Will Ramos, the powerhouse vocalist of deathcore juggernauts LORNA SHORE, recently came to the defense of SLEEP TOKEN during an appearance on the Nik Nocturnal Podcast, praising the band’s latest album, Even In Arcadia, and shutting down criticism of their genre-defying style.
Ramos revealed he first listened to the single, “Caramel,” before diving into the full album. He said (as transcribed by Metal Addicts): “I was like, ‘All right, it’s pretty damn good, I’m not going to lie. Let’s listen to the rest of the album.’”
While SLEEP TOKEN has been known from the start for their fusion of metal, pop, R&B, and ambient elements, recent discourse online has seen some listeners claim the band is straying too far from metal. Ramos wasn’t having it.
“The whole album’s fantastic,” he added. “I don’t even care that people say like, ‘Oh it doesn’t sound like metal.’ It’s like dude, it’s just the damn band. You made them metal. They were just a band and you decided that they were a metal band. Now you’re deciding there’s something else. Here we are. It’s fantastic.”
SLEEP TOKEN has officially taken the U.S. music world by storm. The enigmatic U.K. outfit’s fourth full-length album, Even In Arcadia, has debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, racking up 127,000 equivalent album units in its first week — the biggest debut for a rock album in nearly a year and the largest for a hard rock album in two years.
According to Billboard, Even In Arcadia‘s performance also sets a new benchmark for the genre, logging the biggest streaming week ever for a hard rock album. Of the total units, 53,000 came from streaming equivalent albums (SEA), highlighting the band’s explosive digital presence. Album sales totaled 73,500, while track equivalent albums (TEA) contributed 500 units.
Vinyl sales were another standout metric. The album moved 47,000 copies on vinyl, marking the largest vinyl sales week for a hard rock release since Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan) began tracking sales in 1991. This surpasses the previous record set by GHOST’s Skeletá, which sold 44,000 vinyl copies in its opening week.
The road to Even In Arcadia‘s release was as unconventional as the band itself. In a collaborative campaign with Spotify, the album’s tracklist was gradually revealed through cryptic puzzles scattered across social media, inviting fans to engage in an immersive, interactive discovery experience. The rollout only deepened the mystique and anticipation surrounding the record.
Reeder, the visionary behind Metal Addicts, has transformed his lifelong passion for metal into a thriving online community for metal aficionados. As a fervent devotee of black metal, Reeder is captivated by its dark, atmospheric, and often unorthodox soundscapes.