"The scene Def Leppard and Judas Priest helped consolidate 40-plus years ago has never had this much talent, or represented as many disaffected voices, as it does today" - Guardian argues in its piece about the current British heavy metal scene. Some of the important names the G is picking out are Bristol post-hardcore collective Svalbard, black metal trio Dawn Ray’d, masked prog-metal Londoners Sleep Token, noise-punk duo Nova Twins, anti-fascist metalcore fivesome Ithaca...

Loudwire presents a new band that likes to keep their identities secret - Sleep Token keep their masks on, because “our identities are unimportant. Music is marketed on who is or isn’t in a band; it’s pushed. prodded and moulded into something it isn’t". Well, actually, they transfer that focus from themselves to Sleep, a divine entity that the band follows - "since no modern tongue can properly express its name. This being once held great power, bestowing ancient civilisations with the gift of dreams, and the curse of nightmares". Sleep Token released their debut album 'Sundowning' this past November.