Unpacking Arcadia: Analysing the clues in Sleep Token’s new album

Once again, we’ve been brought an offering. We’ve now had a few days to sit with Even In Arcadia and digest the rich smorgasbord of sounds that Sleep Token have glued together, and inevitably, there’ll be fans the world over coming together to pull its lyrics and themes apart.

Of course, the path to the lush gardens of this new world has been paved with Easter eggs, references and lore – it wouldn’t be a Sleep Token album rollout without it. If you’re in need for somewhere to start, look no further. Things are about to get nerdy, because here’s everything you need to know about Even In Arcadia…

Visually, Sleep Token have transported us to a world of marble buildings, verdant undergrowth and pink blossoms, with a black flamingo pecking around who fans have endearingly named Jerry. This, evidently, is Arcadia, and perhaps itself is an aspect of the lore. In Greek mythology, Arcadia refers to a far-off, blissful pastoral realm, potentially a version of Eden that Vessel was yearning for on 2023’s Take Me Back To Eden. Alternatively, it embodies the heights of success Sleep Token have reached, yet there’s trouble in paradise. Even though the frontman has reached this place, his turmoil hasn’t ended – it’s metamorphosed.

Before any new songs surfaced, Sleep Token declared, ‘Behold, a divide’. Said divide involved the sorting of fans who solved a word scramble into one of two factions, House Veridian and Feathered Host. Vessel namechecks these tribes in opener Look To Windward – 'I live by the feather and die by the sword' – indicating they represent the fork in the road that he faces, particularly after disentangling himself from Sleep. One may represent survival and grace, the other violence, danger and toxicity.

Even In Arcadia is the first album outside of Sleep Token’s trilogy, in which they explored the tumultuous power struggle between Vessel and Sleep, the deity he devotes himself to as both faithful servant and lover. By the conclusion of Take Me Back To Eden, it seems Vessel has unshackled himself. However, there appear to be a few songs that evoke the same language he’d address Sleep with, particularly Dangerous – 'You've got me talking in my sleep / As if you're conquering my dreams' – referencing the time that Sleep comes to visit him. Meanwhile, Gethsemane could be read as the eventual emotional crash Vessel often faces as the emotional ties between him and Sleep fray. It prompts numerous questions – has Sleep resurfaced and still trying to tempt Vessel back into their toxic bond? Is Vessel looking back on the past as he tries to heal? Is he addressing someone new entirely and eventually repeating the same patterns?

Speaking of parts that might sound familiar, the first lyric from the album that fans were introduced to was this. One might have expected to hear it within lead single Emergence, but it only materialised when the entire album came out. It arrives in Dangerous, at the beginning of its bridge.

• Get Sleep Token’s new album with exclusive house-specific artwork

Every Sleep Token song has its own visual identity, all linked by a specific theme. Each song on 2019 debut Sundowning was symbolised by an alchemical sigil. On 2021’s This Place Will Become Your Tomb, it was sea creatures. For Take Me Back To Eden, it was avatars. Even In Arcadia is no different. The artwork for each single features a different crest, consisting of a weapon on a shield that is adorned with a different type of flower, while House Veridian and Feathered Host got crests of their own. Look closer at the significance of each weapon or flower, and more might be unveiled about the themes of each song. The roses on the crest for Emergence nod to the line 'I am the rose you relinquished again', while the lilies on the Look To Windward crest may hint at ideas of rebirth and renewal and that Vessel's depiction of his identity crumbling is the first part of him experiencing a radical alteration of self.

The piano is arguably the beating heart of Sleep Token’s music. Ahead of the album’s announcements, they created a way both to honour that and get fans engaging with it on a deeper level. A few months ago, some were granted access to some mysterious sheet music. With some deduction, or pre-existing musical skill, they could work out a tune that evidently had some connection to the album to come. It turns out the sheet music corresponded to the title-track, so parts may have sounded vaguely familiar even on first listen.

A couple of songs appear to depart from any sort of constructed narrative entirely. Caramel and Damocles equally feel like fourth-wall breakers, possibly the closest to the man behind the mask that he’ll ever let us come. On the former, Vessel vents his frustrations around having his boundaries crossed by over-zealous fans (and his worries that it makes him ungrateful); on the latter, he confesses his anxieties of Sleep Token’s gold rush eventually running out. Could these more personal moments still have ties to the lore, however? After all, Vessel was promised the ultimate glory should he pledge his devotion to Sleep and if life has imitated art, then he has it – except, as the story often goes, it’s not everything Sleep promised.

Sleep Token are a deeply referential band, historically incorporating elements of alchemy, ancient alphabets (their logo is believed to reference an ancient runic alphabet), and even a centuries-old tome on sorcery. On Even In Arcadia, this continues. Look To Windward nods to a line in T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land, there’s allusions to Greek mythology in the form of the title and the myth of the sword of Damocles, and references to the Bible. Gethsemane is the primary example, potentially drawing a parallel between Vessel’s suffering in the realm he’s in to the Agony in the Garden, an episode of the passion of Christ in which Jesus prays to God in a state of deep distress not long before his crucifixion.

Sleep Token’s affinity for references also relates to their music, and their way of tying lyrics back to other lines on previous albums is well known. On Even In Arcadia, this continues. For example, the line 'I am the rose you relinquished again' on Emergence may call back to Aqua Regia’s 'Putting down the roses, picking up the sword'. Meanwhile, Damocles’ watery imagery – 'It feels like falling into the sea' – invokes the emotional agony woven into the narrative of This Place Will Become Your Tomb.

For some time now, Sleep Token have made references to The Teeth Of God; it was the name of their U.S. tour last year and the graphic novel they released just a few months later – not a future album title, as some may have suspected. During closer Infinite Baths, the phrase resurfaces again – ‘Teeth of God, blood of man / I will be what I am,’ calling back to a poem known to fans as The Hunting Poem printed on an item of Take Me Back to Eden-era merch in code (‘I am hunting something, and in turn that same thing is hunting me, the beholder; the hold beyond. I am the line between. I am the teeth of God’) Is it a recurring motif, or were they dropping clues to this eventual line all this time? Only Sleep knows…

Even In Arcadia is out now via Sony BMG. Get your copy of the vinyl with exclusive house-specific artwork.

Sleep Token headline Download Festival in June (get your tickets now) before heading out on their sold-out Even In Arcadia Tour in America later this year.

Read this next:

• “They saved me”: Why Sleep Token have one of the most dedicated fanbases in the world
  
• Taking over: The striking, staggering story of Sleep Token’s explosion
• The story of Sleep Token’s This Place Will Become Your Tomb: “I am nothing without this music”