Sleep Token's instrumentalists recently unveiled their new masks and the Internet immediately jumped to one specific comparison – they look like Mushroomhead's masks. It seemed like a bit of a stretch, but clearly the criticism was loud enough that mask creator Lani Hernandez-David has now addressed it.
In an interview with Metal Hammer, Hernandez-David said the Sleep Token masks look nothing like Mushroomhead's masks, and that metal band masks are all at least somewhat derivative of one another.
"I'd always heard of Mushroomhead, but never really looked at them," said Hernandez-David. "To me they look wildly different. Mushroomhead aren't the first band to wear masks with a ponytail and eyebrows, and neither are Slipknot. You can say Sleep Token are copying Mushroomhead, but then you can say Mushroomhead were copying Slipknot, Slipknot were copying whoever – no one invented these things."
I mean, the guy has a point. The masks in question are black masks with white lines. It's not exactly an identifiably color scheme exclusive to Mushroomhead, and the Sleep Token ones are using the band's own logo. So… yeah, I'm siding with Hernandez-David on this one.
Hernandez-David also addressed that one time he dressed up at the late and great Gwar frontman Oderus Urungus to pick up his final exam grades. Which if you've never seen that photo, it's hilarious and can be found right here.
"Yes, that was the first time I got noticed by the magazines and whatever. I got into Gwar at the start of lockdown. I was still in school when lockdown came, it was right before my exams, so I had time to just do nothing. Every single day, I was making masks.
"I've always dressed up ever since I was young: people always knew me as that weirdo that dresses up for school. I had to go out with a bang, so I dressed up as Oderus Urungus from Gwar. As soon as I walked into the door, everyone was like, 'Oh God, is that Lani?!'"
