Sleep Token play with “real” identity on personal new single ‘Caramel’
Sleep Token have shared a new single called ‘Caramel’, which toys with the themes of “real” identity. Check it out below.
Arriving today (April 4), the new track marks the second single that the masked metal group have shared from their forthcoming album ‘Even In Arcadia’. It follows on from the long awaited lead single ‘Emergence’, which arrived in March following a series of cryptic clues from the band.
News of the new single was teased earlier this week, shortly after the members enlisted metalhead weatherman Chris Michaels to help them tease upcoming material.
With its release, the single seems to see the anonymous frontman – who goes by the name Vessel – take a step away from the band’s lore and instead look inwards.
Coming in at just under five minutes long, the single starts with a soft, soothing instrumental melody, before the frontman starts to explore the theme of identity in his lyrics.
“Every time they try to shout my real name just to get a rise from me,” he sings. “Acting like I’m never stressed out by the hearsay/ I guess that’s what I get for trying to hide in the limelight/Guess that’s what I get for having 20/20 hindsight/ Everybody wants eyes on ’em, I just wanna hear you sing that top line.”
Check it out below.
The topics explored in the lyrics seem to reference the element of anonymity around the band, which has been prominent since their inception in 2016, along with the eagerness of some fans to work out who the mysterious frontman is.
“The band’s origin story is steeped in lore,” wrote NME after the band performed in London in 2023. “The story goes that Vessel was visited in a dream by an ancient deity known as Sleep, who promised him ‘glory and magnificence’ if Vessel were to follow him. Each of Sleep Token’s songs are said to be dedicated to this deity, while their sound is just as intriguing: splicing tuned-down tech-metal with the lighter elements of pop and R&B to create a soundscape that’s not only heavy, but curiously accessible.”
‘Even In Arcadia’ is set to drop on May 9 via RCA, and is available to pre-order here. Last month, ‘Emergence’ was given a four-star review by NME, and described as showing the band at their “sprawling, genre-defying best”.
“Clocking in at six minutes and 26 seconds, it shows the band now seem increasingly unafraid to execute these long, winding tracks which switch effortlessly between genres,” it read.
“If anything, ‘Emergence’ confirms the left turns they still have in store, and maintains the intrigue around the extent of the world-building on ‘Even In Arcadia’ – which some fans are expecting will step away from the connected trilogy of albums that came before,” it added. “In the meantime, we can only continue what Sleep Token always asked us to do: worship.”
Sleep Token are set to headline Download Festival this year alongside Green Day and Korn, before drummer II appears at Black Sabbath’s final show in Birmingham in July.
They will also tour ‘Even In Arcadia’ in September, with all shows taking place in North America. Dates kick off with a show in Duluth in Georgia on September 16, and continue with stops in Orlando, Greensboro, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and more over the following weeks. Visit here for tickets to UK shows and here for US tickets.
The post Sleep Token play with “real” identity on personal new single ‘Caramel’ appeared first on NME.
Liberty Dunworth
NME
