Band:	High On Fire
Album:	Cometh The Storm
Style:	Sludge metal, Stoner metal
Release date:	April 2024

01. Lambsbread
02. Burning Down
03. Trismegistus
04. Cometh The Storm
05. Karanlık Yol
06. Sol's Golden Curse
07. The Beating
08. Tough Guy
09. Lighting Beard
10. Hunting Shadows
11. Darker Fleece

When he first launched High On Fire, Matt Pike had to learn to push beyond the doomy confines of Sleep and let loose. Over two decades of ripping thrashy sludge later, High On Fire seem to have shifted their focus slightly back towards heaviness rather than speed this time around.

For a long while, High On Fire were an unshakeable juggernaut in the metal scene; an unchanged line-up between 2006 and 2019 pumped out five widely heralded records. Curiously, it was the title track of arguably the least favorably received of these albums that earned the trio a Grammy, as “Electric Messiah” won Best Metal Performance in 2019. Just when High On Fire seemed on top of the world, founding member and drummer Des Kensel announced his departure, being replaced briefly by Chris Maggio before Pike and Jeff Matz decided upon Big Business and ex-Melvins drummer Coady Willis as a more permanent solution. Cometh The Storm is the first record from the group with a new roster since Death Is This Communion, but while it is unlikely to be considered quite as much of a classic as that release, this new outing is a broadly successful arrival for Willis.

The High On Fire musical formula has remained fairly consistent for the past few releases: a stock sound of rambunctious thrashy rippers is used as a springboard for offshoots into different (typically slower) sounds, whether it be the trudging march of “Steps Of The Ziggarut”, the gloomy stoner fuzz of “The Falconist”, or the extraordinary doomy melodicism of “King Of Days”. There are still outbursts of full-tempo rampage on Cometh The Storm, particularly on the brief but blistering “The Beating”, and also the hefty “Lightning Beard”; however, on the whole, thrash seems to have been somewhat de-emphasized this time around.

What there is instead is a lot of mean-sounding, burly mid-tempo sludge, particularly in the first stretch of the record; the likes of “Lambsbread” and “Burning Down” still sound every bit like High On Fire songs, but with the foot lifted off the accelerator just a bit. The songs still possess drive, and that unmistakable guitar tone is as filthy and satisfying as ever; there’s also good riffs to get stuck into, especially in “Burning Down”, and Willis’s drumming lends as much heft to the stringed instruments as Kensel managed on their previous outings.

How does this change of overarching pace work out for Cometh The Storm? I am not entirely sure; truth be told, “Snakes For The Divine” aside, the bulk of my top High On Fire songs are towards the slower end of their spectrum, yet at the same time, the absence of an early onslaught of savage speed akin to “The Black Plot” or “Fertile Green” is clearly felt here, and not necessarily for the better. One impact it arguably has is to diminish the contract between the opening streak of songs and the first notable departure in style, which comes on the title track. The more spacious, percussion-dominated sound that opens “Cometh The Storm” distinguishes itself from the gnarlier churn of the preceding songs, but once the track shifts into its heavier ‘core’ sound, it falls more in line with what has already come before. Nevertheless, it’s still a satisfying song, one that deftly alternates between the atmospheric preludes and the dense waves of metallic sound, and is elevated further by a strong solo.

There are more substantial shake-ups in sound on the remainder of the record, the most obvious one being “Karanlık Yol”, where Matz leaves his bass aside and whips out the Turkish saz he used in a guest role on Pike’s 2022 solo release Pike Vs The Automaton. It’s a fun break from the relentless, crushing trudge of Cometh The Storm’s early stages, and the keyboards that are woven in during the latter stages offer just enough musical evolution to justify the track’s runtime. The other song that stands out in its differentness is the 10-minute closer “Darker Fleece”; the prolonged stretch of guitar feedback at the beginning of the song really tests one’s patience, but once it shifts into a grim, stomping march of heaviness, it proves its worth, bludgeoning and suffocating listeners with a relentless approach.

Cometh The Storm is not the greatest High On Fire album; it’s arguably weaker than any that the group released throughout the entirety of their previous iteration. Despite this, it’s not a misstep for the band; tonally, it’s as fierce as ever, and Pike’s vocals (bar some odd moments on “Hunting Shadows”) are monstruous. Perhaps not the emphatic statement of intent some were looking for after a 6-year gap, it’s an album that is still likely to find its way into regular enough rotation for fans of the group, and could serve as a decent entry point for listeners more inclined towards their slower material.