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\n\tA English hard rock band that performs in masks and cloaks is not the type of artist that regularly visits the top of the Billboard 200 \u2014 yet anyone who had been paying attention to Sleep Token\u2019s rise over the past few months knew that their fourth studio album, Even in Arcadia<\/em>, was going to have a strong debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAfter years of building a fan base, expanding their lore and inching onto the Billboard charts with increasingly higher peaks, the group kicked off the year by scoring their first career Hot 100<\/a> entries, as well as quickly selling out a slew of fall arena dates. When Even in Arcadia<\/em> was released on May 9, its album tracks flooded streaming charts, a clear sign that the early enthusiasm around the album had coalesced upon its release.<\/p>\n \n\tYet when the dust settled on its debut week, even the most bullish Sleep Token fan had to be pleasantly surprised: Even in Arcadia<\/em> debuted at No. 1<\/a> on the Billboard 200 chart dated May 24 with 127,000 equivalent album units, according to Luminate \u2014 good enough to not only score Sleep Token\u2019s biggest chart week ever, but the biggest total for a hard rock album in nearly two years, as well as the largest streaming week ever<\/em> for a hard rock album. It\u2019s the type of debut that blows away even the most hyped-up prognostications, and immediately makes Sleep Token one of the biggest stories in rock this year.<\/p>\n \n\tThe performance of this album cycle has \u201cby far\u201d surpassed expectations, RCA Records COO John Fleckenstein tells Billboard<\/em>. Sleep Token \u2014 which debuted nearly a decade ago and has always remained under cover of anonymity, with band members never revealing their identities or speaking to the press \u2014 signed with RCA in early 2024 following the release of third album Take Me Back to Eden<\/em>. That album became the band\u2019s first to hit the Billboard 200, debuting at No. 16 in May 2023, and produced some of its first songs to hit the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.<\/p>\n