HIGH ON FIRE - De Vermis Mysteriis
April 23, 2012, 12 years ago
eOne
I love how with every HIGH ON FIRE release, the band gets a bit more obtuse, a bit more difficult and antagonistic, crawling into their cave and snarling at the increasing numbers of people watching their every move. Here, on their E1 debut, the band seems to literally be pounding their instruments even harder (the drums in particular being a tribal bash to remember), and the songs benefit from it, all stoner glory and trad metal fury combining and fighting in the best of ways. Every single song is a riff fest, as Matt Pike continues to prove he is just filled with great riff ideas, even though he delivers them in such a way that it seems like it’s effortless, lazy, almost. The band picks up the pace in tunes like ‘Spiritual Rights’, but their real power comes with the plodding, tom-driven sludge, especially when Pike starts busting out those huge riffs (again, much of the album). ‘King Of Days’ slows things down to a sludge crawl but without the relentless drumming, creating a simpler take on doom; like everything this band does, it works. Although there’s no real anthems here (man, I loved ‘Brother In The Wind’ from a few albums back), this is a great addition to this band’s extremely impressive catalogue.
