The anticipation from Sleep Token’s new ‘offering’ – as they have always described their songs – significantly exceeds anything that’s come before. Since the anonymous metal band’s third album ‘Take Me Back To Eden’ in 2023, the British group’s stock has skyrocketed. This mysterious masked collective shifted 40,000 tickets in London alone last year, and are set to headline Download Festival this June. Heavy music arguably hasn’t seen a rise this rapid since Slipknot’s in the 2000s – made even more impressive by the fact their smash hit ‘The Summoning’ is a six-minute prog song, spanning djent, arena-rock and even funk.
Now, after plenty of teasing, they have returned with ‘Emergence’ – the first single from their newly announced album ‘Even In Arcadia’ (due May 9). Clocking in at six minutes and 26 seconds, it shows the band now seem increasingly unafraid to execute these long, winding tracks which switch effortlessly between genres (especially after ‘Ascensionism’ and ‘Take Me Back To Eden’ became two fan favourites).
Its first act – soundtracked by soul-stirring piano and divine guitar – carries the hallmarks of a more blissful new chapter. “Come out, come out / Out from underneath who you were,” vocalist Vessel pleads, perhaps marking a new phase in his complex, emotional relationship with the deity known as ‘Sleep’ explored over the band’s first three albums.
But we all know the sucker punch is coming. As the song builds with some Avenged Sevenfold-esque guitar tapping and trap-pop cadences from Vessel, an unexpected “Woop!” beckons in some piercing heaviness. The riffs remain selective but purposeful, intensified by some momentarily bleak imagery: “Dark days for your solstice…Tell me what you meant by / Living past your half-life.”
There’s time for one signature, heaven-sent chorus that affirms the song’s hopeful nature before an extended jazz outro warms the energy back down, throwing perhaps their most left-field curveball yet. For many artists, this type of track would be a bold, risky lead single. For Sleep Token – knowing the high standards they’ve set – it feels like business as usual. ‘Emergence’ might be their first release on major label RCA, but there’s no sense of anything commercial seeping into their sound. Nor are there any signs of a safe approach, given the pressure of expectation around ‘Even In Arcadia’.
If anything, ‘Emergence’ confirms the left turns they still have in store, and maintains the intrigue around the extent of the world-building on ‘Even In Arcadia’ – which some fans are expecting will step away from the connected trilogy of albums that came before. In the meantime, we can only continue what Sleep Token always asked us to do: worship.