Despite not indulging in “Sweet Leaf” until my college days, around my freshman year of high school, I went through a serious stoner/doom/sludge phase. I can’t think of any particular reason why, other than the fact that I was SO obsessed with Ozzy era Sabbath back then that I’d desperately check out any band who sounded remotely like my doom metal overlords. It also didn’t help that, at the time, Chicago boasted half a dozen stoner/doom/sludge bands per city block (I’m sure that’s an official stat somewhere). While many of these bands either now do nothing for me at best or bore the shit out of me at worst, one staple of the era who has always stuck with me is High on Fire.
Formed by Sleep guitarist Matt Pike after the disbandment of said outfit, High on Fire have spent the past 25+ years as one of the most exhilarating cult bands in all of metal: A vehicle who, for better or worse, helped spawn the hipster metal scene of the ’00s and beyond. Loved by potheads, critics, and non-metal listening douchebags alike, they aren’t exactly a band you’d expect to grace this hallowed (depending on who you ask) webzine. And yet no matter how jaded I become, there’s something about the “stoned Motörhead” ethos of High on Fire that will always hook me in. Such is the case with their latest album, Cometh the Storm.
Upon first listen, Cometh the Storm is essentially an amalgamation of all the doped out sounds and styles that made this band such a force to begin with. The opening “Lambsbread” reintroduces us to stoner metal’s most powerful of power trios with a dazed and pissed off gut punch, all instruments appropriately turned up to 11. Bizarre and unsettling cuts like “Trismegistus” and “Lightning Beard” channel the band’s signature brand of what I affectionately call “adventure sludge”, mesmerizing the listener with hypnotic riffs and tribal rhythms. Meanwhile, the title track and “Darker Fleece” push doom to the forefront, punishing us with a slow, grinding riff-fest.
True to their roots, there are thrashy, high speed, punkish outbursts throughout the entire album, but none more prominent than the one-two punch of “The Beating” and “Tough Guy”. “The Beating” captures the unbridled fury of HoF’s earliest output, blitzing us with misanthropic punk fueled sludge-thrash guaranteed to snap our necks. The violence continues with the aggressive “Tough Guy”, whose knuckle-dragging riffs damn near border on beatdown. It’s an unusual hybrid that needs to be heard to be believed. Speaking of “unusual”, “Hunting Shadows” boasts quite a knack for *gasp* hooks and melody, or at least far more than one would expect for a band of this nature.
Although Cometh the Storm doesn’t immediately strike me the way Blessed Black Wings (2005), Death Is This Communion (2007), and Snakes for the Divine (2010) does, it is undoubtedly High on Fire, and easily their strongest since 2015’s conspiracy crazed Luminiferous. Hipsters the globe over will brand this as the “metal album of the year”, completely oblivious to the latest masterpiece from Judas Priest. As for me, I’ll enjoy it for what it is in my eyes and ears: A hazy, heavy trip down memory lane (emphasis on the word “trip”).
7 out of 10
Label: MNRK Heavy
Genre: Stoner Metal
For fans of: Sleep, Motörhead, Lair of the Minotaur
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