Live Review: Sleep Token prove their Download Festival credentials with stunning Utilita headline show

On the form they’re in, with the live show they have, they could handle a show of that caliber tomorrow if necessary.

Of course, almost everyone inside the Birmingham venue on Thursday night already knew this.

The rise of Sleep Token, while not overnight, has still felt somewhat meteoric.

Only four years ago, the band were playing many of the same songs on a stage around a mile away at The Mill in Digbeth (now XOYO). A venue a fraction of the size by comparison.

Yet, speak to any Sleep Token fan and they’ll tell you the band were always destined for the biggest stages.

Still, it didn’t stop a certain section of the rock and metal fraternity feeling hard done by when their favourite aging heritage band were ‘denied’ their umpteenth headline slot at Download.

Back to the Utilita. Joining Sleep Token were Bilmuri – the project of former Attack Attack! frontman Johnny Franck who was joined by three others for around a half an hour set which melded hardcore guitars and jazzy saxophone riffs.

Saxophonist Gabi Rose kinda stole the show, belting out sax lines while singer Franck bounded around – occasionally playing guitar.

Franck was on chatty form, pausing to tell stories along the way, addressing his own mental health struggles and the formation of the band.

At one point, he accidently put his guitar to one side forgetting he needed it for the next song – only to explain it away with a topical tongue-in-cheek joke about fluoride in water making Americans dumb.

As the house lights dropped and Sleep Token’s set got underway, frontman Vessel began their opening track The Night Does Not Belong To God, stood at a microphone stand engineered to look more like a podium as a blaze of looping, pulsing blue LEDs lit up the stage and arena around him.

A slow burn of an opening track dominated by piano and synths, it allowed the sheer power of Vessel’s voice to immediately shine through.

For the uninitiated, Sleep Token perform wearing masks, hoods and cloaks.

Alongside Vessel were II, III, IV and backing vocalists. Since their formation, they have remained anonymous. (Yes, thanks to internet sleuthing we know the identity of their frontman).

And while this can lazily see the band lumped into the same basket as the likes of Slipknot, Ghost and any other mask wearing act – musically, at times they couldn’t be further away.

Throughout Sleep Token’s set, yes, there are moments of genuine heaviness but where the band really stand out is when they meld those djenty riffs alongside outright pop vocal melodies.

The opener was followed by The Offering which stepped things up a notch.

The structure of Sleep Token’s set at the Utilita was an interesting one.

Split by spoken word interludes which talked about the passage of life and death, each section was based on one of their three albums – with tracks performed in chronological order and slightly more weighting given to their 2023 album Take Me Back To Eden.

What this meant was each stage of the night had a distinct feel – based on the sound of each record and one which seemed to get progressively heavier as the night went on.

With an arena ‘catwalk’ walkway at his disposal, Vessell used it to its full potential, walking along it, reaching out to fans while the rest of the band mostly remained on the main stage – ankle high in dry ice all night and largely silhouetted by rear lighting.

Missing Limbs and Like That from Sleep Token’s 2021 album This Place Will Become Your Tomb were among highlights of the middle section of their set, while the seven tracks from their latest record saw the band at their heaviest.

The Summoning exemplified all the elements which have propelled Sleep Token to arenas - huge riffs, breakdowns and huge vocal lines augmented by a trio of backing singers to the rear of the stage.

Sleep Token finished the third section of their set with Ascensionism, before returning to close their set with Take Me Back To Eden title track and Euclid.

Sleep Token will head to Download next year as possible the band with the most alt pop sensibilities of any act to have headlined in years – and this is a great thing.

On the evidence of their set in Birmingham – they’re exactly the band Download and rock needs.

Sleep Token played:

The Night Does Not Belong to God

The Offering

Dark Signs

Higher

Interlude

Atlantic

Hypnosis

Like That

Alkaline

Missing Limbs

Chokehold

The Summoning

Granite

Rain

Ascensionism

Take Me Back to Eden

Euclid