Mysterious and masked progressive metal band Sleep Token have made history with their fourth album, Even in Arcadia. Released earlier this month, it debuted at the top of the charts in the U.S. and U.K., beating the likes of Thom Yorke and mainstream artists PinkPantheress and former Glastonbury headliner SZA to the coveted spot.
It’s an ascent that has smashed a few world records on the way and confirmed the group’s status as the biggest band in the world right now.
Billboard has said that the album, which merges eight-string prog-metal riffs with sugary pop hooks, R&B, gospel drumming, and electronic soundscapes is the best-selling record of the past two years and has achieved more weekly streams than any other hard-rock album in history.
And it’s not just streams where the band are excelling. More than 47,000 vinyl sales make Even in Arcadia the highest-selling hard-rock album in the modern era, edging out the also recently released Ghost album, Skeletáwhich sold 44,000.
The band has been on a dizzying upward trajectory for years now, with 2023’s Take Me Back to Eden hinting that this day would soon come for a band whose fanbase transcends genres and demographics.
But who are they?
Sleep Token are fronted by a character known only as Vessel. He writes all the songs with drummer II, who is set to feature at Black Sabbath’s star-studded final show. The rest of the band are likewise assigned numbers rather than stage names. IV, for instance, is the band’s guitarist. Whether he plays a role in the studio or not is unconfirmed.
The ambiguous lore of the band centers around them conveying the messages and sermons of an omnipresent entity called Sleep, who Vessel says he once encountered in a dream.
Influences — either stated by the band during one of their ultra-rare interviews or theorized by detail-oriented critics — include Deftones, Meshuggah and Bon Iver.
But while little has been revealed of the people behind the masks since their 2016 formation, their tech has confirmed IV’s gear.
IV is predominantly a Jackson loyalist, and eight-string guitars are his main weapon of choice, but there is a little variation. Having previously played a Jackson’s X Series Soloist SLAT8, as the band’s budget has increased, he’s been treated to a Jackson USA Custom Shop Monarkh, the firm’s Les Paul–style build.
The 28-inch-scale guitar is loaded with active Fishman Fluence pickups and an EverTune bridge, and capped with a striking Pale Moon Ebony fretboard with the band’s logo at the 12th fret, and some classy binding. It’s tuned to E A E A D G B E. His tech, Billy, says he favors “long necks and heavy-gauge strings”, including .010s – .084 sets.
The guitar is flanked by an Aristides multiscale 080SR eight-string. It features the firm’s signature Richlite fretboard, passive Bare Knuckle Ragnarok pickups, and an EverTune bridge.
Elsewhere, the signature Jackson SoCcal Strat-alike from Periphery’s Misha Mansoor has been a regular on tour. On its surface, the guitar looks like a vintage Strat but mirrors Mansoor’s go-to Juggernaut axe with a basswood body, bolt-on caramelized maple neck and a fretboard with 22 stainless-steel jumbo rets.
That guitar features Mansoor’s signature Bare Knuckle Ragnarok humbucker in the bridge and is joined by two Bare Knuckle Trilogy Suite single coils. The guitar was originally the stock colorway of Daphne Blue, but was resprayed to match Sleep Token’s cream-colored aesthetic while touring Take Me Back to Eden.
Other guitars include a custom-built Balaguer Espada seven-string with a 28.5-inch scale length, roasted maple/walnut neck, and Fishman Modern Fluence pickups tuned to drop D,. He also has a Fender Telecaster American Ultra II used for “Missing Limbs,” which Vessel performs on his own with a capo on the fourth fret.
Tonally, IV is an advocate of digital modelers, having switched from Kemper to the Neural DSP Quad Cortex in recent years. He tours with two QCs which are kept off stage and operated via MIDI. The main tones, as revealed by Billy, “come from a Revv Generator [amp head] and a Mesa cab that IV captured onto the QC in the studio. We run two amps left and right.”
The QC’s doubler feature, which splits a mono signal into stereo and adds a slight delay on one side to give the impression of two guitarists when there are only one, is a trick utilized throughout their set.
The no-expense-spared rig is full of archetypal modern metal picks, with some chief aesthetic flourishes along the way, and also stands as the embodiment of the band’s genre-mashing approach to songwriting. With guitars that can sparkle and grunt in equal measure, every base is covered.
Indeed, Sleep Token has captured the younger generations, but are slowly turning older heads too. Few bands in recent years — if not decades — have enjoyed a rise as quick and as unstoppable as the British act, and now they have the world records, and a score of high-end gear to prove it.
