Sleep returns with its first new song in eight years — and its first without Matt Pike
Bassist Al Cisneros now leads a reshaped lineup with Melvins drummer Dale Crover and Void guitarist Bubba Dupree, backing a North American tour this fall.
Jun 18, 2026 · 1 min read
Guitar Radar Editorial · Reviewed by Peter Luha · Published Aug 27, 2026
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.
Why it matters
Sleep without Pike is close to unthinkable for a band whose whole identity rests on one riff repeated past the point of endurance. Whether Crover and Dupree can carry that weight live is the real question the fall tour will answer.
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