Now here’s a band that needs no introduction, but you’re going to get one anyway. Oakland based High on Fire, though legendary through merit alone, are commonly known as the angrier child of stoner metal titans Sleep after Sleep’s first dissolution in 1998, contrasting the calmer and more spiritual OM, led by Al Cisneros. Between the three bands, I still have to say that Sleep is my favorite, but High on Fire comes in a close second, and anytime this band announces a new album, I mark the calendar. After six years (five, if you include the Bat Salad EP), we finally have a new record, and to me, today feels like a holiday.
Let’s get one thing straight here, Cometh the Storm is downright MASSIVE. I’m not talking about its runtime (though 57 minutes is far from short), no, but rather about the sonic stature. If you haven’t heard this one yet, we’re talking biblical big sound. Tower of Babel, and all that. This could go toe-to-toe with any Neurosis album in terms of sheer heaviness, with Neurosis being the band I consider as the gold standard for sonic heft. There aren’t many people who can achieve a sound this immaculately gargantuan, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that Kurt Ballou produced this one. As one of the few men with direct access to Zeus’s thunder, Kurt has been working with High on Fire since their 2012 full-length, De Vermis Mysteriis. While I can’t say I’ve listened to every piece of music he’s helped produce, I can at the very least say with confidence that this one is another slam dunk, up there with all his other seminal works. The tone of the guitar and bass are charged with tremendous amounts of energy, buzzing deep into your eardrums. Pair that with those drums and I was almost feeling my brain shake. I know I’m gushing over the sound here, but I like to give props to Kurt Ballou whenever humanly possible.
The reality here, however, is that while I do enjoy this album, you won’t hear me give as much praise to the music itself as I did towards the production. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still quite good, but not every song is a highlight, and even many of the good songs here overstay their welcome. I don’t want to discourage anyone from listening, because there are enough highlights on Cometh the Storm to keep it from sinking. Or, in the case of the stunning cover art, falling. Damn, I need a print of that art. Anyway, whoever was responsible for setting the track list did a fantastic job. The album starts off strong and has gems throughout, with the best and longest song at the end to give you something to look forward to through this, frankly, overly long journey to the final track.
Take “Lambsbread” and “Burning Down” for example; as an opening one-two punch, if you’re willing to look past the fact that they drag on a bit, are everything you could ask for for a High on Fire album. Beefy, down-tuned riffs resonating through dense layers of smoke, pounding drums to give even more weight to the guitar and bass, manically psychedelic soloing, and, of course, Matt Pike’s ferocious roars. The main riff on “Lambread” resembles Mastodon at their best, in a “Blood and Thunder” kind of way, but with more emphasis on stoner-doom. “Burning Down”, which was one of the singles leading up to the album, and notably utilized a partially AI-generated music video, is structurally similar to “Lambsbread”, largely focusing one to two core riffs, letting you settle into a groove (this is still stoner metal after all) as you get hit with wave after wave of energy. The central melodies on both these tracks work incredibly well, as they are both crushing and trance-inducing at the same time, which is a tough balance to strike.
Unfortunately, after these two songs, the album becomes a bit more hit-and-miss in my book. “Trimegistus” takes a lively turn about halfway through the song, but that song along with “Sol’s Golden Curse”, “Tough Guy”, and “Lightning Beard” all follow the template of the first two songs on the album, but to a less effective degree, and didn’t compel me much. They don’t contain the same infectious quality as the opening tracks. In short, they feel stale. Meanwhile, the title track itself (despite being overwhelmingly heavy) goes nowhere and is pure filler, “The Beating” is a d-beat inspired showing that ultimately feels out of place, and “Kranalik Yol”, though delightful, can’t save the doldrums that is the middle of this album. High on Fire seem to have dropped any significant thrash metal influence for this record, too, which I think holds it back. I would have loved to get some thrash flavors here and there, especially since thats been a significant part of their sound since their inception.
Although the journey is long on this album, the destination makes it worth it. The penultimate track, “Hunting Shadows” brings a welcomed change to the dynamics; the melodic and relatively leisurely riffs of this song and Matt Pike’s Lemmy-esque howls give this song a pleasant hard rock feel that gives some much needed spice to this album. More songs like this would have made me happy.
Then, we arrive at the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the 10-minute behemoth “Darker Fleece”. I know that I’m not the only one that was reminded of Dopesmoker during this song’s intro, and dammit if I’m not a sucker for that album, so I’m all good with anything that harkens back to that monument of metal. Even played at low volumes, “Darker Fleece” feels loud as thunder, and HOLY SHIT the main riff on the song is shouldn’t be allowed to go that hard. The whole verse absolutely kicks ass and is only mad better through more hallucinogenic guitars solos and discombobulating percussion work from Coady Willis. Everything about this song is heavy as a mountain, but it gives you just enough room to breathe and enter a smoky, hypnotic state without becoming too overwhelming. All in all, they couldn’t have closed out this record on a better note.
I would have liked to see more songs like the last two tracks on this record, and for some fat to be cut, but at the end of the day, this is still a solid High on Fire LP with enough great material to keep it in the back of my mind. There are a handful of songs around the middle of this album that I know I’m never going to listen to again, but I can work around that. I was also a bit let down by the lack of thrash influence with this new delivery when compared to their earlier records. That has always been a factor that drew me to the band, and I felt its absence on Cometh the Storm. If it feels I’m being too critical about this record, its only because they’ve set the bar so high in the past, and its impossible not to notice to compare this to past benchmarks. Still, I will gladly come back to this fine entry in their discography in the future when the mood is right, and who knows, that may be sooner than I think.
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RATING
7 / 10
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Label: MNRK Heavy
Recorded at: GodCity
Release Date: April 19th, 2024
Release Type: Full-length
Cover Art: Arik Roper