Following their rapid ascent to the summit of British (and world) metal, the enigmatic outfit are back with a new offering. Consume.

I was randomly watching a music video channel one day back in 2023 when ‘The Summoning’ came on. As a music video, it was just odd, a camera pans around a statue/figure that is not quite human but holding weaponry reminiscent of Warhammer 40k. Along the way, laser targeters are trained on the statue, though nothing further happens. But the music!!!! It was one of those you will never hear it for the first time again type tracks. It led me into a rapid deep dive of Sleep Token, listening to their first two albums and early EPs. The sound was breathtaking. A vibrantly modern take on metal that married it to a range of other genres, including pop and R & B. When ‘Take Me Back To Eden’ dropped, I had it on repeat over and over. It was a phenomenal record, my album of the year.

Spin on two years and Sleep Token had been announced as Download Festival headliners, a bold but correct decision from the organisers. A certain corner of older metal fans protested and spluttered, but to most it just felt right, a recognition of the arrival of a generational band. A band that does things their own way. Masks are not a new concept to metal but Sleep Token’s refusal to engage with any kind of normality of interviews, appearing in music videos or even revealing their identities all added to the mythos and the appeal. In our age of constant immediate exposure, where bands are expected to build social media bases to justify contracts, it seems insane how they have sustained the relative anonymity.

Then, out of the blue, a strange website appeared pointing to imminent new music. It introduced two houses that fans could be divided into, adding to the world building that they cloak themselves in. Enter ‘Emergence.’ It threw me at first, but with every listen, it began revealing itself. There was a complexity that demanded repeat listening. It was Sleep Token, but there were new tricks here. A saxophone coda was possibly the biggest eyebrow raiser. Then came ‘Caramel’ and ‘Damocles.’ Both seemed designed to broaden the appeal of the band whilst dialling back a bit of their earlier heaviness. The twinkling music-box style sound that starts ‘Caramel’ pops up on a number of tracks here.

The rest of the album is a realignment. ‘Past self’ is pure R and B/trap. ‘Dangerous’ nods to an earlier generation of metal bands. There is an honesty to the lyrics in places that has not been there before, a direct representation of Vessel’s state of mind and a view into what it feels like to be at the centre of this mad entity they have built. It is not a completely positive experience, there is much fretting over choices and the growing intensity of the fanbase they have created.

Opener ‘Look To Windward’ might just be the strongest track on the album. The crushingly heavy mid-section is reassuring that they are not completely changing tack. Title track ‘Even in Arcadia’ has one of those haunting piano lines that pops up at least once on each of their albums. Just when you think it is going to repeat the regular trick of going heavy at the end, instead a mournful violin enters, it is a beautiful and unexpected track.

The final two tracks deserve discussion. ‘Gethsemane’ has Vessel singing in a much higher range that turns into something resembling The 1975 with a hip-hop drum beat and then goes heavy… and then has a two-minute breakdown that it ends on. There is A LOT going on here. Closer ‘Infinite Baths’ has an absolutely delightful attack of heavy guitar to end the album on.

Whilst I do not think it quite lives up to Take Me Back To Eden, it is not far off. It is a different beast, and this one demands repeat listens to unpack. It is not as instant in giving up its secrets. In a few months’ time, I might need to reassess it. Right now, I think it confirms them as one of the best bands on the planet. Having been surprised a lot on the first listen to each track I am settling into really loving them all after four listens. As the band would say, “Consume.”