Sleep Token at London’s O2 Arena, 29/11/2024

Next year's Download headliners Sleep Token bring their unapologetic brand of metal and mystery to London

Sleep Token are perhaps the biggest cult band in the world. The mysterious, masked group have never had a crossover radio hit but that hasn’t stopped them from selling over 100,000 tickets to their current UK headline tour. It’s a similar story for Europe, North America and Australia. Next summer they headline Download Festival for the first-time alongside pop-punk legends Green Day and nu-metal pioneers Korn.

In the five years since debut album Sundowning was released, the progressive mob have built a dedicated following thanks to poetically melodramatic lyrics, spindly lore about the deity Sleep and a deliciously rebellious approach to genre boundaries. The four-piece have barely spoken in public and their identities remain a closely-guarded secret. It’s easy to see why they’re such a divisive force in the world of metal.

On Friday night, they proved why they’re also so adored. Taking to the stage of London’s O2 Arena, Sleep Token kickstarted the first of two shows at the cavernous venue with the twinkling, delicate ‘The Night Does Not Belong To God’. It was perhaps the most graceful ever start to an arena rock show but the serenity was soon shattered with a thunderous ‘The Offering’. Over the next 90-minutes, Sleep Token jumped between pretty and pulverising, often within the same song. ‘Atlantic’ was a piano-driven hunk of vulnerability, ‘Hypnosis’ a snarling anthem of infatuation.

True to form, vocalist Vessel never addressed the crowd and apart from encouraging bigger and bigger mosh pits, neither did the rest of the band. There was an impressive light show that gave the gig a sense of theatre while pre-recorded sci-fi interludes about faith, trust, and existence added to the fantastical escapism on offer.

Really though, the entire thing rested on the music. Skipping between the trap-infused ‘Dark Signs’, the arena rock singalong of ‘Rain’ and the rave-metal carnage of ‘Chokehold’, each song felt like a journey. There was no apology for toying with different styles either, with the band just as confident delivering brutal breakdowns as they were with crafting intricate soundscapes. The most impressive thing was the crowd though, who responded to the band’s chaotic, twisting blend of genres with pure excitement. Together, surely stadiums await.