Sleep Token announce 2023 UK tour

Mysterious masked metallers Sleep Token have announced a UK headline tour for early 2023.

The much-hyped band, who are fronted by enigmatic leader Vessel and rarely do any press, produced one of last year's most widely acclaimed metal releases in second album in This Place Will Become Your Tomb, and supported Brighton metallers Architects across UK arenas earlier this year.

Now, the band will embark upon a run of their biggest headline shows ever, taking in gigs across Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol and Brixton. Support will come from Aussie tech metal mainstays Northlane.

Sleep Token almost never do any press, and the mystique surrounding the band has led to them becoming one of modern metal's biggest talking points.

“Sleep Token are an expression of where metal is in the 2020s,” black metal legend Ihsahn told us last year.  “From the first time I heard them, I was completely intrigued – the way they mix modern metal elements with very dark moods, but also very clear, modern R&B-style production values.”

“It’s similar to what we had with the black metal scene, with the masks and mystery that helps to raise it all,” he continued. “Emperor wouldn’t be where they were without that theatricality, because we needed to do something to distance ourselves from the spotty teenagers we were!"

“It creates a clear distance and space between the art and the artist,” he continues. “I’ve always appreciated artists who created that distance – going back, you can watch all these interviews with David Bowie but it never feels like you knew him. The art he created was an offering and you just had to try to understand it.”