Even in Arcadia is the upcoming fourth studio album by anonymous English rock band Sleep Token, due for release on 9 May 2025.[1] This will be the band's first release under new record label RCA Records. The album garnered significant media attention amid an unorthodox marketing campaign that has included a weatherman at WRAL in North Carolina providing hints to release dates and album singles.[2]
| Even in Arcadia | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 9 May 2025 | |||
| Length | 56:33 | |||
| Label | RCA | |||
| Producer | Carl Bown | |||
| Sleep Token chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Even in Arcadia | ||||
Background and release
editOn 18 February 2025, Sleep Token created their first official TikTok account and for their first post, captioned it with a mysterious website titled "Show Me How to Dance Forever". The website displayed a floral pink/grey aesthetic among early empire architecture, with seemingly random letters scrambled across the screen that needed to be entered in a specific sequence. Fans of the band found in the source code of the website a code arrangement depicting an archway and location coordinates that led to the 18th-century Shepherd's Monument in the grounds of Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire, England, below a mirror image of Nicolas Poussin's painting of the Shepherds of Arcadia. The inscription on the monument is the unsolved Shugborough inscription cypher which was discovered to be the correct arrangement on the website. Once users entered this correctly, a black flamingo appears, and they are then asked to provide their email address. Users were then greeted with a message "With Gratitude" and then sent an email titled "BEHOLD, A DIVIDE", with two options available to click, "House Veridian" and "Feathered Host" each with their own distinct logo and colour scheme. Both image links, when followed, led to the band's merchandise website. A second email was then sent that placed the user within the "house" of whichever link they initially followed.[3]
On 26 February 2025, another email was sent out with links to two newly created Instagram accounts, each representing House Veridian and Feathered Host. Both accounts then posted images of identical sheet music. These eventually went viral with thousands of fans recording their interpretation of the sheet music on various instruments and programs and uploading them to social media platforms.[4] It was later discovered that the House Veridian version of the sheet music had the Latin words septuagesimus and secundus which translates to "72nd" and each word was placed on the 3rd and 13th measure of the sheet music. This led fans following these clues to believe something would happen on the 72nd day of the year which also equates to the date 13/3 or 13th March, which also coincided with a blood moon lunar eclipse.[5]
On 7 March 2025, Sleep Token officially teased new material via their official Instagram page as well as the two House Instagram accounts, showing the black flamingo surrounded by flowers in front of old, gothic-like architecture with the caption "Prepare for a new offering", and a link to pre-save a song on streaming services. On the same day, each house Instagram account shared a Morse code snippet, with both translating to more location coordinates nearby each other at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. Fans who followed this and visited the locations found QR codes with the logo of each house on them. These QR codes both scanned as the words "Blood" and "Moon" with the assets for each showing a number, which when entered as a cipher, revealed the word "EMERGENCE".[6]
On 10 March 2025, music venues/arenas around the United States began to change their social media profile pictures to one of the logos for the two houses. At the same time, billboards with the new aesthetic found on the website began appearing around the US, with the line "Have you waited long for me?" and these music venues then began posting teaser reels with the same line. This led fans to believe a new tour was about to be announced.[7]
On 13 March 2025, Sleep Token announced their fourth studio album entitled Even in Arcadia, due for release 9 May 2025. They simultaneously released their first single from the album, entitled "Emergence" available on all streaming services. A new tour of the United States was announced with confirmed dates and a new website with brand new merchandise available to pre-order was launched.[8]
During this time, weatherman Chris Michaels who features as the morning meteorologist for the WRAL-TV network, known for subtly incorporating lyrics from metal bands into his TV reports, took to Instagram, sharing a clip with Sleep Token's logo on the screen behind him with Emergence playing and the caption: "Prepare. 3/29". Following from this, he dropped a further teaser on that date asking us to "Prepare" in his report and that something is "Developing later in the week". On the screen behind him showed various cities in the region with "Behold, an offering" at the top. Some of the cities were missing characters and fans were quick to figure out the missing letters spelt out "CARAMEL" and then worked out that an example of sugar pyrolysis would result in caramel formation. Several days later, the official Sleep Token and house Instagram accounts shared a new reel very similar to the one that teased "Emergence", this time with the black flamingo walking inside one of a building in the Arcadia garden aesthetic, with the message: "Prepare. Caramel. 4/4". Following this teaser, all streaming services revealed "Caramel" to be Track 5 on the new album, confirming it as the second single from the album.[9]
On 4 April 2025, Sleep Token officially released their second single from the album, "Caramel" on all streaming services. The song became the bands highest charting single across multiple countries around the globe, making it their most successful release to date.[10] For the first time, Vessel is not singing from a place associated with the lore and story they have built up over the years, but from the very personal perspective of the man behind the mask. The stress brought to the band members' personal lives as they struggle to remain anonymous as they gain notoriety is highlighted. Vessel does acknowledge in this song that in hindsight, this should have been an expected outcome, and that even with the drawbacks of fame, they still love making and performing their art.[11] During the global YouTube premiere countdown, the Feathered Host and House Veridian symbols flashed, creating a binary code. Fans decoded the binary to "DAMOCLES" which ended up being the third single.
On 16 April 2025, Sleep Token hosted a puzzle through Spotify by updating the Canvas of Emergence to the first 5 tracks using only the letters in Emergence and Caramel. 2 hours after the puzzle was found, the tracklist was confirmed by Spotify on Instagram[12]. The following day, Caramel got a similar treatment, but for the last 5 tracks on the album.
On 25 April 2025, Sleep Token released a third single, "Damocles", to all streaming services.[13] The song's lyrics further explore the effects the band's rise to fame have had on Vessel. [14]
Track listing
editAll lyrics are written by Vessel; all music is composed by Vessel and II.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Look to Windward" | 7:46 |
| 2. | "Emergence" | 6:26 |
| 3. | "Past Self" | 3:35 |
| 4. | "Dangerous" | 4:11 |
| 5. | "Caramel" | 4:50 |
| 6. | "Even in Arcadia" | 4:28 |
| 7. | "Provider" | 6:06 |
| 8. | "Damocles" | 4:25 |
| 9. | "Gethsemane" | 6:23 |
| 10. | "Infinite Baths" | 8:23 |
| Total length: | 56:33 | |
Personnel
editAdapted from Apple Music.[15]
- Carl Bown – production, mixing engineering
- Jim Pinder – engineering
- Adam Getgood – additional production
- Sebastian Sendon – additional engineering
- Ste Kerry – mastering
- Gabi Rose – saxophone (2)
References
edit- ^ Sloan, Jodie (2025-03-13). "Sleep Token announce new album Even In Arcadia and reveal first single "Emergence"". The AU Review. Retrieved 2025-04-03.
- ^ Rigotti, Alex (2025-04-01). "Metalhead weatherman named Chris Michaels involved in Sleep Token's new album launch". NME. Retrieved 2025-04-03.
- ^ Adams, Gregory. "SLEEP TOKEN are teasing something with a cryptic new website". Revolver. Retrieved 2025-04-03.
- ^ Fitzpatrick, Jake (2025-02-27). "Sleep Token's Secret Instagram Is Sending Fans Sheet Music". Blunt Magazine. Retrieved 2025-04-03.
- ^ "Sleep Token launch two private Instagram accounts to tease new music". Kerrang!. 2025-02-27. Retrieved 2025-04-03.
- ^ Newman, Chloé. "A new offering has arrived: Sleep Token's new single and everything leading up to it". The Shield. Retrieved 2025-04-03.
- ^ Keenan, Hesher (2025-03-10). "More Hints Suggest Sleep Token Could Be Announcing U.S. Tour". MetalSucks. Retrieved 2025-04-03.
- ^ Sloan, Jodie (2025-03-13). "Sleep Token announce new album Even In Arcadia and reveal first single "Emergence"". The AU Review. Retrieved 2025-04-03.
- ^ "Sleep Token tease new single via weatherman Chris Michaels". Kerrang!. 2025-03-28. Retrieved 2025-04-03.
- ^ "Official Trending Chart: Ed Sheeran, Sleep Token, Miley Cyrus and more score rising UK hits". Official Charts. 2025-04-08. Retrieved 2025-04-10.
- ^ Dunworth, Liberty (2025-04-04). "Sleep Token play with "real" identity on personal new single 'Caramel'". NME. Retrieved 2025-04-10.
- ^ "Observe this contribution".
- ^ Mills, Matt (2025-04-25). "Sleep Token invite listeners to "confront what lies beneath the mask" on exultant new single Damocles". Metal Hammer. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
- ^ Garner, Emily (2025-04-25). "Sleep Token have released another vulnerable new single, Damocles". Kerrang!. Retrieved 2025-04-25.
- ^ "Even In Arcadia". Apple Music. 2025-03-13. Retrieved 2025-04-27.