Sleep returns with its first new song in eight years — and its first without Matt Pike

Sleep has released "Have Spacesuit Will Travel," its first new song since 2018's The Sciences and the first the band has put out without guitarist Matt Pike, who left the band earlier this year. Bassist and vocalist Al Cisneros — the sole remaining original member — is now joined by Dale Crover, longtime drummer for the Melvins and Redd Kross, and Bubba Dupree, guitarist for the DC hardcore band Void. Cisneros has said only that he wishes Pike well on his "earth-bound maneuvers," offering little else about the split.

The single arrived through Jack White's Third Man Records, packaged with a tie-in comic illustrated by Dave Kloc and Arik Roper. It's paired with a North American tour running September through November, including a headlining slot at Austin's Levitation Festival — the band's first live dates built around a new lineup rather than a reunion of the one behind Dopesmoker and Holy Mountain.