Even in America! What happened when Sleep Token brought Vesselmania to Louder Than Life

This summer, European festival goers have been treated to the sight of Sleep Token finally arriving on a stage that can adequately handle them. First, there was Germany’s Rock im Park and Rock am Ring fests, where they unveiled their enormous Even In Arcadia stage set in all its rocky, multi-level, water pouring glory for the first time. A week later, they stood as colleagues to Green Day and Korn when they headlined Download. Though Vessel continued to say fuck-all, it all said a lot. Mostly: nice slot, we’ll keep it.

Even so, seeing them here – headlining one of Kentucky mega-fest Louder Than Life’s two equally-pegged, alternating main stages, with only Avenged Sevenfold up next – makes these previous rituals feel like a warm-up. All day, other bands on the bill – Spiritbox, Dayseeker, PVRIS – have had to play toward the front third of the space, with an enormous, ominous black curtain hiding the main event, as the green flags of House Veridian hang from the rafters. By the time the eerie wind sounds and spooky chimes that signal Sleep Token’s arrival begin playing out, the enormous crowd who have sold today out for the first time in the fest’s history is spilling over onto its sister stage. Having seen online what’s in store, expectation is high. But equally, now Vessel has his eye in for this chapter, what’s delivered puts previous showings firmly in the shade.

As the curtain drops and the enormous rocky, castle-y stage set is revealed, there are the same impressed gasps as everywhere else. Ditto the comments about how much more Deftones-heavy the riffs sound than on record. And now, with a couple of nights out with it under his belt, Vessel is positively imperious as he struts among it. Odd an observation as it may be, even his abs cast a shadow tonight. Everything is one bigger, one louder.

At Download, there was a level of curiosity, an opportunity to see what all the fuss was about. Here, the number of true believers is much, much higher, with masked, robed disciples somehow not catching fire wearing their outfits all day in 30-degree heat. Those who aren’t already acolytes quickly get sucked in. Even a beer seller in the crowd is heard giving a disbelieving “Fuck me” as the onstage waterfall begins to pour during Emergence. Same goes for the exclamations when the sax glides sassily out.

In front of such a dedicated audience, it feels even more all-consuming. And now the band have properly mastered what they’re working with here, the ups and downs of Look To Windward, The Offering and Vore become even more turbulent. Alkaline is a totem of emotion, while the way Caramel slides from it’s stadium-sized chorus to wrought ending where Vessel describes his ‘beautiful nightmare’ as if he’s about to explode into tears is a dramatic centrepiece in an emotional whirlpool.

In terms of contemporaries, it’s probably only really Bring Me The Horizon and Rammstein who can bring a show to a place of this size and manage to seal off the outside world. Which is quite something when you’re already outside. Doubly so when, from the stage, the band can see a rollercoaster at the back of the arena, not to mention low-flying planes coming into the airport.

And there’s surprises from how they've done this before as well. At the end, as they finish on a massive Thread The Needle, Vessel pulls out a guitar to grind out the song’s tarmac-thick riffs for the first time ever, a fact noted and giddily gobbled up by those with the knowledge.

It was thought, perhaps, that the ascent to festival headliner might finally answer the question of where the roof on this thing is for Sleep Token. Though we’re getting closer, and this is a setting they wear very well, the way they’ve grown into it inside of four shows says there’s plenty more to pick at here. And you thought Vessel knew what he was doing before…

Read this next:

• “They’ve worked so hard for this”: Inside the biggest summer of Sleep Token’s lives
• From Dio to Sleep Token: The icons who inspired Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale
• Unpacking Arcadia: Analysing the clues in Sleep Token’s new album