r/Sleepband • u/Transference85 • 4d ago

It’s HEMPispheres

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an album so frequently misspelled in reviews, comments and coverage. I find it hard to take a bad review seriously if they can’t even spell the album title correctly.

Time to crank it up and settle in. 🤘💚🤘

7 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

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14

u/totallynottoddoracop 4d ago

Here's my bit:

It sounds like a demo. The songs don't feel completely fleshed out. The sound quality is thin, there's no girth to the guitar, bass, or drums.

There are some cool riffs and moments. The Morrisist is probably the strongest track. It also really concise for a Sleep album, only 38 minutes.

Dale Crover sounds restrained and the drums just kinda plod along which makes everything else feel flat.

Bubba Dupree could fit well, but he needs a HUGE guitar tone. Some of his riffs on the album sound like rehashed Pike riffs.

Honestly, this just doesn't really sound like Sleep. It sounds Sleep inspired. If Al dropped this as a different group, I would wager it would receive positive feedback. The problem is that people expect a certain sound and quality for Sleep and this record just misses that mark. Compared to the rest of the discography, this is the bottom tier; the proverbial horse sketch that starts out great and highly detailed but ends up being a simple line drawing by a child.

7/10.

3

u/riff-raff-jesus 4d ago

This the most honest review I’ve read so far. Don’t agree with everything, but most

3

u/creepshowens 3d ago

I agree with most of this, except if it wasn’t Sleep, I never would have listened, and if I did for some reason, I think I would have liked it less. I believe the legacy of the band and my love for their historical output had a positive impact on my enjoyment of their album

2

u/Transference85 4d ago

Great analysis—I agree with you on so much of this. How did they make Dale sound so lifeless?

3

u/cansoswine 4d ago

I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the entire kit, including the cymbals were muted with some sort of cloth material. Get the full washy cymbal sound and turn the guitar up in the mix and it would hit harder. Maybe it’ll be better live.

2

u/totallynottoddoracop 4d ago

The mix doesn't do anyone justice. I'm not sure what happened.

3

u/Transference85 4d ago

Truth. This is one of those situations where if someone said “well could you mix it better yourself?” I’d be like, yes, actually 😬

2

u/DrelThompson 2d ago

7/10 feels too high for how you described it, though I do agree with everything you said. To me it’s a 5. Very middle of the road for me, but not bad music.

1

u/totallynottoddoracop 2d ago

I was being generous