Sleep Token - Even In Arcadia Review

There is no one, and I mean no one, doing it in music quite like Sleep Token. They are nigh-on single-handedly redefining what a metal band can be. Even labelling them solely "a metal band" feels reductive, a disservice to the tapestry of sound they've created in just under a decade.

Their rise over the past two years has been nothing short of meteoric. The popularity of runaway hit The Summoning sent them on an incomparable ascension. Since then, on Spotify alone, they've gone from around 125K monthly listeners, to over eight million. That sort of increase in attention doesn't happen all that much, even less so in the metal scene.

So after two album of the year awards for 2023's exceptional Take Me Back to Eden, selling out the O2 (twice) and a rapturous world tour, where can the anonymous quartet go? How do you follow-up your magnum opus, that capped off a trilogy of albums steeped in intricate lore, cryptically-layered lyricism and ever-evolving sounds?

You feel the weight of it all.

Fresh off the press, Even in Arcadia wrestles with the bands ascension to fame and the pitfalls it comes with, yet somehow continues to expand their lore and sound in creative, if at times calculated, ways.

It delves into vivid imagery of rebirth, especially on lead single Emergence, as the band continue to experiment with their sound without losing who they are in the process.

To some, it may sound like an album knowingly at odds with itself. It feels intimate, yet sonically expansive; indulgent yet vulnerable; a luscious delicacy poised for consuming yet terrified to be fully digested.

Opening track, Look to Windward, almost feels like an album in itself. An evolving epic that feels titanic, at times bearing resemblance to some of the sweeping orchestral peaks of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, as well as the dramatic swells of Muse's criminally underrated Apocalypse Please. And yet, it is undeniably something only Sleep Token could pull together.

Genre-blending has always been in their toolkit. They can deftly morph between raggaeton, trap, indie pop, among a pleathora of other genres, against a backdrop of gutteral screams, raucous guitar and exceptional drumming.

It works for me, but for others it doesn't. If you didn't like them before, Even in Arcadia will not change your mind. Personal least favourite, Provider, feels at home in their "horny metal" discography, but I dare say it has its feet up a little. Still good, great even, but... safe?

At times, their shifts feel a too precise, which makes the times when the shifts don't come all the more surprising. The third track, Past Self, wouldn't sound out of place in the UK Top 40 (it's definitely something I can see being overdone on Tiktok). A light and catchy trap beat underpinning some of frontman Vessel's more straightforward wordplay in a flow that never fully feels like rapping or singing, something he does seemingly without effort.

But when those diversions give away to the metal people came for, good lord does it hit hard. Thunderous, angry, snarling, bass and guitar from members III and IV respectively.

One thing I've seen a few people comment on that I agree with, is that II's drumming has gotten better with every album. Here, he thrashes like a dog let off the leash. I would go as far to say he's the best in the business right now, and if you haven't had the opportunity to hear his hybrid interview/mini solo-performance with Drumeo, I'd highly recommend it.

Singer and writer, Vessel, is a man at the peak of his powers. Vocally he has never sounded clearer or better. Those opening lines of Look to Wayward sound so crisp, like he's performing for you and you alone.

The range he has, his ability to switch up his style on a whim, it's spell-binding the way he commands what are now legions of fans across the world.

But boy does he feel that pressure. The promotional singles, especially Caramel, and Damocles, sound completely different from one another, but they showed a more straightforward kind of vulnerability that fans aren't quite used to.

It's something I initially bounced off, in the case of Caramel, ironically the more accessible lyrics made me listen less closely on first go round. But when I came back around, my word, my heart breaks. Damocles is another highlight, wrapping myth into their story as Vessel wonders whether he'll be forgotten once everything is said and done. The flip-side to getting what you want, and the fear of losing it all, a daring look at the very real human behind the ethereal mask and armour.

The two closing tracks, Gethsemane and Infinite Baths, are as devastating and raw as Sleep Token have been to date. Right up there with Blood Sport, Missing Limbs and their cover of Loathe's Is It Really You? for me, but admittedly much grander.

I had a feeling Infinite Baths would be a tear-jerker, but it is quite possibly their best closing track so far. It ties itself into TMBTE's Euclid, before descending into some of their most ferocious guitar work and screaming ever; something that would make even Vore look up from its dinner.

(If you don't already know what that word means, please do not look at me differently when you inevitably ignore my request to not search it.)

While what Even in Arcadia mean's for the bands' lore will no doubt be surgically examined by people with more time on their hands than me, to us and Vessel, it's a plea. They are feeling the sting of having their identities leaked by fans who just cannot leave the mystery as it is. And they know that the more fans they garner, now a number that eclipses nations, the more people will want to know who they are.

Their most accessible work to date is a double-edged sword dangling over each of them, but it means it's in terms everyone can understand: please, let this be about the music.

Vessel and co come across almost like Icarus, except it is us that are their wax wings and we are inevitably the ones pushing them towards the sun and they are afraid of the burn, and the fall that may one day await them.

Even in Arcadia proves that Sleep Token could follow-up one of the best albums of the 2020s with a continuation that is more divisive, but to me, undoubtedly still stellar. A supremely well-produced record that will be no doubt blasted in arenas around the world in the coming tour. Sleep Token dare to have their cake and eat it.

However, their indulgence also serves as a warning, one reminding us of the law of unintended consequences, and that ultimately too much of a sweet, desirable thing can still make you ill and leave you in a mess if you're not careful.

Just like caramel, really.