SLEEP TOKEN launched their 2025 “June Festival Rituals” tour in dramatic fashion on June 7 with a headline performance at Germany’s Rock im Park festival in Nuremberg. The set not only blended fan-favorite tracks from across their discography but also featured the live debut of four songs from their newly released fourth studio album, Even in Arcadia.
Taking the stage in front of a massive festival crowd, the enigmatic UK collective opened with Even in Arcadia’s powerful first track, “Look to Windward,” marking its first-ever live performance. Later in the set, fans were treated to the premieres of “Emergence,” “Caramel,” and “Damocles,” performed in the same order they appear on the album. With these four songs now introduced to the stage, only a few tracks from the new record remain unheard in a live setting.
The rest of the performance was a carefully curated journey through SLEEP TOKEN’s evolving sound. The band included at least two songs from each of their previous LPs: 2019’s Sundowning, 2021’s This Place Will Become Your Tomb, and 2023’s Take Me Back to Eden. Crowd-pleasers like “The Offering,” “Higher,” “Hypnosis,” “The Love You Want,” and “The Summoning” were met with fervent energy, while “Granite” and the emotionally charged “Take Me Back to Eden” added dynamic peaks to the set.
As always, SLEEP TOKEN’s performance was steeped in atmosphere, augmented by two haunting instrumental interludes that deepened the ritualistic mood. In true SLEEP TOKEN fashion, the show concluded not with an encore, but with Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” playing over the PA system—an unexpected but strangely fitting farewell for a night steeped in mystique and emotional weight.
Full setlist for Rock im Park show was as follows:
- “Look to Windward” (Live debut)
- “The Offering”
- “Vore”
- “Emergence” (Live debut)
- “Alkaline”
- “Hypnosis”
- “Aqua Regia”
- “Rain” (Extended keyboard intro)
- “Caramel” (Live debut)
- “The Summoning”
- “Granite”
- “The Love You Want”
- “Higher”
- “Damocles” (Live debut)
- “Thread the Needle”
- “Take Me Back to Eden”
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.