Damocles

Album

Even In Arcadia

Label

RCA Records

Genre

Dance-pop

Composer(s)

VesselII

Entered Chart

May 10, 2025

Peak Date

May 10, 2025

Released

25 April 2025

In the ancient court of Dionysius II of Syracuse, there lived a courtier named Damocles. Damocles, as flatterers tend to do, spent much of his time gushing about how utterly splendid it must be to be king: all the wealth, the power, the feasts, the groveling admirers. Tiring of this fawning, Dionysius one day suggested they swap places. Thus, Damocles was seated on the throne, surrounded by every imaginable luxury, while directly above him dangled a very large sword, tied to the ceiling by a single horsehair. Suddenly, the wine tasted a little less sweet. The food was a little harder to swallow. And Damocles, to his immense discomfort, discovered that the view from the top comes with its own special sort of terror. Fast-forward a couple of millennia and we find a similar sort of existential unease in "Damocles," a brooding ballad by Sleep Token, led by their enigmatic frontman, Vessel. Using the ancient sword-and-horsehair metaphor, Vessel spins a meditation on the constant pressure and quiet panic that comes with public acclaim, and the terrifying certainty that it cannot last. Vessel's lyrics drip with existential dread, asking not if the fall will come, but when. And unlike Sleep Token's usual tendency toward myth and mist, "Damocles" is startlingly direct. Vessel openly admits to exhaustion ("I know I should be touring, I know these chords are boring") and brushes aside the hollow comforts of success ("No golden grand pianos or voices from the shadows will do anything but feel the same"). Sleep Token dropped "Damocles" as the third single from Even in Arcadia on April 25, 2025. It follows "Emergence" and "Caramel," offering a glimpse at music near the beginning, middle and end of the record. The band travel through the album from self-discovery through fame's claustrophobic glare, then into a sense of existential angst before finding cleansing. If "Caramel" is about the discomfort of being constantly watched and adored by fans who don't know where the line is, "Damocles" takes the anxiety one step further: it peeks into Vessel's fear of fading away when the spotlight finally shifts elsewhere, as it inevitably does. While both "Emergence" and "Caramel" get heavy at times, "Damocles" stays comparatively mellow throughout. Longtime Sleep Token producer Carl Bown leads the track with piano and Vessel's emotive, unguarded vocals. This restrained approach adds a sense of intimacy to the song.

Well, I've been waking up under blades
Blue blossom days
If only Damocles would hit me back
No alabaster carvings or faces on a farthing
Would prevent my head from fading to black

And it feels like falling into the sea
From outer space in seconds to me
And I play discordant days on repeat
Until they look like harmony

When the river runs dry and the curtain is called
How will I know if I can't see the bottom?
Come up for air and choke on it all
No one else knows that I've got a problem
What if I can't get up and stand tall?
What if the diamond days are all gone
And who will I be when the empire falls?
Wake up alone and I'll be forgotten

Well, I know I should be touring
I know these chords are boring
But I can't always be killing the game
No golden grand pianos or
Voices from the shadows will do anything but feel the same

And it feels like falling into the deep
From somewhere way up over the peaks
And I play discordant days on repeat
Until the tape runs out on me

When the river runs dry and the curtain is called
How will I know if I can't see the bottom?
Come up for air and choke on it all
No one else knows that I've got a problem
What if I can't get up and stand tall?
What if the diamond days are all gone
And who will I be when the empire falls?
Wake up alone and I'll be forgotten

And nobody told me I'd be begging for relief
When what is silent to you feels like it's screaming to me
Well, nobody told me I'd get tired of myself
When it all looks like heaven but it feels like hell

When the river runs dry and the curtain is called
How will I know if I can't see the bottom?
Come up for air and choke on it all
No one else knows that I've got a problem
What if I can't get up and stand tall?
What if the diamond days are all gone
And who will I be when the empire falls?
Wake up alone and I'll be forgotten