“The parasites and the nightmares call out my name.“
If you’re reading this, the way in which Sleep Token broke out into the mainstream is certainly no mystery to you. The release of “The Summoning” and the subsequent release of the band’s third LP, Take Me Back To Eden, all the way back in 2023 saw the group skyrocket from clubs and supporting slots to international arena headliners seemingly overnight. It was a sight to behold, but what’s perhaps more impressive to me is just how well they’ve managed to not only maintain, but continue to grow their now-planetary fanbase in the two years since.
Let’s be honest: Sleep Token are probably the biggest metal band on the planet right now. Whether that’s a fact you’d like to admit or not is somewhat null, as it’s fairly undeniable. Squawks of “oh but they aren’t even metal” aside – something that has been leveled at the band since they gained any notoriety whatsoever – the masked metallers’ ascent into the vast rock mainstream is something truly remarkable for a band of their background and general sonic make-up.
Tech bands don’t make it like this typically. At the very least, there’s a few more years of slugging it through pub and club venues before you start to achieve even 10% of the success that Sleep Token have achieved. It does sort of make sense though, doesn’t it? There’s something about Sleep Token that feels so very lightning-in-a-bottle that it was almost just a matter of time until they found their big break.
That said, I never expected it to be with a song quite as strange as “The Summoning”. Make no mistake – I’m more than aware that the level of genre crossover present on that track was more than par for the course by that point for Sleep Token. They certainly had more accessible songs, both before and after, that didn’t take off nearly as hard though. Perhaps that’s part of what made that song kick off the way it did, though – just how mind-boggling it was.
The way in which the group took off after the release of that single could never have been truly predicted. Sure, I can wax lyrical all I want about how it was “just a matter of time”, but there was never any clear timeline on when and where that moment might be. It felt as if the sands shifted overnight, though, and Sleep Token very quickly became a household name.
That kind of momentum is nigh-on impossible to capitalise on, however. How do you even begin? Sleep Token were smart in that moment to not blow their load all at once, so to speak, and let their ascent naturally grow until they knew they could justify pushing harder. First it was Wembley Arena, then it was The O2, then it was The O2 again (alongside sold out arenas all across the country), and now it’s Download and Linkin Park support slots. It was a steady ramp-up, and one that I believe served the band’s ascent better in the long run, as it still created a level of demand and hype as time went on. Enough demand and hype across an extended period of time to lead us to here, at least, with the release of the much-anticipated, but perhaps not entirely expected follow-up in Even In Arcadia.
Because it did feel like there was some finality with Take Me Back To Eden, right? Like there was a chance this was all going to be put away for good? It’s likely conversations of that ilk took place in the Sleep Token camp around Take Me Back To Eden’s production cycle, but I can imagine those thoughts were swiftly quelled once its rampant success became apparent. Here we are then, two years and a major label deal later, with Even In Arcadia, Sleep Token’s final rubicon-crossing leap into the mainstream.
That might sound like a declarative statement, and perhaps a damning one to a specific kind of person, but allow me to qualify that a tad. It’s clear already from the lead-up to Even In Arcadia that we are about to witness Sleep Token in the public eye like never before. Even by the colossal standards of the Take Me Back To Eden campaign, we’re already far beyond what anyone could’ve expected. As the band swiftly approaches nine million monthly Spotify listeners at the time of writing, it’s very apparent that, almost regardless of the record’s quality, Even In Arcadia is going to be a resounding success for Sleep Token.
So, where does that leave us on an artistic front? Sleep Token have never exactly been a band to rest on their laurels, at least not in my eyes, so going into this I had the same level of optimism, albeit somewhat cautiously as I truly had no idea what to expect stylistically here, especially after all three singles (in perhaps the most on-brand sense) shared very little songwriting DNA between each other. A progressive goliath, a half-pop/half-black metal endeavour, and a rock ballad, all fighting to sell you on an album that… truly doesn’t fit into any of those boxes in the end.
This is perhaps the most obvious statement I could make of a Sleep Token album, but Even In Arcadia certainly doesn’t sit in one lane. Those worried about the band dropping the heavy guitars altogether and finally making the leap into full mainstream pop needn’t worry; there’s plenty here for you. However, the approach does feel somewhat different to previous efforts. See, across their prior LPs, it felt like the contrast in songwriting was more present on a song-to-song basis, whereas here many of the genre-swapouts feel contained within each track. Think less “Aqua Regia” into “Vore”, and more that many of the songs present on Even In Arcadia contain their own sprawling ebb-and-flow within, that tackle many of the band’s contrasting sides, but perhaps in a slightly more boxed-in way than before.
See, it feels as though we’ve reduced Sleep Token’s formula here down to a science. To both the album’s benefit and its minor detriment, this feels like the most qualitatively consistent and stylistically cohesive record the band have penned yet, but perhaps slightly owed to the moderately dulled sense of dynamics song-to-song. Previously with Sleep Token albums, I felt as though there was something of a clear apex and nadir in the tracklist. There were always a handful of songs I walked away with saying “fucking hell, these are their best songs yet”, and a couple that never quite resonated with me. Here, that doesn’t quite seem to be the case – while there are no songs here that I even remotely dislike on the whole, there also seem to be less that I am truly in love with compared to their par.
That’s not to say there are moments on here I adore however. Beyond the stellar two lead singles, “Emergence” and “Caramel”, there are a number of tracks on here that truly showcase Sleep Token at some of their most wildly creative yet. Opening number “Look To Windward” feels like an overture of everything that Sleep Token represents. Effortlessly weaving between genre to genre for eight minutes to establish that, whilst we are certainly broaching the mainstream a tad more here, the wild spirit at the core of Sleep Token’s sound remains intact.
This goes doubly so for penultimate and closing numbers “Gethsemane” and “Infinite Baths”, which prove to be two of Sleep Token’s most alluring tracks to date. With the former dabbling in the world of math rock in a shocking first for the group, before quickly spiralling into their typical multi-genre antics, executed with such style and strength that it’s almost undeniable this is one of their best tracks. “Infinite Baths” is a similar story, potentially being the album’s most sprawling and electric cut. Textural cinematics and gorgeous melodies line the first half of this thing’s monolithic eight-minute runtime, before the track culminates in one of the band’s most explosive breakdowns to date; pummeling the listener into the ground for three whole minutes before the album fades out into darkness.
There are great tracks littered across this entire thing, too, with “Dangerous” and “Provider” providing (ha) some absolutely gargantuan hooks and broadly brilliant vocal performances, as well as mid-point title track “Even In Arcadia” showcasing the album and its most raw and vulnerable; hearkening back in emotive performance to the likes of “Blood Sport” more than anything. There are highlights strewn across here, and whilst I may not be quite as taken by these as many of the deep cuts on previous releases, there are still so many clear moments to love, particularly if Take Me Back To Eden particularly resonated with you.
The album’s only relative lowlights come in the form of final single “Damocles” and early cut “Past Self”, which both feel relatively dulled in terms of the explorative side of Sleep Token’s songwriting. That’s not to say these are bad songs by any stretch – quite the contrary, particularly with “Past Self”, which proves that Sleep Token could truly cut their teeth as a fully-committed pop act if they wanted. That said, in terms of the broader sound of the record, these two don’t quite land as hard as they possibly could, had they expanded upon their sonic palettes a tad more.
Even In Arcadia is a complicated record to assess on this basis alone, though, which is why I feel it necessary to contextualise exactly where the band stand now in terms of their growth, both commercially and creatively, alongside the album’s quality in a vacuum. We’re currently seeing Sleep Token climb the ranks into becoming arguably the biggest modern metal band on the planet, and there is no doubt that the release of Even In Arcadia will exponentially increase that ascent.
With that though, if anything, Even In Arcadia proves that, now more than ever, Sleep Token has the chops to truly capitalise on their continual mainstream success. Whilst the vast qualitative peaks and valleys found in their previous releases are dulled somewhat here, both to the album’s benefit and its detriment, there’s no doubt that Even In Arcadia is host to some fantastic additions to Sleep Token’s growing repertoire, with a few that will surely go down as fan favourites and catalysts to their exponential rise to the top. The question remains, however: what exactly comes next? This rubicon-crossing mainstream effort marks what is certain to be the start of a new chapter for the genre-defiers, but who is to say what their next move will be?
8/10
Even In Arcadia is due for release Friday, May 9th via RCA Records, and you can find pre-orders for the album here.