Sleep Token - Even In Arcadia

 Released in May 2025, "Even in Arcadia" is the 4th album by English rock band Sleep Token.  The band really came to the forefront of people’s attention with their 3rd album "Take Me Back to Eden" through their, brave, experimental rock which really struck a chord with rock fans and they ended up selling out arenas across the globe.  Before the 4th album was released they were booked for Download festival as Saturday night headliners.  It seemed like a brave decision at the time, having not headlined a major festival before but someone must have grabbed an early copy of "Even in Arcadia" as if they had the booking more than justified itself.

When I listened to "Take Me Back to Eden" I wasn't really that impressed by it. I saw potential. But felt there was a lot of good ideas just not strung together very well. There were points if you weren't paying attention, it felt you could be listening to one album and the next minute it would be sounding very different. This can work but for me this effort lacked cohesion.  

"Even In Arcadia" on the other hand is a lot more focused while still showing their ambition.  Opening with "Look into Windward". This song sets the scene nicely as it builds and builds, slows down, speeds up, slows down, has nice little explosive bits to make sure you are paying attention.  Altogether this lasts 7 minutes 46 seconds and really sees Sleep Token working their magic.

The 3 singles from the album are "Emergence", "Caramel" and "Damocles".  The latter being my favourite song off the entire album.  The lyrics show a frontman battling with fame no doubt from being catapulted into the limelight from their last album. And maybe something they were slightly fearful of to begin with considering the whole band wear masks on stage and no one knows their names. But I think by letting it out there on the song "Damocles" is what makes it so good. The general public probably can't relate to the fame side of what he’s going through but they can relate to the song’s lyrics through their own interpretation.  Some might say the lyrics are slightly depressing but I prefer to look at it as relatable.  But never mind the lyrics anyway, the tune itself is totally awesome and one I just keep going back to.  "Emergence" and "Caramel" also really good songs.

In fact, I wouldn't really say there is a bad song on the album, other highlights include - "Past Self" which is a wee upbeat number, title track "Even in Arcadia" takes it down a notch and is more atmospheric" while "Infinite Baths" closes out the album in dramatic style, just as things started taking just over 8 minutes. The running time for the album is 56 minutes meaning the average track length is just over 5 minutes a track. The way albums should be.

Overall, this is a fantastic album and by far and away my favourite album of 2025.  This shows a band on the ascendency and more importantly in their own lane.  I've been listening to this album non-stop and you should be too.