Sleep Token released Sundowning digitally on November 21, 2019, through Spinefarm Records. Their debut studio album followed the EPs One and Two, but its release unfolded over months. All 12 tracks arrived individually, in album order, so the complete record took shape publicly one song at a time.
The sequence began on June 20, 2019, with “The Night Does Not Belong to God.” A new track followed every two weeks on a Thursday at sundown in the UK, each accompanied by a visualizer and its own emblem. The approach made the album’s running order part of the release campaign: the opening song came first, and “Blood Sport” completed the sequence.
Behind that extended rollout was a concentrated period in the studio. Producer George Lever told Metal Hammer in 2025 that Sundowning went from demos to finished masters in 12 weeks. The sessions took place in Wells, Somerset, with no days off and work often stretching from seven in the morning into the evening. They also went to the gym, swam and used the sauna together, finding ways to recover from the hours spent sitting down. Lever remembered the uncertainty of working out how to make the album alongside the confidence that they would finish it. “That’s my favourite three-month period of my life,” he said.
The mixing deadline was tighter still. In a 2019 Reddit Q&A, Lever said he had just two weeks to mix the album, which meant accepting when a song was finished and moving on. He also explained some of the details inside its opening track. The glitching vocal texture in “The Night Does Not Belong to God” came from feeding the vocal through a Hologram Infinite Jets effects pedal. Reversed recordings added another layer, including a recording of a worship group. Even the voice could become part of the backdrop. To keep the singing clear amid the reverb, Lever adjusted its volume phrase by phrase; he also described combining different reverbs at different levels to create depth.
That approach extended to the guitars. In “Higher,” Lever explained, one guitar kept playing the same pattern while the other moved up a fret during the breakdown. He thought some sounds listeners heard as synthesizers were additional guitar layers. The record could turn from that dense construction to much sparser arrangements. “Dark Signs” incorporated programmed beats. Near the end, “Drag Me Under” centered on Vessel’s piano and voice before “Blood Sport” closed the record. Giving every track a separate release meant the quieter songs occupied the same place in the campaign as the heavier ones.
Sleep Token returned to that quieter side on June 20, 2020, releasing a digital deluxe edition of Sundowning without advance warning. Four additional piano-based recordings expanded the album, including the new original “Shelter” and covers of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and “When the Party’s Over.” The original 12-song sequence remained intact, with the extra performances appended afterward. The original closer became the first bonus track: “Blood Sport” returned in a new version titled “Blood Sport (from the room below).”
