Here's to hoping that the 2026 Surprise Lineup Change Of the Year was approved by all parties concerned within the Sleep organization. This is not to say that Disaster Amnesiac doesn't see Sleep as being a band first and foremost, and a very important, genre defining one at that. It must be acknowledged that the original trio were pretty much inventors of the type that's come to be known as Stoner/Doom. Those guys were laying that particular type of groove many years ago now and the entire Metal macro-genre is well aware of the fact. It would be so cool to find out that Matt Pike and whomever was last to hold the drum throne signed off with acceptance, if for no other reason than to hear what drum King Dale Crover and D.C. Hardcore guitar legend Bubba Dupree could cook up with the bass/vocal action of Al Cisneros. Pike seems like the type of person to take just about anything in stride: his career in High On Fire has been admirable and fascinating. So, yeah, trusting that it was all good in the 'hood with past and now current members of Sleep.
As to the new LP, Hemispheres, the news of Sleep's new configuration documented therein was greeted within esta casa with some serious excitement mixed with perhaps a touch of bewilderment. Was this listener really going to able to hear new, easily accessible guitar work from Bubba? OH SHIT YEAH went the refrain. His first band Void has never not been in my listening rotation since first encountering them in November of 1985, when a guy that had been able to attend those essential early 1980's Hardcore Punk shows in D.C. hipped me to the wider Dischord catalog (I'd already discovered Minor Threat earlier that year in June). The possibilities of how Dupree would sound tantalized, and the first single and album opener, Have Spacesuit Will Travel did and does not disappoint. Definitely a more laid back approach for a bit, and then....impact. Bubba has harnessed a deeply imaginative, Sci-Fi guitar sound that blends so well with the Crover drumming flow and Cisneros's unique chanting and super fuzzed Rickenbacker low end grooving. The b-part of the tune has this excellent 1970's Library Record synth that hits with extreme precision. Trio action with Dale bell traction! Dupree's solo is wonderfully melodically expressive and he's so in control of the tones. Plus a very logical chord sequence to end. If memory serves correctly, the second single was The Morrisist and that tracks as it feels like a second movement vis a vis the opener. Is it an outright ode to T. Iommi in verse? Crover just drives the heavy earth moving six string riff and its Sabbath style hippie percussive jam takes it out with further sonic linkage to the masters of reality from Brum. It may be a purely subjective idiosyncrasy on Disaster Amnesiac's part that the title track makes me think of slightly slowed down New Wave of British Heavy Metal but after multiple hearings that's still the case. Bubba grabs some ultra fuzzy guitar sounds. Astute Moog interjections ride atop cymbal bell boogie and into a half-time slink on the b-part here. One can hear Crover making slight adjustments to Cisneros and Dupree as they tandem on the electric guitars. It's an evolving plot with wicked, creaking tones from Bubba that bring Paul Leary's heights to mind. Kind of an abrupt ending, huh? On Arrival of the Industry Ships Sleep take up a real desert groove. Al Cisneros sounds more upfront as his bass rumble comes this close to clipping. The emergent b-part climbs up to firmament within his imagined Science Fiction world and it's heavy! The group sits on another phat groove, lets the smoke fill the chamber until Bubba rips a bong load of heavy Rock action. His soloing takes off on multiple flights and each one balances perfectly with its predecessor. Stoner bliss is activated as this powerful trio grooves for a nice, extended duration. The sonic interstices are slid around with such dextrous finesse. Hemispheres concludes on Whole Wheat Mountain/Well Backed. The first half of this title cracks me up again and again. What does this mean? Insert Instagram laughing emoji here for sure. The coolest drum flow on the album resides here: tight cymbal bell work that glues all of the elements together. Bubba stabs at chords at goes into minimal, flatted progressions. It's a song that gives a heavy-assed goodbye wave as the newly reformed Sleep prepare to trudge on off down the road.
Despite Sleep's new lineup being somewhat of a "shock" to many, it's no surprise at all that Hemispheres is another fantastic statement from the deep mind of Al Cisneros. Here's to hoping that their tour takes a stop in The Old Pueblo, as Disaster Amnesiac would be over the moon at a chance to occupy the same room as the one that Bubba's amp and hands are also in.
