In the midst of a YouTube deep-dive in the summer of 2021, I watched a music video from a band called Sleep Token.
The song “Alkaline” included powerful guitars, top-notch drumming, electronic samples, and ghostly vocals.
In the video, a masked and hooded figure used apparent supernatural powers to stop bullets, dispatch interlopers, and control a giant spider.
I watched it four times.
I was hooked, but had never heard of the band — Sleep Token.
Now, in 2025, Sleep Token’s popularity is exploding.
The band now tops 8.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify, the majority coming since the start of the year.
Their recent singles, “Emergence” and “Caramel,” are outperforming the likes of Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, and Ed Sheeran on iTunes and Spotify charts.
An upcoming 17-stop arena tour sold out within hours.
Sleep Token’s music is unpredictable. Any given song can include any number of styles.
As interesting as their music is, the band’s marketing tactics and fan engagement are unprecedented.
Plainly, I think Sleep Token is one of the most interesting bands out there.
Sleep Token started in the United Kingdom in 2016.
They drew attention early on for being a completely anonymous collection of musicians. Each wears a mask on stage.
Sleep Token’s lead vocalist is known as “Vessel.”
Other members are known only by numerals: the drummer is II (two), the bassist is III (three), and IV (four) plays guitar and lends backing vocals.
The band’s masks and on-stage costumes have become more ornate and personalized over the years.
There’s also quite a bit of lore about the band, as well. I won’t get into all of it here.
Sleep Token’s first major album, “Sundowning,” was released in 2019.
My favorites on the record include, “The Offering,” “Dark Signs,” “Sugar”, and “Blood Sport.”
“This Place Will Become Your Tomb” followed in 2021, with singles “Alkaline,” “The Love You Want” and “Fall for Me.”
Both albums showcased what the band has become known for: blending genres, using electronic and metal elements with indie aspects, and Vessel’s other-worldly voice.
In 2023, Sleep Token released their third album, “Take Me Back to Eden.”
The second track, “The Summoning,” is one of the band’s best-known songs.
Over the course of its six-minute-plus runtime, the song swings from traditional metal styling, to falsetto vocals, to a hard-hitting breakdown and scream vocals, before ending with … I won’t spoil it.
“…Eden” is where the band’s popularity started to pick up steam.
It spawned scores of YouTube reaction videos, and earned the band millions of new Spotify listeners.
Sleep Token won Top Hard Rock Album at the Billboard Music Awards, and played a show at Wembley Arena in London that sold out in minutes.
In 2024, the band signed to RCA Records.
They’re fourth album “Even in Arcadia,” is set to release May 9.
I mentioned earlier, the band’s genius use of marketing.
With “…Eden,” the band used coded language and social media teases to share song titles and single releases.
Sleep Token and RCA Records have ratcheted up their use of those tactics for “Even in Arcadia.”
In February, the first official band TikTok account posted a teaser that lead fans to a website, which had hidden images in the source code.
Fans were later tasked with choosing between two ‘houses’: House Veridian and Feathered Host, each with their own logos.
Before the band’s tour was announced, concert venues — including Worcester’s DCU Center — changed their social media profile photos to those logos.
I won’t go step by step, in case any new fans want to follow the trail of breadcrumbs themselves.
The stunt that most impressed me was the band’s team-up with WRAL-TV Meteorologist Chris Michaels, using social media posts to signal the release of a new single.
“Emergence” is the first single off of “Arcadia”.
It leads listeners in with a solemn piano and Vessel’s vocals, before launching into two rap verses showcasing II’s syncopated drumming.
“Emergence” ends with an eyebrow-raising saxophone solo, courtesy of Gabi Rose of Bilmuri.
The single and the companion visualizer (which has its own clues) have over 10 million views on YouTube.
The follow-up single, “Caramel,” was markedly different.
Released in early April, “Caramel” reminds me of something Ed Sheeran would put out, with pop styling, R&B influence, and an infinitely-catchy hook.
It all stands in opposition to what are potentially Vessel’s most personal lyrics ever, dealing with the hang-ups of the band’s sudden rise to fame.
“Too young to get bitter over it all/ Too old to retaliate like before,
Too blessed to be caught ungrateful, I know/ So I’ll keep dancin’ along to the rhythm,
This stage is a prison/ a beautiful nightmare,
A war of attrition/ I’ll take what I’m given,
The deepest incisions/ I thought I got better/ But maybe I didn’t…”
It also touches on the actions of some “fans” who have tried to identify the members of the band publicly.
The song ends with sudden and chaotic guitars, drums, and death-metal style scream vocals.
The third single, “Damocles,” is a piano-led ballad with a chorus that reiterates the same themes of the problems with fame:
“When the river runs dry and the curtain is called/ How will I know if I can’t see the bottom?
Come up for air and choke on it all/ No one else knows that I’ve got a problem
What if I can’t get up and stand tall?/ What if the diamond days are all gone
And who will I be when thе empire falls?/ Wake up alone and I’ll be forgotten.”
I feel Sleep Token’s success is the sum of many parts.
There’s the inherent mystique that comes with the band’s anonymity, mixed with genre-spanning music that make each song unpredictable.
There’s the fan engagement and teases, spurring fan theories and debate over the future of the band.
Finally, there’s the band’s internet and social media presence, and the endless stream of content shared by fans themselves.
Sleep Token has fans right where they want them, eagerly anticipating what’s next, with every single, album and tour.
I’m excited to see what the band does, and how their sudden rise to fame impacts their music, and personality.
We’ll know soon, when “Even in Arcadia” releases next week.
