Hempispheres

Hempispheres is the first album Sleep, the San Jose stoner metal band, have made without Matt Pike, their guitarist from the start. Al Cisneros, the bassist and singer and the band's one constant member, had demos he wanted finished, and when the Melvins' tour brought Dale Crover through town he asked him to help build the songs and to join; guitarist Bubba Dupree, of the Columbia, Maryland band Void, came recommended and was meant to play on a one-off flexi disc for a comic book project, but stayed as a full member. The three worked the material up over a few sessions at the Melvins' studio with engineer Toshi Kasai. Five songs long, with "Arrival of the Industry Ships" alone past eleven minutes, it is the band's first album since The Sciences in 2018. Third Man Records put it out digitally on 3 September 2026 and on CD and vinyl on 30 October 2026, after "Have Spacesuit Will Travel" (18 June) and "The Morrisist" (5 August). TMR1080JCD is the limited CD pressing for the Japanese market, with an obi.