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