E1, 2010
7/10
High On Fire is back with their fifth album of rough, proto-metal style of hard rock. Not too much has changed over the years, and Matt Pike and company have delivered another solid slab that fuses the heavy riffage style of bands such as Motorhead, Melvins, and St. Vitus. The band is at their best on the faster, pounding tracks such as “Fire, Flood & Plague”, “Holy Flames Of The Fire Spitter”, and “Snakes For The Divine”. A couple of lengthy and slow, but no less heavy, numbers, “Bastard Samuri” and “How Dark We Pray”, add some diversity to the album but tend to drift off into boring, droning dirges. Matt still sings with his gruff, gravely-throated voice that is reminiscent of Lemmy. Snakes For The Divine is solid but not great effort. Fans will be pleased, but it’s hard to imagine that new fans will be won over. This power trio is a potent force live, and the strong bill for their inaugural headlining tour to promote the record should be crushing.
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