Ελληνικά
Genre: Stoner/Sludge/Doom Metal
Country: U.S.A. (California)
Release: 2024 (April)
Label: MNRK Heavy
Offering a sound that is both familiar and fresh, “Cometh the Storm” confirms that High on Fire are not here to rest or play games. The ninth full-length album by the American sludgelords was released in April 2024 via MNRK Heavy. It is their first release since “Electric Messiah” (2018) and the new lineup, with drummer Coady Willis replacing Des Kensel.
Compared to the band’s previous landmark, “Electric Messiah”, which also earned the band a Grammy Award for the composition of the same title, “Cometh the Storm” maintains the heavy, “mid-tempo” core but expands it with new tones and elements. The band does not radically change course. This transition is partly a product of the change in the trio; Coady Willis on the drum set brings a different dynamic to the band, something that the group itself has agreed upon.
Musically, the album taps into the band’s sludge/stoner roots, but also introduces rather obvious Middle Eastern/generally Eastern influences in riffs, melodic lines and a surprise instrument, the dirumba (very reminiscent of the Indian shitar) in tracks like “Karanlık Yol” (where they aimed to compose a more narrative structure and use less “metal” instruments), giving it a more sonically multi-layered character compared to the more raw, straightforward approach of “Electric Messiah”. I think that after their break, the distance they created offered them the opportunity to broaden their horizons, “open up” their compositions and revitalize their core. Matz mentioned that part of the album’s inspiration also came from Turkish folk music, which is actually amazing when you think about it.
If we dig into the album, “Lambsbread” opens the album and acts as a dynamic prologue: heavy riffs, mid-tempo rhythms, and a strong presence of a sonic “wall”, with the sound capturing you from the beginning. “Burning Down” (the first single) clearly states the band’s intentions: Matz describes it as “a classic riff reminiscent of the old High on Fire sound, grafted with fresh, new elements”. The solo bridge of the track shows that the band still plays with groove and energy. In the title track, the fretless bass, the harmonic minor line and the intensity in the chorus, all show that attention to detail were key elements of the album. “Darker Fleece” at the end (lasting about 10 minutes) is the icing on the cake: drone elements and long compositions for “unloading” are things that were not always present in their previous releases.
If the aim is to place “Cometh the Storm” somewhere in the path of High on Fire, we would bring it closer to “Snakes for the Divine” and “Death Is This Communion”, but adding some new, special details that make it stand out. Compared to its predecessor “Electric Messiah”, which brought the turn towards a more direct metal filter, “Cometh the Storm” seems more mature, more exploratory, while compared to “Communion” where the atmosphere was “darker” and the production more “dirtier”, the present work has at times breaths of ambition and optimism.
The album was recorded at GodCity Studio with producer Kurt Ballou. The album’s production is cleaner and “measured”. Jeff Matz says in the title track that the use of a fretless bass gave “the feeling of being hit with a sledgehammer”. This shows that the sound is not just “as heavy as possible” but also more careful in the balance of instruments, something that is missing in some of the band’s older work where the sound was more “raw”.
