High On Fire have nudged themselves into that place where I can't see them getting any lower than an 8.0 for any album they put out at this point, even if they should decide to phone one in: they've simply got their craft down to such an art, and one that is definitely their own. Here on their seventh full-length, the band does branch out a bit: "The Cave" is a sprawling, moody late-album epic that takes listeners to places High On Fire don't usually go. But much of the rest of the album is familiar terrain, in all the best of ways: the sludgey production accentuates the grime of the riffs and the drums just pound, as always, creating a sound that meets somewhere in between Crowbar and old ugly trad metal, again, the end result being something that is pretty strictly only High On Fire.

And man, "The Falconist" just lays down the greatest High On Fire chorus I've heard out of this band in about four albums, the song memorable, heavy, moving, and very catchy in its pure metallic sludge glory. The rest of the album deals in a lot of the rumbling, forward-momentum-riding High On Fire tumble we all love so, stopping to dip toes in the sounds of fast punk, as the band tends to do; it's an incredibly enjoyable album, a great morning listen to get things pumped up and ready to roll. Like I say, this band is wildly consistent, but this one is even a slight notch above their last couple, which is saying a lot.