The anonymous British collective Sleep Token has achieved a monumental commercial success with their fourth studio album, Even In Arcadia, which debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard Top 200 chart in May. The album’s staggering first-week performance saw it move 127,000 equivalent album units, setting new records for a hard rock act in both vinyl sales and streaming. However, this mainstream triumph has been met with a fierce backlash from some corners of the metal community, prompting veteran guitarist Doc Coyle to call out what he sees as “pretentious gatekeeping” in a new op-ed for Metal Hammer.
In his piece, Coyle, of Snot and formerly Bad Wolves, observes that the band’s success has been followed by a “harsh and swift” revolt. “The metalcore online discourse, as I said, is a nightmare. My Twitter feed reads like a revolt against Sleep Token,” he wrote. “The most common refrain is some version of, ‘This band should not be allowed to be called metal anymore!’ Many find the cult-like devotion of their fans to be repulsive.”
Coyle argues that this negativity goes beyond simple critique into “antipathy, revulsion, wholesale rejection.” He pinpoints what he believes is the true source of the animosity: “Sleep Token‘s crime is not their artistic choices; it’s the audacity to become the most popular rock act on earth with those choices.” He notes that while other bands like Bring Me The Horizon and Bad Omens have also embraced pop influences, Sleep Token‘s immense popularity has made them a target. He adds that more niche experimental acts like Opeth or Devin Townsend often get a pass for genre-bending because “they dare not speak to the normies.”
The guitarist sees this as a tired, repeating cycle within the rock and metal scenes. “I don’t begrudge anyone who dislikes the album or the band. What bothers me is the coalitions of lynch mobs against popular heavy bands as a trend,” he stated. “It’s knee-j*rk contrarianism to dislike what the masses like. I don’t think that’s cool.”
Coyle draws direct parallels to past backlashes against bands who are now celebrated. “But we’ve seen this movie before. Limp Bizkit went from the biggest band in the world in 2002 to persona non grata in a couple of years. I saw them get booed opening for Metallica in 2003… Now, they are getting their flowers for being cool, innovative, and fun,” he explained. “It was also trendy to hate Metallica for 10 years. Now, people love them again. I just don’t know why we have to keep repeating the same patterns of tearing down our successful acts. This is ‘why we can’t have nice things’ in practice.”
Ultimately, Coyle makes a plea for a more earnest and less elitist approach to fandom. “Hating bands as trends is not cool because trying to be cool isn’t cool. It is another form of conformity, elitism,” he wrote. “I believe truly being a fan is being a nerd. It’s passionate, obsessive and unabashedly earnest. Unfortunately, we live in a time where earnestness is viewed as cringe.”
He concludes with a direct message to the gatekeepers: “It’s just music. Just because you have a right to be an a**hole about this stuff, doesn’t mean you have to be. Be an outsider. Be a nerd. And it’s okay to sometimes be a basic b**ch that likes things that make you feel good.”
