What Does Your Cat (Dog) Think About Sleep Token?
Monday, May 19, 2025 at 10:19AM
Even In Arcadia also just had the biggest streaming week ever for a hard rock album.
The band is played on satellite radio station Octane. And Turbo. And Liquid Metal. And probably Hits 1 or something because they don’t seem to fit any one genre. I suppose if I had to peg them, I would call them progressive metal… maybe. There’s elements of the Deftones for sure. And trap. And modern metalcore and I swear you can hear 80s glam guitar solos here and there too. Plus, crazy piano and horn sections that would fit right in on a classic Steely Dan album.
The most interesting thing about Sleep Token is their anonymity. The band came out in 2016 and have only done two interviews in all that time. The British act stays fully costumed (because that’s the hot thing now) and they never talk on stage. There’s an entire subreddit dedicated to figuring out the members of Sleep Token and all the puzzles and Easter eggs they drop. (It’s called r/SleepTokenTheory obviously). People on that sub think the singer is Leo Faulkner. Sleep Token says the singer is simply called Vessel. He’s the messenger to the ancient deity Sleep. Or something like that.
I literally always changed the channel when Octane played Sleep Token because I felt like the station was shoving the band down the throats of listeners. Like, Octane is for bands like Beartooth and Halestorm but eventually I relented and listened to “Emergence” when it came on one day. Then, with a heavy sigh I added Even In Arcadia to my Amazon music and I listened to the entire thing all the way through. I mean, if Sleep Token is going to be the biggest band in metal (or rock, or trap, or whatever), I decided I better know something about them. Turns out, I love the track “Emergence,” especially for those piano and sax solos.
Look, some of the lyrics on Even In Arcadia are straight cringe. I read someone else online describe them as “50 Shades of Grey meets a mosh pit” and that seems pretty accurate to me.
Even in Arcadia seems to be more evolved than Sleep Token’s earlier release. Some of their songs really are straight heavy so then I was like, “Oh, this is why all those different SiriusXM stations are playing the band.” No one knows who to claim them… so they all will. Maybe that’s the point: the political message of Sleep Token is that music (humanity?) shouldn’t be locked into one or two genres.
I will say that Roosevelt the cat seems to enjoy Arcadia well enough. He’s still definitely more into Steely Dan because that is his whole vibe. I put on classic Dan, especially something like “Chain Lightning” and the cat comes right into the room and sprawls out. When Sleep Token gets too heavy – or weird – he’s out, ears back. He’s uppity like that.
Here’s an older, heavier Sleep Token track called "The Summoning" from the album Take Me Back To Eden. The guitar solos and riffs here really are glam!
And “Emergence” from the latest album:
Be sure to let me know what your cat... or dog... or you think of Sleep Token.
Sleep Token
Reader Comments (2)
This is #1?
Just another sign we are truly f’d as a planet!
Okay, that may be a little harsh, but still!
Not really my cup of tea but I can appreciate it.
Certainly deserves further listening!
There is no justice. None at all.
Sleep Token sound just like they a fly-by-night mattress store: sales aplenty, but just a gimmick that you feel bad about a few days after the purchase.