Metal Anarchy

When Sleep Token unveiled their new masks last week, fans immediately started drawing comparisons to fellow masked metallers Mushroomhead. However, during an interview with Metal Hammer, mask designer Lani Hernandez-David denied the ripoff claims, saying “they look wildly different”

Hernandez-David said the following:

“I’d always heard of Mushroomhead, but never really looked at them. 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.”

He also discussed how Sleep Token approached him to make the masks:

“My first time ever hearing of them was my friend going, ‘We should go see Sleep Token,’ at [UK metal festival] Bloodstock last year. Then, it must have been late October [2023], I got a message from II, like, ‘Hey man, love your stuff. We want to get some things made. Are you up for it?’ I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is big!’ I’ve always wanted to make masks for a fairly established band, but I don’t know why I never thought of Sleep Token.”

He continued:

“When I got the message in October, I was just about to go to America. They were like, ‘We need these masks by December 2,’ and I’d be coming back from America on October 28. I’d have a month to do everything and I couldn’t take time off work [Lani works in a costume shop full-time – ed.], because work is super crazy during November.

So, the day after I arrived back from America I had II come over to do the life cast. Although a month sounds long, it isn’t. I had the life casts, then the sculpts, then the moulds and then the painting and casting – it takes a long time.”

He also confirmed that the band had a hand in the design:

“II said he had an idea, so he sent me some little inspirations: he wanted it to have hair and be this colour and have buckles. For the other guys, they actually had a design. The plan was for IV and III’s masks to be fairly similar, but for the paint to be reversed: IV’s is black with gold on the front and III’s is gold with black on the front.”

Hernandez-David went on to say that he hopes to make a mask for Slipknot one day:

“The next goal is to make a mask for Slipknot. That would be the end goal, because that’s what started it for me. When I got serious into mask-making, it was definitely with Slipknot.”