OPE! Mixtape #67: Sleep Token
Read the original Sleep Token newsletter post.
Welcome to OPE!, the newsletter by writer and music journalist Brady Gerber (me). This essay, originally published in my weekly newsletter, is free for all subscribers. Paying subscribers also gain access to an exclusive weekly curation of my favorite songs and links. All typos are intentional.
Get future essays sent to your inbox right away here.
Well, hello there. How are you?
For those who may not know: Sleep Token is an English alt-metal band in which the members are anonymous and wear masks, the frontperson is called “Vessel,” and apparently, there’s a whole bunch of lore that would make Lord of the Rings look like Neopets. I have no idea what the lore is. It doesn’t matter. They’re having quite a moment. Some people are calling them “progressive metal” or “post-metal.” Some people are calling them “shit.” And they just earned a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart with their fourth album and RCA Records debut, Even in Arcadia.
Not a No. 1 on the metal charts. No. 1 on the Billboard chart.
Also, a notable stat via Keith Caulfield’s reporting at Billboard (link here): this album’s streaming numbers are so big that it scored the largest streaming week ever for a hard rock album.
That’s crazy.
It’s a notable debut from a band I wasn’t too familiar with, even though they’ve appeared on the Billboard charts and even made a few dents in the Billboard 200 chart with past albums and singles; this is not a total rags-to-riches story.
However, Sleep Token’s brand of major label metal has quickly divided my corner of music journalism, which is full of rock and guitar nerds but not as many dedicated metal nerds, though I know a lot of great metal writers out there.
Most critics in my lane seem to hate this album. The most notable pan so far has come from Pitchfork. I know the writer who wrote their 2.3 album review. It’s a well-written review from a writer whose work I enjoy, but I found the review too indulgent and self-righteous, even by pre-Conde Nast Pitchfork standards. (As a disclaimer, I also contribute to Pitchfork; hate the game, not the player, as they say.) With a rating so artificially low—which, to clarify again, is finalized by the editors after the writer presents a score range—you’re just daring people to listen, thus reinforcing its popularity.
Picture an edgy record store clerk wearing a Death Grips t-shirt running the last vinyl store in your hometown, daring a bunch of 19-year-olds to be “normie” enough to listen to Sleep Token and daring them to like it. That was the energy this month on music journalism Internet.
Well, I listened to the album. And I liked it.
I didn’t love it. Mercifully only 10-tracks long (unlike Morgan “37-tracks” Wallen, whose new album just bumped Sleep Token from No. 1 and which I’m reviewing in next week’s newsletter), Even in Arcadia feels tight. Its impressionistic lyrics and emphasis on sound over wordplay give it a certain freedom that modern pop albums often lack, where you’re expected to pull up the artist’s Instagram and 157 thinkpieces written by celebrity or news bloggers, not music journalists, to understand all the references. (Charli XCX: B+ musician, A+ content creator.)
Even in Arcadia also feels like the latest entry in this century’s long project of genre demolition. For the non-metalheads, its closest ancestors are artists like Linkin Park, Frank Ocean, and, in a slightly fuzzier lineage, Deftones. But unlike Deftones, whose influence continues to ruin emo and hardcore by instilling a fear of being obvious or having dynamics, Sleep Token practically lives for the obvious.
I thought about Linkin Park the most while listening to Even in Arcadia. It’s handy shorthand—how you feel about LinkedIn Park is probably how you’ll feel about Sleep Token. Linkin Park were also initially hated by critics while selling a billion albums and being beloved by fans. Those same fans who grew up on Hybrid Theory have since grown up to take over the music industry and are more open to bands that feel less restricted with sticking to one genre or style.
There are some literal music connections, too. Even in Arcadia has a mix of falsetto rapping and the vibe of those TikTok drummers doing metal covers of Jimmy Bufffet. This isn’t too far off from LinkedIn Park’s mix of Adult Swim-levels of rapping (so just good enough to impress an 11-year-old) and guitars with enough compressed distortion to make your cousin’s cargo shorts blush. And like Linkin Park, and bands that came after like Twenty One Pilots, Sleep Token is hilariously earnest and sincere in their (albeit cathartic) rage. Which I don’t mind.
What I do mind—and what keeps me from actively defending this album—is that every song on this album follows the same structure: A soft, twinkle of an opening, followed by breathy, yassified rapping, drum beats that signal the pre-chorus, then the actual metal coming in to blow your head off with a lot of screaming. I said “hell yeah” the first two times the drop came. I nodded politely when it happened eight more times, each time right on cue.
My favorite song on the album is “Caramel.” I’m not exaggerating: if you listen to “Caramel,” you’ve heard the whole album.
For music critics—especially those who don’t follow modern metal and are still not over Deafheaven making a pink metal album for yoga moms a decade ago—Even in Arcadia probably sounds like blasphemy against everything metal is supposed to stand for. I’m sympathetic to the feeling that high-gloss metal needs to be called something else. I don’t buy the hate, though. I sense that for most fans who don’t sit down and interrogate new albums as intensely as I did growing up and just enjoy putting music on in the background while on the computer or phone, this repetition is probably an asset. You’re eased into this slipstream, and the band, to their credit, keep you locked in with melody and the occasional memorable riff.
This is not metal gone wrong, but metal playing to the strengths of what hooks modern mainstream listeners—the unique twist being its earnestness that, frankly, I liked, even if the final results don’t add up to a consistent package. Again, hate the game, not the player.
So if I’m not exactly won over by Even in Arcadia, I believe the fans and new listeners who genuinely like this album. I think it’s fun when such an un-mainstream-sounding album tops the charts. It’s fun to still be surprised and curious by new music. I won’t die on the Sleep Token hill. I’ll gladly visit again.
With love and all the other good things,
-b
Original OPE! logo by Claire Kuang. Words and cartoons by yours truly. My views don’t reflect my clients or the publications and brands I work with. All typos are intentional.