Sleep Token's 10 best songs - so far

Ever since they first emerged in 2016, Sleep Token have been an unknowable enigma and fast-rising sensation at the heart of contemporary metal.

Sleep Token have become an unknowable enigma and fast-rising sensation at the heart of contemporary metal.

Ducking almost all interviews and forging a mystique around the entity Sleep and his music, the band have built a sense of theatricality and lore that is referring to. Each song (and video) offers breadcrumbs on what it’s all about. It’s wielded incredible results: 2025 has seen them anointed as Download festival headliners for the first time, while latest album Even In Arcadia was a number one smash hit in numerous countries.

But, even putting aside their near-unprecedented success and metal's love for masks and theatricality (Slipknot, Ghost, GWAR…), Sleep Token's music is a fascinating mixture of soul, R&B, djent and tech metal elements that makes them unlike just about anybody else. Now with almost eight million monthly listeners on Spotify, we figured it high time to pick out the ten best Sleep Token songs - so far.

10. Calcutta (Two, 2017)

To date, the only interview Sleep Token have ever given was to Hammer in support of then new single Calcutta in 2017. Released just five months after their debut EP One, Calcutta upped production values and honed in on the ethereal melodies that sit at the heart of Sleep Token's sound.

The instrumentation is minimalist for the first half, but builds to a crushing crescendo that has since become an oft-repeated and beloved motif of their songwriting. Featured on a Metal Hammer cover CD in August that year, the description simply read: "progressive beauty. But who are Sleep Token?"

9. The Offering (Sundowning, 2020)

Even when they were playing (comparatively) tiny venues, Sleep Token were setting themselves up with the kind of crowd-baiting anthems that could send fans into a frenzy. The metronome beat at the top of The Offering begs to be clapped by thousands, building into a deliciously satisfying groove and grind that is sure to elicit mosh pits wherever the band go.

The mystery surrounding the band only adds to the menacing aura of The Offering, Vessel's whispered insistence that we "take a bite" feeling like a tantalising offer from the Garden of Eden's serpent. It's a massive song, with a sense of cathartic release that shows Sleep Token's ascendancy was never in question.

8. Gods (Sundowning, 2020)

Given just how expansive Sleep Token's sound is, it's hard to imagine the band writing a song like Gods these days. The band's usual melodious and progressive inclinations are dropped almost entirely for straight-up brutish metal, Vessel snarling and howling in ways that would do the likes of While She Sleeps or Loathe proud.

Granted, the melodic segments do eventually creep in - feeling like the song has skipped to entirely different realms - but this song is proof positive that Sleep Token always knew how to bring the heavy.

7. Hypnosis (This Place Will Become Your Tomb, 2021)

Sleep Token's pop ambitions were realised more fully on This Place Will Become Your Tomb than anything else the band had produced to date, the production highlighting just how spectacular their compositions are.

But while the melodic sides became more apparent, Sleep Token didn't skimp on heft. Hypnosis brings in-your-face, nearly deafening walls of distorted riffs that could almost sit comfortably amongst the shoegaze inspired maximalism of Deftones or Loathe, the band carefully balancing a sense of percussive, propulsive heaviness and fragile beauty to stunning effect.

6. Fall For Me (This Place Will Become Your Tomb, 2021)

Sleep Token's use of minimalism is as crucial to their sound as any stylistic flourishes they might throw into the mix. Fall For Me rides almost entirely on Vessel's incredible voice, just shy of two-and-a-half minutes of digitally manipulated vocals that can't hide the fact this song is beautifully immersive.

No major surprise that Fall For Me became a big sing-along hit in the band's setlist, its addictive hook of "god I wish you were here" perfectly set to be howled by thousands of fans every night of their sold-out 2021 UK tour.

5. Alkaline (This Place Will Become Your Tomb, 2021)

At just shy of 120 million streams on Spotify alone, it's fair to say This Place Will Become Your Tomb single Alkaline has become a stand-out anthem among Sleep Token's canon.