Even In Arcadia

Sleep Token

Erschienen am 09.05.25 bei Sleep Token - RCA Records
Künstler: Sleep Token
Genre: Rock
Auszeichnungen: NME: 5 stars

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Text in englischer Sprache verfügbar

Drama has always been key to metal, whether it's the druid and Valkyrie mythology of Led Zeppelin, the leather whips of Judas Priest or the horror-house masks of Slipknot (or the way GWAR combines all of it). We are in the midst of a mainstream metal resurgence that embraces theatricality, with bands like Sweden's Ghost—known for their identity-concealing makeup and magus hoods—racing up the charts. England's Sleep Token, who are poised to be the biggest of the bunch, hide behind god-like masks and bare-bones names (Vessel [vocals], II [drums], III [bass] and IV [guitar], plus background singer Espera).

There is power in the mystery. But human curiosity can't stand not knowing, and so, after 2023's Take Me Back to Eden, the members of Sleep Token were not only revealed online but also doxxed. And that fuels the theme of the band's fourth album in a big way. "Caramel"—which reached No. 1 on five Billboard charts—seems to be about the struggle of fame and weighing whether it's really worth it. "Every time they try to shout my real name just to get a rise from me/ Acting like I'm never stressed out by the hearsay/ I guess that's what I get for trying to hide in the limelight … Tell me, did I give you what you came for?" Vessel sings. Most definitely: The kick-in is thunderous, like demons unleashed. It's metal, but modern, with prominent prog, post-rock and hip-hop influences. And when Vessel sings, he really sings—like a pop star. He shows off vibrato and wrings every bit of emotion out of lyrics such as "Turns out the gods we thought were dying/ Were just sharpening their blades," on the melancholic title track.

Songs like "Emergence" are descendants of 2000s-era nu-metal, but they’re no retreads. There's a villainous vocal filter, rapped verses over headbanger guitar thrusts, fantastical imagery ("Are you carbide on my nano?/ Red glass on my lightbulb?/ Dark light on my culture?") and a bridge that is power-ballad elegance. The dynamic shifts are crazy and then it all drifts out with a sax and piano jam, like a Billy Joel song. With its strings and choir-style vocals, "Look to Windward" almost feels New Agey—until Vessel, after smoothly crooning the line "Will you hold this eclipse in me?" over and over, whispers it, horror movie style (or Deftones style), triggering an explosion.

"Damocles," about "falling into the deep" caverns of anxiety, is a ballad with theatrically heavy interludes. On "Dangerous," which borrows hip-hop touches like slick-as-grease sampled "whoo"s, the lead-foot rhythm stalks in the background, waiting for its opening (it finds it, because Sleep Token is all about rupture). Grandiose "Gethsemane" is one black-rose tattoo away from being an emo song. "Provider"—"You've been hitting my phone so hard/ I'm finally breathing through a tube in the ICU/ yeah, I see you"—incorporates the elements of a trap slow jam. And the most rage-y and familiarly metal, "Infinite Baths" features vocals almost unrecognizable as human: filtered and stacked and tweaked as if channeled from some other world, until they sputter out like a rusty faucet. "Is this not what you want from me?" Vessel asks our lore-obsessed society. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Even In Arcadia

Sleep Token

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Look To Windward