SLEEP – Hempispheres (color) LP

Description

The latest incarnation of Sleep presents itself as a genre-spanning master of stoner metal, with founding member and principal songwriter Al Cisneros now joined by the exceptional Dale Crover (Melvins, Redd Kross) on drums and iconoclastic guitarist Bubba Dupree (Void).

While simpler minds might look for the redundancy of a monotonous, repetitive exercise, the blueprint for the new album, Hempispheres, is an exploratory vision that replaces excess with nuance and subtlety while preserving the interplay that has made the band so distinctive from the very beginning.

So while discussions on forums and in comment sections may lament the amicable departure of longtime guitarist Matt Pike, true fans, visionaries, and open-minded seekers of truth alike will be rewarded, not with the Sleep album they expected or hoped for, but with Hempispheres as the album that is needed right now.