I’m thinking of going and hitting the Sleep show this coming Saturday evening. It’s a hard decision with all the other bands coming through on their way to Levitation. I’ve been listening to the new album, and these are my thoughts.
Sleep just released Hempispheres via Third Man Records. 5 tracks of tasty stoner doom worship. You know, songs about weed and Tony Iommi. At this point, I don’t expect much different from Sleep as far as thematic choices. It doesn’t bother me. Lyrically, some of the songs (including Dopesmoker and The Sciences) have hokey lyrics, but the music crushes that part of it, so I’m good.
As far as Hempispheres, I dig the direction they went with 2/3rds new band members. The jams are a little less metal, and to me seem to have more of a focus on the drums in a way. Maybe that is just my bias since Dale Crover is a beast of a drummer. Or maybe the different guitar sound makes the drums seem like the focus. But it is probably just me.
I’m down for bands evolving. I think this album shows that for Sleep. If you line up all their albums, they’ve always had a slow movement of it. I mean, listen to Elder’s latest and compare it to their first album. You could mistake that for two different bands.
Anyway, I’ll be playing this one for a while, it’s an easy listen. It sounds original and authentic, which seems to be hard to find in a flooded landscape.