High on Fire : "Cometh the Storm"

It's been 6 years since "Electric Messiah". Since then they have been joined by Big Business drummer Coady Willis. The bar is low for them here, as they have never scored higher than a 7.5.  They rely more upon a rumbling chug and are not dark or melodic enough for me. Always sounded like they took the stoner rock DNA and mixed it with Motorhead and Venom, in a manner that is not all that original. Things have changed this time around. Perhaps Pike's sobriety factors in. But I hear another influence, which makes perfect sense, after all, Matt Pike is close friends with Brent Hinds. Imagine them hanging out and one day a newly sober Piek thinks, well if they can play big places to a larger audience, I could as well, after all, it's not a huge leap, just groove a little more. To the record label, this is a reason to celebrate. 

The album opens with a more grooving sludge that recalls old Mastodon, with little of the Motorhead punk drive. In fact, it's s not until "Trismestigus" that I hear any of the old Motorhead rumbles. I imagine the song is about Hermes. It's a dense hammering wall of chugs, that obscures the roar of the vocals so he might be about as informed of the founder of  Hermetic magic as Ozzy was of the O.T.O when he wrote "Mr. Crowley". The answer here is not at all. Making it a clever metal occult namedrop. The title track benefits from their new drummer, as Pike makes more of an effort to sing. These factors help give me more of the brooding tension I want from heavy music.  

After an excursion into Middle Eastern music, they return to hammering you with the overdriven wall of sound. There is a surmounting tension to its drive. "the Beating' finds them back to the kind of more punk-leaning attack that prompts the Venom and Motorhead comparisons. "Tough Guy" is a step in the more metal direction, but it is also a rather straightforward pounding, with the growl of the vocals not contributing a great deal.  Though it is much more deliberate than much of what I have heard in the past from these guys.  If you stepped on the gas while playing "Orgasmatron" the results might be similar to "Lightning Beard". 

He makes another attempt at singing on "Hunting Shadows", which gallops closer to a more traditional metal with its brazen howl. The album closes with a ten-minute epic that is "Darker Fleece".  It hangs on a rumbling riff that trudges in a monolithic drone. Six minutes and I am wondering when they are going to switch it up. They don't. Regardless , this might be the most accessible to work, and showcases more thoughtful songwriting, so all the inspiration paid off I will give them an 8.5, which doesn't make this a top-tier legend of an album, but it does make it their best work yet. 

pst193