The Stoner Metal Thread

High on Fire - Cometh the Storm (2024)

High on Fire are a band I have derived a deal of enjoyment from, yet I haven't given them nearly as much attention as my taste dictates they deserve, not really checking out much since 2007's Death Is This Communion. I don't really have an explanation for this, it's just the way it's been. Anyway, Cometh the Storm is another really solid offering from the Matt Pike-led threesome and is yet another that is right up my street.

The basic sound here is sludgy stoner metal and within that framework there is a fair bit of variety, but with the riffs constantly being king. The production is of very high quality, so those fuzzed-up riffs are given some extra clout with a beefy sound job that still allows plenty of clarity and depth. The variation within the songwriting is illustrated very early on where the relentless chugging of Burning Down with it's myriad stoned-out solos leads into the almost thrashy Trismegistus that, with Matt Pike's grizzled and throaty, but quite shrill, bellows, makes the track sound a bit like Motorhead (a comparison that is even more obvious on The Beating). This then gives way to the psychedelically-loaded stoned-out grooves of the brooding title track and the unexpected, yet perfectly suited, Turkish folk music of Karanlık yol. Each is handled impressively as High on Fire demonstrate exactly how accomplished a band they now are with none of the tracks sounding out of place or mishandled. A quick word for ex-Melvins drummer Coady Willis who has come in to replace founding member Des Kensel and has dropped straight into the HoF groove with the band not missing a step despite the change and with Willis' busy and precise performance being the foundation on which the album is built.

Ultimately, this is top drawer stoner metal, skillfully performed, with great production values and a tough sludgy edge that draws upon the stoned-out psychedelics of past times and drapes them over a solid and harder than you may expect metallic core that is able to appeal to both stoners and moshpit denizens alike. I can't really define why, but this is just one of those albums that feels so authentically and unapologetically metal that it is impossible to do it down in any way.

4/5

Grin - Hush (2024)

With Hush comprising 16 tracks and a runtime of forty minutes, it is obvious that Grin are a different beast from most of their peers in the world of stoner sludge metal, much preferring to build heaviness from the pile-up effect of a number of short, focussed sludgy blasts rather than extended stoner jams. Comprising husband and wife team, Jan (drums, vocals) and Sabine Oberg (bass), both of sludge band Earth Ship and stoner / psychedelic rock band Slowshine, this is their fourth full-length, maintaining their strike-rate of an album every even-numbered year since 2018. I missed previous offering, 2022's Phantom Knocks, but, to be honest, Hush, is very much in similar vein to 2020's Translucent Blades, so I guess that the duo have hit upon a formula they are happy to stick with and with Jan producing, mixing and mastering the album, he is ensured that he controls the vision.

Apart from the short song lengths, they also differentiate themselves from most of their peers by disdaining the use of six-stringers. The riffs are powered by Sabine's powerful, driving bass and the leadwork, as so far as it exists, is provided by synths. A fair number of the tracks also have a heavy psychedelic component with swirling synths and Jan providing washed out clean vocals rendered even more trippy by a noticeable echoing effect, with a couple (Neon Skies, Vortex) even sounding like metallised versions of the neo-psychedelia of the 90's Madchester Baggy scene. Whilst the psychedelic component is significant, this is no lightweight affair, it's bottom-heavy stoner metal bolstered by a sludgy influence courtesy of Jan's harsh vocals and the driving rhythms, Sabine's bass underpinning everything with a mega-solid foundation.

Ultimately, though, as much as I enjoyed Hush, it is an album I like rather than love. This is mainly due to the fact that I would like to have heard some of the ideas presented here expanded upon beyond the two or three-minute, self-imposed limit to the tracks' runtimes, some of them sounding like snippets or incomplete ideas in need of further development. I do like their fusing of sludgy metal and light and spacey psychedelia and I found plenty that appealed to me, but I feel that the promise of the premise is never fully realised and that is a shame because it is an idea that works well.

3.5/5

Ufomammut - Hidden (2024)

If you don't know what to expect from a new Ufomammut album by now, then you really haven't been paying attention. By this stage Ufomammut are a band who have a firmly established style and long ago perfected the recipe to deliver whatever they wish to express with their music, so if you haven't been seduced by the sounds this italian trio produce by now, then this won't do anything to change your opinion and you are probably best moving along.

So anyway, if you are still with me, Hidden is the Italians' eleventh full-length album and comprises six tracks of their trademark spacey, sludgy stoner metal. Blasting straight off with the ten-minute Crookhead, they make their intentions known with a mighty stoner riff that possesses a thundering roar usually only produced by a NASA rocket during take off. The key to Ufomammut's sound is the extreme distortion applied to both six- and four-strings and the driving nature of the riffs and rhythm section that propel a huge wall of sound with an irresistible kineticism, perfectly illustrated here on the opener. Combine this with the restrained, washed-out vocals and the inclusion of an arsenal of electronic beeps and squiggles and you have an exceedingly effective metal approximation of a rocket journey through space, with old "Space Ritual"-era Hawkwind being a quite obvious influence. Yet, despite all the spacey, wacked-out, stoner vibes, Ufomammut are also ridiculously heavy and when they slow the tempo down, the seismic ripples they generate could topple office blocks. Just check out the middle heavy section of the otherwise creepy-sounding second track, "Kismet", if you need an illustration of just how ball-crushingly heavy the trio can be.

For me, the attraction of Ufomammut is that they are a band in whose album's I can lose myself and just mentally float, drinking in the cosmic atmosphere that they create without having to ponder the context or the nuances of what the band are trying to convey. The experience is the point with these Italians, not the need to marvel at their ingenuity or technical prowess and that really is the mark of success for any stoner-adjacent band, the ability to be able to transport the listener to an alternative state of being through the expression of their art and if that is how I am to judge them, then I would have to declare Hidden to be an unqualified success.

4/5

Ufomammut - Eve (2010)

Ufomammut's fifth album, Eve, is, essentially, a single suite made up of five parts, with a total runtime of 45 minutes and is a concept album centred on the Fall of Man as Adam's wife, Eve, was tempted by a serpent to persuade her husband that they should eat an apple from the Tree of Knowledge, resulting in their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. I am a massive fan of the italian trio and I will lay it out up front, this 2010 album is my favourite release of theirs.

Ufomammut have always really been about atmosphere rather than "songs". Their space-rock influenced, psychedelic, sludgy doom metal is ever an experience and a sensation rather than an invitation to sing or hum along with the band. The band's inate heaviness registers nearly as high on the tactile scale as it does on the sonic, it's lower registers being felt almost as keenly as heard. Well, on Eve they achieve an even deeper level of atmosphere creation by introducing tropes derived from atmospheric sludge practitioners like Neurosis and Cult of Luna. This takes the form of tracks that begin deceptively serenely, building intensity, layer on layer, often accompanied by spacey, electronic flourishes until reaching a critical mass and achieving cathartic climax by exploding into roars of thundering downtuned bliss.

The opening section is a 14-minute prime example of this and is probably my favourite Ufomammut track. It builds gently, but inexorably, with an almost mystic, ritualistic, eastern vibe which may or may not have been the inspiration for the track "Pearl Snake" on Hexer's 2017 debut album Cosmic Doom Ritual, before erupting in a bassy roar, complete with bludgeoning drumming and a feedback-drenched guitar lead. As this chaos subsides we enter part II, which is another builder, but this time the build-up involves a repetitive three-note piano theme, accompanied by crashing cymbals and brooding synths that is sinister and faintly disturbing in a being-stalked-by-a-masked-killer kind of way. After this second part has reached it's apex, however, it doesn't subside into part three, but this short section doubles-down on the heaviness of the previous part's climax with a thunderous riff, accompanied by theremin-like synths and a distant roaring vocal decrying the horror of the original couple's act of defiance.

A further short section follows with a throbbing riff and ethereal voices that travel from speaker to speaker as if blowing in the aether, eventually giving way to a howling guitar solo as, presumably, the miscreant pair pay the price for the betrayal of their god. The closing section of Eve is another longer track, over thirteen minutes, that treads a now familiar furrow with a fairly repetitive and lumbering riff, once more accompanied by theremin-like cosmic airs, which eventually subside, leaving the simplistic riff to gain weight and transform into a thundering colossus which picks up pace as it becomes a maelstrom of violence as the couple pay the price for their folly and are ejected from The Garden, closing the album with a riotous and impressively heavy coda.

I like the implementation of the concept here, with the music interpreting the tale in an accessible manner without resorting to lengthy reams of lyrical verbiage, in fact the amount of vocals is very small indeed with the total lyrics for the whole album amounting to less than twenty lines, so the story never gets in the way of the music. The building of intensity and atmosphere that the band have introduced from atmo-sludge fits their style of ultra-heavy psychedelic metal to a tee and sees the band take a step up in quality as a a result here, I believe. Eve is basically a stoner's wet dream of repetition, heavy distortion and spacey electronic touches that, if I were so inclined, would have me reaching for the nearest available bong in celebration of it's awesomeness.

4.5/5

What an album "Eve" was! It blew me away at the time & I ended up buying it on vinyl so that I could secure the psychedelic video that accompanied that format. Got thoroughly ripped with my best mate to that video on a number of occasions too just quietly.

The only Ufomammut album I've had time for was the collab with Lento, which was also a MA recommendation or feature if I remember correctly. From there, their newest stuff didn't grab my attention as I only listened to their 2024 album once and decided it wasn't worth anymore of my time. I did end up going back to their supposed best, Snailking, and thoroughly enjoyed it but never went further. 

I needed something to get me in the zone for work this morning and this was a fantastic choice, this thing is absolutely massive. The payoffs for all the repetition are masterfully done, which is what an album like this lives or dies by. Glad I checked the site this morning to find this. I still really enjoy Snailking but this feels like such a complete package that it's hard not to say it vies for that top album spot.

I still really enjoy Snailking but this feels like such a complete package that it's hard not to say it vies for that top album spot.

I'm across everything that Ufomammut did up until 2012's "Oro: Opus Primum" album & "Eve" is easily my favourite of their solo releases. I'd still position the Lento collaboration slightly ahead of it though as it's utterly sublime.