Album review: High on Fire, 'Snakes for the Divine'
3.5 stars (out of 4)
The California trio High on Fire, a more agile descendent of ‘90s stoner-rock titans Sleep, play with the same kind of focused intensity as Motorhead; they patented a style and on their fifth studio album, "Snakes for the Divine" (E1 Music), see no reason to change it. There are momentary respites from the onslaught, with “Bastard Samurai” slowing to a molton-lava crawl, the better for Matt Pike to let the malevolence flow. But mostly Pike barks his tales of medieval carnage over a new batch of avenging-angel guitar riffs. Des Kensel’s drums sound even larger than usual, if that’s possible, with his double-kick barrage achieving superhuman levels of speed and density. After a brief instrumental interlude at its midpoint, the album closes with an exhilarating rush: the Armageddon celebration of “Fire, Flood & Plague,” the doom-saturated “How Dark We Pray” and the galloping “Holy Flames of the Fire Spitter.”
greg@gregkot.com
Sponsored Link: Amazon's High On Fire Store
The California trio High on Fire, a more agile descendent of ‘90s stoner-rock titans Sleep, play with the same kind of focused intensity as Motorhead; they patented a style and on their fifth studio album, "Snakes for the Divine" (E1 Music), see no reason to change it. There are momentary respites from the onslaught, with “Bastard Samurai” slowing to a molton-lava crawl, the better for Matt Pike to let the malevolence flow. But mostly Pike barks his tales of medieval carnage over a new batch of avenging-angel guitar riffs. Des Kensel’s drums sound even larger than usual, if that’s possible, with his double-kick barrage achieving superhuman levels of speed and density. After a brief instrumental interlude at its midpoint, the album closes with an exhilarating rush: the Armageddon celebration of “Fire, Flood & Plague,” the doom-saturated “How Dark We Pray” and the galloping “Holy Flames of the Fire Spitter.”
greg@gregkot.com