Since writing about “Emergence,” Sleep Token’s first single for the upcoming album “Even in Arcadia,” the story blew up on the USI Shield website overnight, gaining over 1,000 views, the highest being 1,840, the highest view count any story has seen this academic year in such a short amount of time. This is also, the 12th-highest-viewed story on the USI Shield website.
The story highlights the release and includes all the hints and clues Vessel and his team scattered across the internet, as well as my interpretations of the lore of the song and what it could mean going forward.
I joined The Shield staff back in August of last year, and I had never expected one of my stories to do so well, let alone one that I that had done as an excuse to write and theorize about a band that I have a heavy hyper fixation on. All of my friends can attest to this, including the people I work with—sorry, Nico.
I woke up an hour before the scheduled release of “Emergence,” and when it finally dropped, I threw myself out of bed. Maybe an hour later, I’d messaged Ian about writing a story on it. As I said, I never thought that one of my stories would ever blow up to the extent that this one did. I’m glad that so many people enjoyed it as much as I did writing it.
As next year rolls around, and once “Even in Arcadia” releases, I plan on doing another album review. I also plan on writing more about the band and their upcoming releases in the future.
Overall, expect to see more from me.