Discovering heavy signals from the underground

Sleep are back without Matt Pike and with an album that doesn’t try to pretend nothing has happened. *Hempispheres* isn’t a revival; it’s a change of direction. The question is whether this new direction leads anywhere.

Besvärjelsen call themselves ‘forest rockers’ – not as a joke, but as a manifesto. Where desert rock has sand and sun-baked gravel, these Swedes have dark Dalarna forests. *Till Glömskan Ad Oblivionem* is the band’s third album, and it’s not about shouting the loudest. It’s about venturing deeper into the forest.

*Antitunes* is the debut album by the Swedish band Græns, a group that describes its own music as "liminal music from Gothenburg." It’s not an unusually bold description of their genre – and after listening to the album a few times, it’s not wrong either.

Sleep are back with a new line-up and a new sound. "The Morrisist" is the second single from their forthcoming album *Hempispheres*, and it signals that the band have no intention of standing still – even without the man who defined their guitar sound for many years.