Review Summary: Who made you like this?
Like it or not,
Sleep Token have become a cultural juggernaut in recent years. Whether you view the outfit as the gimmicky money machine that many find them to be, or you take a more positive view of the band that currently has the "metal" zeitgeist - you cannot deny their current position as market leaders. That being said, there is a lot to be said for peeling back the moniker while reviewing
Even In Arcadia instead of being sucked in to "lore" and other dramatic storylines that straddle the fine line between insane fan-led hysteria fuelled by over-analysing every lyric, and provacative dime-a-dozen marketing strategies that typically start with fans solving a puzzle on a strange website, only to find their prize is an email to buy a record / buy this merchandise - and so we go on.
In truth,
Even In Arcadia has some very strong moments on it. Lead single
Emergence, with its barrowload of gear changes and genuinely interesting arrangements - including
that syncopated drum beat fluttering over Vessels strong R&B inspired verse - will certainly find it's place on many a Wrapped 2025 list. Album opener
Look To Windward is a familiar slab of Sleep Token fayre, seating itself firmly in the bands playbook of introspective lyrics layered over pulsing electronics which of course give way to a punishingly heavy passage of noise. Towards the back end of the album,
Gethsemane is a surprisingly harrowing personal account of dealing with love lost - but also questioning whether the love was love at all in the first place. What starts off as a slow piano-led ballad, slowly blossoms into a deeply moving piece of music that ebbs and flows between tightly performed rock passages, and an effective moment of spacial vocals to slow things down and allow the well written lyrics to shine.
Dangerous also lends itself into the typical ST tropes, without becoming too much of a burden on the rest of the record.
A further truth is that
Even In Arcadia is produced very well. Instruments are punchy and tight, vocals are soaring, the electronic elements are as glossy here as you're likely to get from any radio-friendly track you've heard this year. While many will believe this kind of over-production is the very thing that's killing rock music, it's very hard to not admire the care and attention that has gone into making this record sound like a labor of love.
Unfortunately, this is where the plaudits start to run dry.
Even In Arcadia is littered with filler, to the point that it's distracting. For every
Emergence, there's a
Past Self - a deeply boring, catchy-for-catchys-sake lyrical non-event. Second single
Caramel is, at best, a self indulgent stab at breaking the fourth wall. Even with an explosion of energy midway through, it just struggles to catch fire and in turn just exposes the weak lyrics, with lines like
"walk beside me until you feel nothing as well" - leaving the listener rolling their eyes.
The eye rolling comes back with a vengeance with tracks like
Provider, Damocles, and the title track. all entirely skippable and forgettable.
Infinite Baths is a noble attempt at an album closer, but is hampered by the fact that it's simply just not interesting enough to help the listener regain any of their attention span at this point in the album. Even by the time you've made it to the heavy section towards the back end of the song, you're pretty much done with the whole thing and you just want to go home.
Without becoming the cliche by suggesting that once again, a signing to a new (big) record deal with a behemoth such as RCA has led to a semi-desirable, half-baked rushed effort. It's easy draw a parallel between the lack of anything interesting to say and all of the sudden drop in quality. This album is nowhere near as experimental as
Sundowning, it is paling in comparison to the 2022 effort
Take Me Back To Eden and it is quickly running out of things to say.
In summary, unfortunately
Sleep Token have written mostly a desperately boring and toothless album. Their fans will continue to soak it in, but many will find themselves reaching for albums of old after a few weeks.
