Release Date: 9 May 2025
Song Count: 10
Rating: 5.3/10
Description:
Sleep Token - an anonymous band of much popularity that has been a polarising force within the rock and metal scenes for a while now due to their very marmite-like style of combining practically every musical genre under the sun, and one that has garnered attention through snippets of their songs receiving breakthroughs and virality on short-form content platforms earlier this decade, such as a segment featuring melodic guitars and bass jamming out underneath the lead singer's signature vocals at the final minute of "The Summoning". Whether or not their black sheep-like discography is classifiable as "real" and "proper" metal music or if it deviates too far from the structures and elements of the genre to be accurately called such is a widely debated question that may perhaps never find a conclusive answer, and certainly not under my inspection - what I can instead offer is a metalhead's initial perspective on the band's newest full piece of indulgence named Even In Arcadia, released earlier this ending year.
As hinted at prior, there is no one way Sleep Token's music goes at any point; one can expect anything to show up and throw musical curveballs in these hodgepodges of styles that are tracks, from light, emotional and melodic stretches of the vocalist's round voice radiating through as all sorts of instruments, both traditional and modern, catch along, to hard-hitting, indulgent and powerful moments of unadulterated metal essence coming through in the form of growls and matching instruments like guitars, bass and drums fully taking over. Many different kinds of sounds, patterns and levels of energy are being thrown around to carry the general atmosphere of the songs forward, fluctuating and rocking around as the album tries to find a desirable balance between musical weight and accessibility to an audience beyond the usual listener-base of metal - a balance that, in Sleep Token's case, tends to vary drastically in success and how well it leads overall musical cohesiveness in their works.
This lack of commitment to one path or another, while on its own not a net negative as a stylistic choice, proves itself to be hurtful to Even In Arcadia in particular, as a lot of the songs - though not all - struggle to have the emotional impact that they wish to achieve or even make a memorable piece that can stick to a particular collection of sounds that go well together. If a bit of additional weight were to be added to the songs to increase their cohesion not only within themselves, but also between one another, the tracks could strike the balance and traverse that fine line that spans across the musical concept of combining genres and making it work, but as is, they go excessively into lighter territory without constraining themselves to one sound in that category that lends itself well to develop into becoming heavier over the course of their duration.
This isn't the case with all of the tracks - particularly the opener, "Look To Windward", showcases what the rest of the album could have been like if it were stripped of its inhibitions and primary flaws, and serves as a captivating start to a set of songs that unfortunately fails to maintain the same effect across it all. Aside from that and a couple of other songs that contain glimpses of stronger sections, Even In Arcadia left quite a lot to be desired from me, partially from personal expectations formed by past experiences being misplaced, but also partially due to its ideas and concepts simply not panning out as well as it could have. A well-intentioned effort from a band that very much can deliver in most other contexts, even if it may not have quite worked out here.