2026: The Year Heavy Came Back
Within the first 6 months of this year, three pivotal bands from the doom and adjacent metal genres returned from the void. Sleep, Neurosis, and Warning all released new music in one form or another. At a certain point in recent history, any new music from these bands would have been the time to rejoice. Indeed, two of them have their fans throwing horns while the other has their fans slack-jawed with a dangling joint on their lips burning out.
It was only 10 years ago that doom metal and its brethren were at a high point. Sleep had made a triumphant return after disbanding in the ’90s, ushering in a new wave of Iommic legionnaires in their wake. Warning’s album Watching from a Distance became a landmark for doom much in the way Sleep’s Dopesmoker had but for entirely different reasons. Neurosis had been trucking along the whole time, earning acclaim for their dense material and intense live shows. Sleep and Neurosis were touring and the scene was alive with festivals like Roadburn and Psycho Las Vegas featuring all three of these bands. For some folks, these bands transcended the mere label of “doom” and chose to call them “heavy music,” hence the title of this article.
But 2019 was an unexpected year of closure. That year, Neurosis would go on their final tour with Scott Kelly, revelations hiding in the not-too-distant future. Sleep announced they would be going on hiatus and closed out the year with three shows at Talia Hall in Chicago. Warning was doing some shows at the time but not much else. Looking back, even before the pandemic kicked in, one could see the doom bubble was getting close to maximum size. Shows for well-regarded bands were not selling out. The music started to homogenize, with standout records becoming fewer and farther between.
It seemed that this chapter was coming to a close. Really, the entire book was being slammed shut and then hurled at us corner point first. The 2020 pandemic put a stopper on oh so many things, and one of those felt like the wider interest in doom metal and its fellows. Sure, your heavy hitters like YOB and Windhand were still attracting crowds. Weedeater and Eyehategod could still jump on a bill not consisting of a bunch of pale imitators. By and large though, death and thrash metal were on the uptick. Stoner rock/metal was being kicked to the curb, fewer notable doom bands were cropping up, and sludge was just doing what sludge does best: goop around the scene and then bubble to the surface when the time is right.
Then some of the titans came back.
Back in April, Warning stated they were putting out a new record, Rituals of Shame. Preceding that, Neurosis announced without warning (heh) that the band was continuing on without Scott Kelly, having replaced him with Aaron Turner of Sumac and formerly of Isis, and released An Undying Love for a Burning World sporadically. Then on June 18th, Sleep returned from their fuzzy abyss with a new single, “Have Spacesuit, Will Travel” and a new lineup. Founding member Matt Pike was out, guitars now being handled by Bubba Dupree from pioneering DC hardcore band Void. Dale Crover of The Melvins was on drums, taking over from Jason Roeder who had been let go in 2025, but was making his own return to music with Neurosis.
If you got into a time machine, went back to 2016, and told me that Sleep would be the black sheep of this returning trio, I’d have thought you were high.
The response to Sleep’s new song ranged from lukewarm to outright hostile. Sure, there were people who were just happy that Sleep was still active, but by and large fans were disappointed at the absence of Matt Pike. On the other hand, both albums by Neurosis and the scandal-absent Warning have been met with acclaim and rightfully so. How is it that one of the most beloved cult bands in heavy metal seemingly lost its way by letting go of its most controversial member while its counterpart in Neurosis managed to successfully wash away the fetid stain that Scott Kelly left on the band? Let’s have a look and talk about that new Warning album while we’re at it.
Following the prolonged recording process for Dopesmoker (at the time known as Jerusalem) and subsequent botched release by London Records, Sleep threw in the towel. Bassist/vocalist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Hakius went on to form OM and Matt Pike founded High on Fire. All the while, the band’s music gained an aura of mystique. An hour-long song about a pilgrimage of weed-smoking aliens was absurd, but millennial metalheads and Jim Jarmusch ate it up. The trio reunited in 2009 for a few shows, which resulted in some more shows and tours. By 2012, Sleep was back in action. Hakius retired from music to focus on his home life and was replaced by Neurosis’ drummer Jason Roeder. The two bands had both come up in the Bay Area of California, so it just made sense for Roeder to come into the fold. The band was heralded by folks outside of the metal scene, earning Sleep a unique spot where both normies and heshers were into them. The demand for a new record was there and in 2018, Sleep delivered The Sciences, released on Jack White’s Third Man Records. It was the culmination of years in perfecting their sound and vibe, earning widespread acclaim. The band toured heavily on the album before they went on hiatus at the end of 2019. Once the pandemic subsided, Sleep arose to do a few more gigs and then disappeared once again into a smoke cloud. Nothing would be heard of the band until 2025 when Roeder said he had been fired from Sleep in November the year before. Fast-forward to June 2026 and Pike was also out of the band. Cisneros’ new lineup was announced with a new song, “Have Spacesuit, Will Travel,” a trimmed down single from a supposed forthcoming album.
The response to The Sciences was akin to receiving the unexpected best meal of your life while reactions to the new song were like someone dropping their pants, projectile shitting into your mouth, and calling it dinner. Yes, The Sciences came out on April 20th. Yes, it was still mostly about weed. But you could see the care and love that was put into the album not just by the band, but by the people who worked on the whole thing. Noah Landis, also from Neurosis, engineered and mixed the album. The album cover, a photograph of the Marijuanaut, Sleep’s de facto mascot, sat perfectly next to Arik Roper’s Dopesmoker artwork and the psychedelic design of Sleep’s Holy Mountain by Robert Klem. Jason Roeder himself built the Marijuanaut model featured on the cover. It just all worked so well and the secrecy leading up to its release was right on brand for the group.
The same cannot be said for “Have Spacesuit, Will Travel.” Comments across Reddit and Instagram have all been largely in the pits. Not even negative—loathing. The absence of Matt Pike has been a constant point. “This band is called Nap now.” “This is just Om with a guitar player.” “There is no Sleep without Matt Pike.” “Sleep with Rome.” I even saw a call to boycott the upcoming tours in the US. There have been some comments of support. Some folks are excited to see them on tour again. Others are excited to see what Bubba Dupree and Dale Crover bring to the party.
What do I think of it? I think it’s an okay song. I am a Sleep fan, so I will cop to my bias. The groove of the riffs is decent. I think the inclusion of a synthesizer is a great idea, adding a new layer to Sleep’s sound. It makes sense with their weeded out sci-fi aesthetic. Dupree is clearly no slouch on the guitar. His sound is completely different from Pike’s. Gone are the layers and layers of fuzz and distortion. Instead we get a rather clean-cut guitar tone. The artwork is probably the highlight of the release, a marriage of the old Weedian with the newish Marijunaut. Where my criticism lies is in the production and content. Dupree’s guitar sounds like it was just dropped onto the rhythm tracks. It doesn’t mesh in the way Pike’s did. Cisneros’ vocals sound weird, kind of tinny and buried so deep I can barely make out what he is saying. Most of all, it breaks no new ground. It feels like it could have been put together by any Sleep copycat band that followed them. Do you know how many bands have sung about weed by now? Too many to count. So many that even Electric Wizard stopped singing about weed. I know it is Sleep’s thing, but even a light stray into something more personal or distinct would have been welcome. Smoking pot just isn’t that cool anymore. It’s legal in numerous states. The streets of Manhattan reek of it these days.
“Have Spacesuit, Will Travel” lacks the mammoth and cacophonous nature of their previous music. I always liked that about Sleep. They sounded huge, but the music had a complexity baked into it that you could make out new riffs and little sounds on repeat listens. It was cool sounding music (to me). This just feels like any old stoner metal. I guess this is all to say that Sleep’s status as the high priests of the genre seems to have passed. Sleep simply isn’t going to be the band I was into when I started exploring stoner doom. They’ve entered a new phase in their existence. They’re just some old guys making old guy music now.
It is Matt Pike’s departure that has really stirred the hornet’s nest. While true that Pike is a gifted guitar player whose sonic output I greatly admire, the man comes with baggage. He’s a devotee of numerous conspiracy theories, in particular David Icke, the man who believes that reptilian aliens have infiltrated the governing and religious bodies of planet Earth and are secretly controlling everything. In just about any interview with him, he brings this and many other wild beliefs up. It should be noted that Icke’s reptilian conspiracy theory, just that one alone, is steeped in antisemitism, with the reptilians being a convenient stand-in for Jewish people and the longstanding myth that they are the ones running the world. Because of this, I have always had a complicated relationship enjoying the music of Sleep and High on Fire, more so the latter. The riffs are incredible and there’s a number of HOF songs that do not dwell into conspiracy territory that I think are standout tracks. Pike is a conundrum to me. In a genre of music featuring so many bad folks, Pike has managed to evade most criticism, despite saying outlandish and downright offensive shit. Is it simply because he cannot be taken seriously? He definitely was one of the first metal memes I was aware of. Not even a particularly cringe-inducing NPR article was able to knock him out. Over the last few years, I have noticed Pike’s chatter has dwindled and his interviews are pretty short, although that could simply be because I am not active on social media these days. When asked about Sleep, he tended to sling some legalese sounding verbiage around, not really commenting deeply on matters related to the band. Perhaps trouble was brewing in paradise for some time.
Pike has yet to weigh in on things, but his fans have more than made up for that. I used to be active in Sleep’s Facebook group before I 86’d my account. Having been out of the Sleep circle for a while, it was alarming to see so many people aggressively butt-hurt over Pike’s departure from the band. Given that folks have either waived off his problematic beliefs or perhaps are in agreement with him, it makes me a little concerned for the public reception to the new lineup. It should be noted that his successor, Bubba Dupree, is a black man. It should be awesome that Bubba, a vet of the DC hardcore scene who played shit backwards and would go on to work with people like Kim Thayil from Soundgarden, is joining Sleep. I don’t know much about the guy, but in all respects this should be a really cool thing. Pike helped define Sleep’s sound, but there should be room for another guitar player to do his thing in the band. Even though I didn’t love the new track, I still thought it was cool to see a legendary hardcore guy join the roster. I seem to be in the minority. Many commenters were of the opinion that Dale Crover made sense to join the band, but replacing Pike was a step too far. I sincerely hope that we do not wind up seeing the ugly side of people come out when Sleep hits the road. You know exactly what I mean when I say that.
As someone who is a fan of the band, this is all just a matter of acceptance. Pike’s contributions as a musician to Sleep are undeniable. He helped make that sound. But there have been many bands where switch-ups like this happen. They move on as we also should.
Compare this to the return of Neurosis. Neurosis has been a respected and admired band since their inception. They created post-metal and were able to exist alongside not just stoner doom bands such as their CA neighbors Sleep, but could handle the stage at OzzFest. Across 13 albums and a career 30 years long, they reinvented the concept of heavy. Their music is dense, full of metaphor and allegory. It’s bordering on literary. You can feel the emotions seeping off the record and into your ears. They bolstered that energy with their live shows. (To be clear, I never had the chance to see Neurosis at the height of their performance era, but I did see them once in 2019 and it was a good show.)
All of this changed in 2022 when Scott Kelly admitted to abuse of all kinds towards his family. Kelly was privately dismissed from Neurosis towards the end of 2019 according to the band. Something that stood out to me when Kelly and Neurosis put out their respective statements was the fan reaction. I would say that for the most part, folks were of the opinion of “Fuck that guy forever” and saddened by the unlikely future for Neurosis. But I was shocked by how many people were saying things like “I hope that Scott gets the help he needs and can get back to making music.” Or that it was brave of him. Comments like that gave me the ick and reminded me of Sleep’s announcement regarding Matt Pike’s farewell. All very public displays of people not knowing how to process their own emotions and professing love for guys with a lot of problems on their hands. The best thing that Scott Kelly could have done in the aftermath of that was to go away and not show his face. So far, he seems to have done that and we are all better for it.
The rest of Neurosis fell largely silent for the next few years. Steve Von Till released some solo records but kept the Kelly drama out of the conversation. In 2025, drummer Jason Roeder stated on Instagram that he was selling all of his equipment due to lack of touring, stepping away from music entirely, and that he had been fired from Sleep over the phone by management. There was mention of Neurosis, that things seemed to be fine in that camp, but no real updates. For all intents and purposes, Neurosis seemed dead in the water.
Then, without warning, Neurosis announced a new album, An Undying Love for a Burning World, on March 20th. It just simply happened, not unlike how Sleep surprise-released The Sciences back in 2018. Aaron Turner had been brought into the fold to fill the void Scott Kelly left behind. It was a move that made almost too much sense. Just like how Roeder drumming for Sleep made sense given the bands’ established camaraderie. Turner himself was influenced by Neurosis, he’s said as much. It was not a reunion because the band had not broken up. They were moving forward. Of course, the band is clearly aware that they shared time and space and many albums with an abusive person. Scott Kelly is a looming shadow on all of that material. But I believe this was handled the best way possible. Kelly was not given a second chance. The band took the time it needed to heal. When the time was right, they chose a well-minded and extraordinarily creative person to complete the Neuroris configuration in order to bring the band back into the light.
In doing so, they put together a phenomenal return. No doubt comparisons to Turner’s work in Isis will be made. The band has already joked about it. Neur-Isis if you will. Truth be told, it took me a couple of listens before the brilliance of the album got to me. Of the album, the band said:
“The trials and tribulations in our personal lives and as a band, combined with simply trying to navigate the insanity of our society, with the stress, anxiety, and isolation that come with it can be excruciating.”
Certainly a lot deeper than Sleep’s “blue sunglasses-era Iommi,”which is all well and good, but it’s long-explored territory. Instead, Neurosis is speaking of the current times and extending their own personal trauma to the listener. In the current political hell that is the US, the weight of the country feels crushing. How are we to navigate our own personal bullshit on top of the encroaching threat of fascism? The country, let alone the world, is harshly divided. Having to process that on a daily basis along with the stress of our own lives is, as they say, excruciating. Where does one turn when faced with insurmountable obstacles appearing before us every day? Neurosis may not have the answer to that, but they offer an understanding voice for us to listen to. The voice is there to tell us that all of those feelings you have are true and valid. We’ve felt the same way before and guess what? We feel that way now. It is terrible, but we all have to face these things. We are here to tell you that if we can overcome it, so can you. It just might hurt a lot along the way, but pain is a reminder that you can still feel and if you can still feel, then you’re still alive.
The song “Untethered” has received standout attention and understandably so. It’s a brutal observation of the times. It acknowledges the muck we have to wade through. “Blind, we stagger on/As the hive has lost its fucking mind/I fall low/Too sick to look behind” feels very much like a commentary on our media and social landscapes, in particular the hive lyric. We need not look much further than how media platforms cover heinous shit done by right-wing thugs to innocent citizens just trying to get by. All because of an old man that is slowly dying on his throne. Neurosis is saying that it’s all quite sickening how warped things have gotten. That we have lost sight of things and are just waving our way recklessly around to get through the day. How do you make sense of it all when it’s all smashed into your face at once? How do you contend with the crimes against humanity conducted in Gaza as racist thugs brutalize immigrants in Belfast; as Putin tightens his grip on Ukraine; as our own government calls for mass deportations based on non-existent claims of “fraud?” Where do you find the time to mourn a loved one lost to cancer or your partner that just got laid off? It is all so overwhelming, but these observations are needed. It’s good to have Neurosis back to make them.
Warning’s new record, Rituals of Shame, echoes the emotional turmoil of Neurosis, but in a much different manner. Where Neurosis’ music was densely layered and experimental, Warning sticks with a pretty specific sound. Founded in 1994, the band released their first record, The Strength to Dream, in 1999, which put them on the radar of the doom scene. They disbanded for the first time a couple of years later, only to get back together again in 2005. The year after, Warning released the highly regarded album Watching from a Distance, cementing their status as doom metal icons. Despite this, a vinyl licensing deal gone south and Patrick Walker’s own desire to move on from Warning led to a second disbandment in 2009. Sporadic reformations occurred, with a notable performance at Roadburn in 2017. The acclaim for their sophomore album only continued and Walker decided to get the band fully back together to put out a new record. Rituals of Shame was announced in April and came out in June.
Like Neurosis’ Undying Love, Rituals of Shame was met with justified praise. I have listened to a lot (a lot) of doom and I’ve yet to hear a band try to ape the sound of Warning. That’s because nobody has the voice of Patrick Walker. Walker’s voice is an instrument all on its own, outshining the guitarwork by miles on this album. It may not be for everyone, but to me it is a voice of haunted beauty. It is coming from deep within Walker. This voice is complimented by gloomy and emotional lyrics that are beautifully scripted. This passage from the title track stood out to me:
“And here, in the central hour of my life, all experience bursts in on me / Pulling me into the shame of the most base rituals of humiliation / It’s not in the darkness of certainty that I need you most / But in an ever-living, self-defeating horror that follows me wherever I fall.”
Boy howdy, someone give this man a hug! I feel like Walker dug up James Joyce to rob him of an unfinished novel. This is some of the bleakest, realest shit I’ve gotten out of a metal band. I am not entirely sure what this track is about, but it feels like a reflection. Walker seems to know what he is good at, creating brutally sad doom metal. He is certain of that, but there’s something clinging to him that creates doubt. Something that always makes him second guess what he is doing. It could be a metaphor for Warning itself. Walker knows the band is beloved and this album is a testament to what he needed to get through in order to put out another Warning album. I know that I am someone who succumbs to putting things off in favor of doing something else because I haven’t been able to embrace my creative edge properly. It could be something like that. Or worse, but let’s hope not. At any rate, Walker is saying that he needs someone to rely on to get him through those moments. It’s a rare emotional plea from a genre of music so eager to rely on the same old tropes that have come before. It’s music that makes you feel, whether you want to or not.
Unlike Sleep and Neurosis, Warning hasn’t had a brush with public controversy. (I wouldn’t count their mishap with a label as one). Warning simply succumbed to the emotional toll of being in a band and went away a few times. I can’t speak for Walker’s personal beliefs, but as far as I can tell he doesn’t believe in lizard people nor is he a serial abuser. No, he seems like a man in touch with himself and if not fully so, then he is at least in conversation with himself, which I think is more to say than most people in heavy metal. Walker offers a self-awareness to his music, something utterly lacking from so many other metal artists. Bands like Warning are crucial to metal. We need bands like them to remind ourselves it’s okay to feel. That it is okay to cry. That it is okay to take a step back and look at ourselves and ask, What am I doing here?
The albums by Neurosis and Warning excel where Sleep’s “Have Spacesuit, Will Travel” falls. You can feel how much more present those bands are. They are in conversation with themselves, reflecting on those feelings as well as the world around them. They know how to excavate a story out of their shared experiences and shape that into brilliant music. Both Neurosis and Warning have their own legacies to contend with, but have managed to put out records that feel timely, observant, emotionally charged, and, most of all, relevant.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Sleep is back and singing about weed. Again. I wish I could call it comfort food, but the thing about comfort food is that it makes you feel good. Based on their new single, it doesn’t even seem like Sleep can write a great song about weed anymore. I suppose the record will need to come out before a final judgement can be applied. Maybe we will all be surprised by it. But something tells me Al Cisneros wants to stay in his own comfort zone, for better or for worse, and that zone might only be big enough for him.
It is records such as Rituals of Shame and An Undying Love for a Burning World that will keep doom and “heavy music” alive, interesting, and pertinent. Meanwhile, Sleep stays stoned and in the clouds, perpetually looking for a way back down to Earth.
