBTE)
Signature song for Hallanor’s relationship (despite the ‘sad ending’ - re-imagine as ‘you will always be mine’).
“Yet in reverse you are all my symmetry, a parallel I would lay my life on. So if your wings won’t find you Heaven, I will bring it down like an ancient bygone.”
Past Self (EiA)
I previously assigned this song to BG3 but honestly, it fits really well everywhere, and feels so quintessentially Halla and Gilnor that it gets promoted to a Universe-wide song.
“If this is love, then I am out of hesitation, head over heels or elevation. Walking an inch above the pavement, taking it stride by stride together. If this is real, then I am all up in a frenzy, not like before when I was empty. Say that the story we tell is never-ending, taking it side by side together (side by side together).”
Hypnosis (Tomb)
The signature Halla and Gilnor sexy time song! Gilnor’s experiences of love and intimacy vary across the different stories, but once it is kindled for Halla his passion is unquenchable.
“And you make it more (you know you hypnotise me always), than I (you know you hypnotise me always), could ever feel (you know you hypnotise me always), before.”
Sugar (Sundowning)
Second signature sexy time song that easily fits with all. Gilnor goes from indifferent about sex to eager to learn new things about himself with Halla. This side of him that is only for her. The difference between any fleeting, meaningless encounters to the desire he holds for the love of his life (lives).
“Sugar, I've developed a taste for you now. Do you wanna see how far it goes? Do you wanna test me now, my love?”
Infinite Baths (EiA)
This song is a bit of an oddity because of the ending - but similar to how ‘Calcutta’ bridges from CotC into the rest, I feel that ‘Infinite Baths’ does the reverse. It serves as a sort of ‘ending’ to all the other verses and then loops back to CotC again with the threads that return to ‘Look to Windward’ (Ouraian). The glimmer of divinity in Gilnor and in Halla.
“Infinite baths, washing over me at last. Are you the method in my madness? Are you the glory in my wrath? Infinite baths, bursting colours when you laugh. I've been running since I got here, but now I'm falling into, infinite baths.”
“Teeth of god - Blood of man - I will be - What I am.”
Baldur's Gate 3
Granite (TMBTE)
Halla’s song for her ex; the shitty elf arsehole who abused her.
“Between the second-hand smoke and the glass on the street, you gave me nothing whatsoever but a reason to leave, you say you want me but you know I’m not what you need. But I am.”
Alkaline (Tomb)
Living with his accidental ‘saviour’, Gilnor comes to appreciate Halla as his friend, and then his feelings start to morph and change… His past is a blank, but his present and future? He wants her.
“If anything, she's an undiscovered element, either born in Hell or Heaven-sent, either way I'm into it.”
Missing Limbs (Tomb)
Halla and Gilnor’s relationship takes a hit when he murders the innocent dragonborn bard in the middle of the night with no memory of how or why. Gilnor feels torn asunder, and fears that Astarion will take her.
“'Cause it still makes my blood run cold, to remember what I did before, the stories that you never told to me. And it still makes my blood run thin, to remember what you are to him, and I'll live like I've got missing limbs for you.”
Ascensionism (TMBTE)
A double prong of Astarion’s feelings over his ascension, and also Gilnor’s fear of Astarion toying with him, of the vampire’s affection not being real ‘you take what you want, then leave.’
“Won't you come and dance in the dark with me? Show me what you are, I am desperate to know.”
Vore (TMBTE)
Gilnor’s return to the Bhaal Temple to save Halla from Orin - when thinking about Gilnor’s relationship to the Dark Urge inside him. The screams especially relate to the Urge and wanting to be ‘welcomed’ into viscera, encouraging Gilnor to get ‘swallowed’ by Bhaal’s doctrine with the Urge.
“Are you in pain like I am?”
Levitate (Sundowning)
Halla laments over Gilnor’s death at the hands of Bhaal.
“Will you levitate, up where my love doesn't matter. Will you levitate, where I won't reach you.”
Jaws
More towards Astarion than Halla. The recognition between both men that they are dark predators, but also extremely vulnerable to each other.
“And I'm not here to be the saviour you long for, only the one you don't. Are you watching me, with eyes of a predator, as you move towards the door, oh-oh?”
World of Warcraft / Dragon Princes / Halla the Princess / Monster (MHAU)
I Wanna Dance With Somebody (RoomBelow)
Pretty self-evident really.
“Oh, I wanna dance with somebody, I wanna feel the heat with somebody, yeah. Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody, with somebody who loves me.”
Give (Sundowning)
Features in Princess Halla - but fits well to all the dragons. He wants everything Halla is, and wants her to want everything he is too. He will be her light, her warmth, and destroy her enemies. His consort, his life-mate.
“If you want to give, then give me all that you can give, all your darkest impulses and if, you want to give me anything then give, give in again.”
Mine (Tomb)
The dragons are particularly ‘sensitive’ to the feeling of repetition (re: reincarnation) and the hidden thread that binds Halla and Gilnor together throughout the Universe - perhaps as they listen more to their ‘baser’ instinct.
“I am certain, that you and I are crashing course, driven by a holy force, and oh, you can see.”
Jaws
Halla coaxes the bestial dragons to show her who they really are. And Gilnor wants the same baring of weak-points to bask in trust.
“Show me those pretty white jaws, show me where the delicate stops, show me what you've lost, and why you're always taking it slow, show me what wounds you've got, and show me love.”
Fields of Elation (One)
Gilnor’s beasts are tamed, bringing him peace.
“Your name is a sin I breathe, like oxygen. Caught in the careless arms of lust, again. Nobody else can pull me out. The fields of elation, quiet and loamy.”
Modern / MafiaAU
Nazareth (Two)
Gilnor’s personal song in this verse, highlighting his life of violence and control.
“I'll show you, what you look like from the inside. And I'll see you when the wrath comes, around.”
Take Aim (Sundowning)
Love for Gilnor in this verse is unknown, an anomaly. Makes him question who he is and what he does. What caring about someone could really mean. And yet he wants it.
“And you know I'll be yours, when the moment is perfect. I will fire and forget 'til we both lay broken. And you know I'll be yours, just want to be worth it.”
Dangerous (EiA)
He might be falling and falling fast, but Gilnor is aware that this unknown territory is potentially dangerous - for Halla AND for him.
“And I am caught in time, like clockwork beneath the permafrost, I might lose my mind, back to back with oblivion, and you might breathe that burning breeze through, paradise for me.”
Provider (EiA)
Halla resists Gilnor at first, not wanting to simply ‘hand herself over’ to him like he expects others to do. His attempts to get her attention in the ways he knows fall flat… But he wants her to know he’s serious about wooing her - she just has to tell him how and he will be hers.
“And your fingers, foxtrot on my skin, I'm going under this time, I can give you what you want. And I told you, I can get it so right, even in the daylight, I can give you what you want.”
Take Me Back To Eden (TMBTE)
Halla splits up with Gilnor after seeing him torturing a man. They argue, with Gilnor pointing out to her that she knew who he was and what he sometimes did, but Halla insisted that knowing and seeing were two very different things. Gilnor knows he messed up, and he needs Halla back… If he can convince her to try again…
“Reset my patient violence along both lines of a pathway higher, grow back your sharpest teeth, you know my desire. I will travel far beyond the path of reason, take me back to Eden, take me back to Eden.”
Damocles (EiA)
Gilnor realises everything that defined him pre-Halla is ultimately meaningless to him. Without her, after discovering her light, it all just seems so empty.
“And it feels like falling into the deep, from somewhere way up over the peaks. And I play discordant days on repeat, until the tape runs out on me.”
Blood Sport (Sundowning / RoomBelow)
More angst over Halla walking away from Gilnor. He realises he will do anything to get her back. He chooses to walk away from his lifestyle for her.
“Would you invite me in again? Let me pay for my arrogance? Won't you show me your weakness?”
Curse of the Crowned
Higher (Sundowning)
Gilnor sings his feelings about their conflict while Halla is in his care after being attacked by one of the Younger.
“And I know we instigate, go back and forth, lacerate. 'Cause you can remember, only when you're alone, I am granting you more, than the debt that I owe.”
Like That (Tomb)
The relationship of hunter and hunted, ever shifting between Halla and Gilnor. Gilnor acknowledges that there is an instinctual intimacy to their back and forth. Their dance of death.
“Wait, talking with razors on your tongue, just to provoke my combat. New weapons to snap those final strings, just to watch me fall back.”
Say That You Will (Sundowning)
This song comes to Gilnor after Halla’s impromptu stay comes to an end. He identifies the difference between ‘Mistress Halla and Eldarin’ versus ‘Halla and Gilnoruil’. And Gilnoruil feels very differently to what Eldarin is used to.
“Won't you say that you will? Let the impulse to love, and the instinct to kill, entangle to one. In this light you are mine, 'til the sweat turns to blood, won't you say that you will? Even if you won't.”
Dark Signs (Sundowning)
Gilnor fights against his changing feelings, and experiences resentment towards them.
“And I miss the man I was, the moment we left off. And I hate who I have become, every time I wake up. (I won't break and bend to my basic need to be loved and close to somebody) ”
The Apparition (TMBTE)
Halla is gone and Gilnor dreams of her often. What’s strange for him is he doesn’t really want her to go from his mind, despite his insistence to himself that he does. He knows their relationship is no longer predator and prey but doesn’t know how to articulate what it actually IS now.
“Why are you never real? The shifting states you follow me through. Unrevealed, just let me go or take me with you.”
Chokehold (TMBTE)
When Gilnor is researching what he thinks Halla is, because he’s confused about his feelings for her and her extended absence from his life. He tried to sleep with someone and found that all he wanted was her.
“So show me that which I cannot see, even if it hurts me, even if I can’t sleep.”
The Offering (Sundowning)
Of course vampire, so biting is a big thing, but Gilnor feels not only primal but somehow worshipful of Halla. And wanting her to ‘consume’ him as well. This trickles through his blessing later when Ouraian awakens, and on through their other incarnations.
“Give up the game and let me in, oh. My arms belong around you, oh, oh. So take a bite, I want to know. I want to.”
Look to Windward (EiA)
Gilnor discovers he is the vessel (snirk) of one half of The Supreme One - Ouraian, the Father of all Crowned and aspect of night. Of course he is more than ‘just’ that; his experiences being born as a Fey-turned-Crowned gave rise to the being he is now. Those experiences plus being removed from his ‘light’ half, lead to Ouraian being even more prone to anger and a predisposition to mete divine retribution…
“Even in this garden of gardens, I am the god of the gaps, I am the demon of Sodom, I am the blood of an angel, the fate of the fallen, nobody knows where I came from, even I have forgotten.”
Even In Arcadia (EiA)
A split song between Gilnoruil and Ouraian. Understanding. Some resentment.
“Have you been waiting long for me? I am the final dawn, I am the flood. And what was missing from those scriptures will be written in my blood.”
Calcutta (Two)
More a ‘bridge’ song between the CotC pair and the crossing into every other incarnation. That soul-bond that transcends time and space and always pulls Halla and Gilnor towards each other.
“Time, lived again, for just a moment, missing pieces find me. And I'm whole again, for just a moment, missing pieces find me.”
Aer Mara
The Summoning (TMBTE)
Lots of imagery in this song for Gilnor’s longing to be away from his life and his want to give it to Halla - ‘raise me up’ ‘I want to see the other side’ feels like talking about the surface world. And also ‘won’t you show me what it’s like’ being two-fold, also talking about what it’s like to be actually seen and loved.
“You’ve got my body, flesh and bone. The sky above, the earth below.”
Distraction (Tomb)
Halla comes to represent far more to Gilnor than just a ‘distraction’ from court life. More than his freedom. More than his friend. When she almost drowns, it’s not even a choice for him to potentially expose himself as Mer to her.
“'Cause I am broken into fractions. Oh, and I am driven to distraction. With each and every interaction (it's too late for me). (It's too late for me, it's too late for me).”
Drag Me Under (Sundowning)
Gilnor’s peace with Halla. Underwater metaphor yay!
“And I know the angels tonight are as lost for words, as I am to merely behold you as we lie down together.”
Thread The Needle (One)
Halla and Gilnor fuck around and find out, literally LOL.
“We can spend the night in, fascination. You can thread the needle, time and time again. You turn the lights down, come on and find out.”
Dark Verse
Atlantic (Tomb)
Gilnor at his lowest point, wishing for an end. But of course his captors would never allow that.
“Merry in the morning, earn your bitter fodder. It's easier to try not to eat. So flood me like Atlantic, bandage up the trenches. Anything to get me to sleep.”
The Way That You Were
Despite his coldness and sometimes murderous demeanour, Halla sees just how utterly damaged and despondent Gilnor is.
“Come on, tear off the bandage, the way that you were. With pain as your language, the way that you were. Will you show me the damage? The way that you were, no.”
Is It Really You?
Could a free human and a captive Mer really be in love and make it work?
“Let's search the sky for a while, you and I. Collide like two stars for a while, you and I.”
DYWTYLM (TMBTE)
Gilnor’s relationship with Halla makes him question everything. Are her feelings real? She is trying so hard not to show them. He also realises that he has come to despise himself, and has to learn to care about himself again.
“It's getting harder to be (myself). Do you wish that you loved me? Could we ever release? Is it better to just not feel?”
Aqua Regia (TMBTE)
Gilnor considering the sudden burst of colour and sensation that Halla’s presence (and later affection) brings to his life. He realises just how tired he is, but in a positive way; he wants to fight again.
“Between the pain and the way you look, I'm stuck in a time where the mountains shook. And these days I'm a picture frame, screaming at the sunshine, singing in the rain.”
The Love You Want (Tomb)
Gilnor goes into heat, confirming that his feelings for Halla really are 100% real - he cannot fake that biological connection and longing to be her mate. But Halla is rightly worried of the power dynamic and her love for Gilnor being used against her push for Mythical freedom. So she refuses his advances at first…
“And I'm still full of the love you want, still waking up so alone. And I'll be full of the love you want, no matter what, forevermore.”
Telomeres (Tomb)
They stop messing about and pledge themselves to each other.
“And we go beyond the farthest reaches, where the light bends and wraps beneath us. And I know as you collapse into me, this is the start of something.”
Monster Hunter
Emergence (EiA)
Gilnor’s theme for this verse, in the sense of his ‘blossoming’ both as his own person learning to let people in and let go of old wounds - and his discovery of love.
“You might be the one to take away the pain and let my mind go quiet, and nothing else is quite the same as how I feel when I'm at your side. Come on, come on, out from underneath who you were. Come on, come on now, you know that it's time to emerge.”
Are You Really Okay? (TMBTE)
Not about self-harming in the sense as the song describes, but Gilnor reaches out to Sloane after Ian’s accident, desperate to make up for his stupidity and to give her comfort. He knows she’s not doing well, and tries to tell her that he’ll definitely be there now - he learned his lesson.
“And don't you know I could see it in you even now? And don't you know I want to help you but I don't know how?”
Fall For Me (Tomb)
Gilnor falls in romantic love for the first time and longs for Halla to fall for him too.
“Won't you fall for me, from reality? I am yours in the end, so won't you fall for me?”
Shelter (RoomBelow)
Halla treats Gilnor gently, seeing that he bares hidden scars for his treatment in early life. It’s made him slow to trust, and Halla invites him to take shelter in her.
“Darling, we must have met before, though I could not say for sure if we knew what we were in for. And no matter the cost of rain, woah, I will shelter you all the same.”