High On Fire – Cometh The Storm
Origin: Oakland / USA
Release: 19.04.2024
Label: MNRK Heavy
Duration: 57:49
Genre: Sludge / Stoner Metal
High On Fire have never been easy to hear, but with Cometh The Storm there is a bulky and massive chunk. The listening impression after the first run can simply be described as brutal at the beginning and more varied from the middle part onwards.
The Americans, with over 25 years of professional experience, are no beginners. The predecessor Electric Messiah won the award at the 2018 Grammy Awards Best Metal Performance receive. That’s why the expectations and the bar for the new album are very high.
A sweaty fifteen minutes
But High On Fire In 2024, they no longer seem to stick to the motto “Stoner meets Motörhead” that was delivered six years ago. The start of Cometh The Storm just seems like pure massive energy. After the first listening impression, it is difficult to listen to the pieces Lambsbread, Burning Down and Trismegistus to separate and analyze afterwards.
It’s a fifteen minute solid wall rolling up and over us. It is only after further listening that the structures in the brutal pieces can be recognized. From my point of view, the pounding remains Burning Down With a beautiful guitar solo in the middle section, it’s most likely to stick in your ear.
Oriental food
But then the album changes. After the triple punch in the stomach there is HERE With the title track you can hear more pleasant and manageable fare. Cometh The Storm is slower and dozier than the start. It contains varied rhythm work and still comes across as intense.
What then? Dark way happened, it’s a blatant break in style. The song brings us Middle Eastern folk music sounds. The basis for this musical excursion is probably the bassist’s study of the plucked instrument Bağlama Jeff Matz. His new musical impressions stop the brutality for a moment and let us listen and take a breather.
Between tough food and intermediate sprints
Then we go on a rollercoaster ride. Sol’s Golden Curse is a sludgy, tough number from a brutal thrash grenade The Beating is replaced. There are two and a half minutes of massive full throttle with driving drumming and shredding guitars. This concept of ups and downs is maintained. Tough Guy grooved as a frustrated woofer during the following Lightning Beard sprints away angrily. This is probably the most compatible song for beginners Hunting Shadowswhich is still reminiscent of the previous album in terms of sound.
But High On Fire don’t want to make it easy for us. After the pleasant tones we just heard, they throw us with all their might into the mud on the festival grounds with a cumbersome, evil number. Darker Fleece is a ten-minute dirt-eating session to finish. It slowly becomes a song. The walls of sound boom and the rhythm sways in stomping. After all the relaxed songs in the second part of the album, the conclusion is simply uncompromising sludge metal, which only gives us some variety in the middle part with a guitar solo.
Conclusion
High On Fire makes us constantly ride a rollercoaster with temporary breaks. Cometh The Storm never sounds homogeneous, but intentionally dark, bulky and massive. Listening to it multiple times is mandatory, otherwise the album won’t work. 7/10
Line Up
Jeff Matz – Bass
Coady Willis – drums
Matt Pike – vocals, guitar
Tracklist
01. Lambsbread
02. Burning Down
03. Trismegistus
04. Cometh The Storm
05. Dark Road
06. Sol’s Golden Curse
07. The Beating
08. Tough Guy
09. Lightning Beard
10. Hunting Shadows
11. Darker Fleece
Links
Facebook High On Fire
Instagram High On Fire
Also on Soundmagnet.eu
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Editor’s recommendation – Of Wolves – Post Harcdore / Sludge from the USA
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