They’re not just rinsing and repeating, however – they’ve evolved too much as a band to do that. While not as wild a leap as 2023’s groundbreaking Take Me Back To Eden, there’s all sorts of new touches here. On Caramel, Vessel briefly emerges from behind the curtain to viscerally spell out the effect over-intrusive fans have had on him, leaving him ‘Terrified to answer my own front door,’ and feeling like, ‘This stage is a prison.’ Gethsemane, meanwhile, brings their most radically new sounds – Vessel bends his voice into new timbres, and there’s even some funky riff work unlike anything they’ve ever attempted before, almost akin to The Home Team (weird, yet it works).
If there’s anywhere they falter, it’s on their simpler songs. It’s not to say they can’t succeed without being weird or maximalist and they have a dossier of past successes to prove that (see: Aqua Regia, Missing Limbs, Fall For Me), but when they strip things back here, like Past Self’s airy synth-and-drum-machine pop it gets a little wobbly.
Fortunately, Even in Arcadia’s minor quibbles are easily dwarfed by the height of its peaks. It isn’t quite an album of all-timers, but it’s more than enough to bring in wave after wave of gleaming gold spoils all over again. Crucially, of course, it’s something only they could have made – and that is always a strength.
Verdict: 4/5
For fans of: Polyphia, Dayseeker, Chase Atlantic
Even In Arcadia is released on May 9 via RCA. Sleep Token headline Download Festival in June – get your tickets now.
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