Alright, strap in – The Guardian newspaper just came for Sleep Token and rage-baited the internet into oblivion.
The UK paper’s music editor, Ben Beaumont-Thomas, has officially crowned Sleep Token’s Even In Arcadia the worst album of the year, dropping the hot take on The Guardian’s Today In Focus podcast and choosing absolute violence in the process.
“It sounds like Maroon 5 if they had an iron deficiency”
After acknowledging that the band are now the biggest British metal act of their generation – and the first UK band to top the US charts since Def Leppard in 1992 – Beaumont-Thomas proceeded to describe their music as “some of the most profoundly turgid ever made with some of the worst lyrics ever,” before unleashing the all-timer: “It sounds like Maroon 5 if they had an iron deficiency.”
To be fair, Even In Arcadia has been polarising as hell. Sleep Token leaned harder into pop and R&B textures this cycle, confusing some metal purists while winning over a new army of devotees who’ve been calling the record “kaleidoscopic”, “bruising”, and “one of the best albums ever”.
But for every fan claiming the album “hugs, bruises and dissolves you,” there’s another calling it a steaming turd – and now apparently The Guardian’s music editor has decided to plant his flag firmly in the turd camp.
Naturally, fans picked up their swords.
“Why do people in traditional press have the worst opinions on absolutely everything they report on?” one commented.
“Horrendous, fully pretentious take,” another added.
While another simply quipped: “I’m not taking advice from someone who looks like he’s seen Mumford and sons live”.
Whether you reckon it’s a transcendent genre-bender or Maroon 5 with anaemia, one thing’s clear: Sleep Token have officially reached the stage of fame where respected critics start absolutely roasting them.
It’s hard to overstate just how fast Sleep Token’s rise has been. What started as a masked cult project playing tiny UK rooms has exploded into one of the most talked-about success stories in modern heavy music. Across the last few years the anonymous collective have gone from internet curiosity to full-blown arena act, selling out massive tours across the US, UK and Europe, scoring festival headline slots, and becoming one of the most-streamed heavy bands on the planet – all without revealing their identities – in the age where most artists have been forced to become in-your-face content creators and social media personalities.
Take Me Back To Eden was already a breakout moment in 2023, but Even In Arcadia turning them into the first British band since Def Leppard to top the US charts has cemented them as genuine crossover stars. Whether the Guardian reckons it’s “fascinatingly terrible” or not, Sleep Token aren’t just a band anymore – they’re a full-on cultural phenomenon, and they’re clearly only getting bigger.
Further Reading
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