Comedian Eddie Izzard has a bit in which the English army goes to India and claims the land. The Indians are clearly confused by this and say they live there, and how someone can come and claim them. The person speaking for the English army then asks, "Do you have a flag?"
Maybe in rock music now, a band does not need a flag but masks. Dressing up has always been a part of the genre, and it does add an element of intrigue if done well. Why, for instance, was Kiss popular with their makeup but not as much without it? Sleep Token and Ghost do not have to worry about that, however.
The two bands are proving that rock is not yet dead, and are doing so in less than a month. Ghost's latest album, Skeletá, hit number one on the United States Billboard charts in its first week of release. It marked the first time in four years that a hard rock band had reached the top of the charts.
Sleep Token and Ghost are doing their best to keep rock alive
Two weeks later, Sleep Token became the second hard rock outfit to hit number one in 2025. Their latest album, Even in Arcadia, took over after the one-week reign of Bad Bunny's most recent record.
According to Billboard, the new Sleep Token record also enjoyed the largest-ever streaming week for a hard rock album. The 10 songs on the latest offering were all in the Billboard Hot 100 of most-streamed songs. This implies that the band's strength is not a single or two but an overall appreciation of its sound.
Unlike Ghost's record, which has fallen outside the top 150 after just three weeks, Sleep Token's album appears poised to hang around the top 10 for some time. The streaming success, as opposed to the Ghost album's sales, which were partly driven by vinyl buys, will carry through for several weeks.
While some might argue that Ghost is not hard rock enough (they are, but people like to debate), their success is still a good sign that rock will be OK. The same argument could be made of the more ethereal Sleep Token. Are they heavy pop or metal?
Or maybe more rock bands should wear masks. Slipknot, for instance, could record a new album and have it hit number one.