There’s something both liberating and slightly unsettling about listening to Sleep without Matt Pike. He was the wall of guitar, the riff-hungry force of gravity that kept it all grounded. But when «The Morrisist» begins, it’s not sadness that greets you – it’s a different kind of calm.

*Hempispheres* is Sleep’s first album without founder Matt Pike, who is also known from High on Fire. Instead, Al Cisneros has brought in Bubba Dupree from Void on guitar and Dale Crover from the Melvins on drums. It’s a challenging change to take on, but *The Morrisist* pulls it off convincingly.

The single is slower and more meditative than much of what the Pike era gave us. Whereas Sleep, at their heaviest, used to knock you to the ground with a wall of sound, this is something more circular, almost ethereal. Cisneros, the band’s bassist, vocalist and driving force, has always kept OM alive alongside Sleep – and it shows. The hypnotic rhythm and sound of «The Morrisist» are reminiscent of OM in form and atmosphere: the bassline like a mantra, the riff like meditation. It’s a track that leans towards the ritualistic rather than the brutal.

Bubba Dupree hails from Void, which was a pioneering force on the Washington D.C. hardcore scene in the early 1980s. His sound is known for blending punk and metal in an innovative way. With Sleep, that energy is given a completely different space in which to operate – not chaotic, but drawn-out and controlled. Dupree doesn’t play like Pike. It’s that difference that makes this interesting.

*Hempispheres* was recorded at the Melvins’ studio with engineer Toshi Kasai. That goes some way towards explaining the sound: dense, organic, with a warmth that doesn’t feel over-processed.

Lyrically, «The Morrisist» serves partly as a tribute to the riff, with a direct reference to Tony Iommi. Cisneros has always been steeped in that mythology, and the title clearly points in the same direction – a sort of «Iommicist» in a new guise. The album is being released on Third Man Records. It will be released digitally on 3 September 2026 and is a five-track album.

«The Morrisist» isn’t Sleep’s heaviest track. But it’s perhaps the most personal thing Cisneros has given us in a long time – a track that points towards something new without denying the old. That’s enough to make you look forward to the rest.