Korn say Sleep Token “shut up” the haters with Download festival headline set: “They went bigger than a Slipknot stage”

Brian Welch of Korn performing live in 2022 and Sleep Token singer Vessel onstage in 2023 — (Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images | Katja Ogrin/Redferns)

Members of Korn say that their fellow Download festival headliners Sleep Token “shut everybody up” with their set last weekend.

Talking to Daniel P. Carter of the BBC Radio 1 Rock Show, guitarists Brian “Head” Welch and James “Munky” Shaffer – whose band closed the UK’s biggest rock/metal festival on Sunday (June 15), one day after Sleep Token headlined – say that the pop-metal titans overcame any doubts with an impressive performance and stage set.

Welch tells Carter (via The PRP): “I love it because all these people – I don’t know how many – but, I heard chatter about people like, ‘Sleep Token headlining?’ Some people were saying they’re so young to be able to headline so quick. And they came with that stage? Shut everybody up. They went bigger than a Slipknot stage, man.”

Shaffer backs up his bandmate while expressing his admiration for Sleep Token’s new album Even In Arcadia, which came out last month via RCA. “Also, the new record is incredible,” he says. “So it’s not only like the stage, yeah you can do that all day long, but they got the songs to back it up.”

In the space of just seven years, Sleep Token have ascended from playing their first-ever show to headlining Download. The band’s mix of metal with elements of pop, R&B and funk has made them wildly popular, but it’s also attracted criticism from some who don’t think the band are ‘metal’ enough to belong in the genre.

Korn aren’t the first metal stars to defend the young band. Doc Coyle of God Forbid, and formerly Bad Wolves, recently stuck up for Sleep Token in an opinion piece for Metal Hammer. “Like what you like. Hate what you hate. But I think we’d all be healthier if we weren’t so protective and defined by our outspoken contempt,” the guitarist wrote.

Hammer witnessed Sleep Token’s Download set and gave it a glowing four-star review. The band will play across North America on a sold-out tour that kicks off in September.

Korn are working on a new album, the follow-up to 2022’s Requiem, and have a stacked touring schedule in place for 2025. See all of their live plans via their website.

Download festival will return to Donington on June 10 to 14, 2026. No acts have been announced at time of publication.

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Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.