Review
Sleep Token lead Download Festival in worship
It's a masked mass at the Apex Stage as Sleep Token prove themselves much more than just the fastest rising headliners in Download history
It’s been just over two years since Sleep Token exploded – the surprise drop of ‘The Summoning’ and ‘Chokehold’ coming at the start of a year that would become entirely theirs for the taking. With 2023’s Take Me Back To Eden taking the masked metal innovators from a buzzy name shared amongst fans of the genre to one of the most talked about heavy bands in the world, their rise has been truly astonishing to witness.
Boasting the swiftest ascension to Download headline status in history – playing the festival just once before during the pilot event of 2020 – the announcement of Sleep Token’s debut top billing was met with mixed response. Many doubted their ability to take on such a task as relative newcomers to playing big stages and engaging huge crowds, and coming into this rainy Saturday evening they had a lot to prove.
The torrential downpour started an hour or so before their stage time, soaking the pink flowers laced around the towered speakers surrounding the Apex Stage. The screens went black as the sound of whooshing wind came through the speakers, followed by gentle chimes, a string of House Veridian banners – one of the two factions established as part of the lore surrounding 2025 album Even In Arcadia – swayed at the top of the stage. The album’s opener ‘Look To Windward’ commenced the ritual with a curtain drop, revealing a stunning set consisting of a tiered stone structure, frontman Vessel stepping out from a door within the ruins, adorned in a feathered robe and signature mask.
Petals fell from the sky throughout as ‘The Offering’ built to an epic crescendo; the crowd swiftly gripped by the theatrics. Videos on the two screens framing the stage whisked the crowd away into another world, one filled with crumbling ruins, ornate archways flecked with gold and draped in pink flowers, and a luscious landscape of pink speckled fields and mountain peaks. Giving a UK debut to the new skull-style masks of members II, III, and IV – first revealed during their headline sets at Rock am Ring and Rock im Park last weekend – a new era is truly underway here.
With that in mind, it seems right that a large portion of the set is dedicated to Even In Arcadia. Vessel’s delicate piano playing at the beginning of comeback single ‘Emergence’ is backdropped by a spectacular waterfall feature crashing behind him; the song’s breakdown call of “hey, woop” getting a particularly loud response, the vocalist galloping joyfully from one side of the stage to the other. Elsewhere, odes to the realities of fame ‘Caramel’ and ‘Damocles’ feel huge, the former becoming an instant live highlight as a sea of outstretched limbs appear whilst Vessel sings, “Let me see those hands”.
However, the majority of the night belongs to Take Me Back To Eden, the album that has been largely responsible for getting Sleep Token to this position. ‘Vore’ allows Vessel to flex his guttural screams, whilst ‘The Summoning’ gets an expectedly mighty response as it segues into its now iconic retro funk section. Cuts from 2019’s Sundowning and 2021’s This Place Will Become Your Tomb also feel right at home here, a barrage of red and blue lights assaulting the stage for ‘Hypnosis’ before the desperate closing screams of ‘Give’ spark a mass singalong.
With the gentle emotional sway of ‘The Love You Want’ bringing some stunning harmonies from backing vocal trio Espera, as the ritual reaches its climax, we take a trip back to where it all started. As ethereal 2016 debut single ‘Thread The Needle’ makes a rare appearance in the set, it’s a moment of calm, Vessel’s soft whispered vocals taking centre stage before the absolute carnage of closer ‘Take Me Back To Eden’.
Culminating in a bone-shaking breakdown that whips the crowd into one final frenzy, as the band calmly stride off-stage, they’ve delivered exactly what they needed to. A era-defining performance marked by its precision and attention to every little detail, this will not be the last time we see Sleep Token closing out the night on Donington Park’s Apex Stage.
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Photo by Joseph Okpako/WireImage
