This is the first Sleep album without Matt Pike on guitar. It goes without saying that this is a huge change, but the most important thing about *Hempispheres* is that the band isn’t trying to hide it. Al Cisneros is now the sole original member, flanked by Melvins drummer Dale Crover and Void guitarist Bubba Dupree. What began as a planned one-off recording for a flexi-disc and comic book project grew into full band membership, and the album was recorded at the Melvins’ studio with their regular sound engineer, Toshi Kasai.

*Hempispheres* comprises five tracks and runs for 38 minutes; it was released on Third Man Records, with Cisneros on bass and vocals, Crover on drums and Dupree on guitar. The trio gives the album a different balance to earlier Sleep releases. The Pike signature is gone: the searing wall of guitar, the almost physical friction between the riffs and gravity. Dupree wraps himself around the songs rather than being at the centre of them. The guitar functions less like a bulldozer and more like smoke, current and texture. It may feel thinner to those expecting classic Sleep heaviness, but it also opens up the space in a new way.

This is perhaps the most Al Cisneros-driven Sleep album ever. The bass, the vocals, the mantras and the slow, repetitive pulse are right at the heart of it. The spectre of OM is distinctly present, not because this is an OM record, but because the album shares some of the same patience, the same monotonous weight and the almost meditative way of constructing songs. According to the band and the record label, Cisneros needed a guitarist who understood the essence of Sleep, but who had also done his own studying and developed his own voice. The first jam session was described as a vibe Cisneros calls the «blue sunglasses era Iommi.»

Monotony is both a source of strength and a weakness. Some passages seem to go round in circles rather than move forwards, but that is also where the album finds its own identity. With former drummer Jason Roeder – who announced in 2025 that he had been sacked – Crover provides a slightly looser and more vibrant pulse than Sleep listeners might be used to. It’s not necessarily more power, but more sway and human movement.

For no one, *Hempispheres* is the album that replaces *Holy Mountain*, *Dopesmoker* or *The Sciences*. It has neither the immediate impact nor the mythological power of those albums. But it is interesting because it accepts the reality that Sleep is no longer the same band. It opens up a new space rather than attempting to rebuild the old one.