High on Fire - Cometh the Storm (2024)^{Release ID: 51432}

High on Fire is the louder, more fun cousin of stoner metal giants Sleep and even features the same guitar player in both groups. Since the turn of the century, High on Fire have been releasing consistent, high quality sludge metal that does not really need to be innovative or breaking boundaries, since a lot of modern sludge metal takes far more influence from doom.

This time around on Cometh the Storm, you can expect much the same. The record contains plenty of thrash inspired riffage from the title track, “Burning Down” and “The Beating.” Although the record does feel a little bit more restrained than previous releases. High on Fire are no young guns anymore and will not be maintaining these burning grooves going for very long. The record contains more tracks exceeding five (5) minutes, plus a nearly ten (10) minute closer. “Hunting Shadows” for example, is a well constructed song despite its runtime; it has a solid enough melodic motif that feels developed during its runtime, while still having room for thrash/sludge instrumental breaks and solos.

The more subdued tempos do cause Cometh the Storm to be a tad bit simple and I found parts of this album to have a fair share of comparisons to music by Mastodon and/or Baroness. But for High on Fire themselves, I think it has the potential to be a great look. Matt Pike’s vocals are brash, but still have melodic sense to them and sets a nice dichotomy against the riff heavy instrumentals. Overall, it’s yet another great addition to the High on Fire discography and likely the bands best output since De vermis mysteriis.

Best Songs: Burning Down, Cometh The Storm, The Beating, Lightning Beard