“No disguise for the revenant.”
As a music journalist, I get a once-per-career chance to use the following opening, so here goes. Some months ago, just after Cometh The Storm had been announced, I had a dream that I had to sub for Matt Pike at a High On Fire show. Stared at by an array of pedals and amps, an angry bassist holding a Rickenbacker, and an even angrier audience, all my consciousness could muster was “if only this was a Sleep show, maybe I’d stand a chance”. Eight albums deep and in their fifth decade, High On Fire are a fixture in the scenery of thrash, sludge, and of course, stoner doom. Whilst they mix these genres, they don’t rise above them – they are traditional, and perhaps at this point, tradition-defining. After a Grammy win for “Electric Messiah” and their longest break yet, Cometh The Storm is here to prove why High On Fire deserve to have nine studio albums.
Much of the High On Fire formula has stayed the same since their debut record in 2000, so if they don’t excite you, there’s nothing truly new to find here. However, Cometh The Storm is their biggest line up change since their break-out record Death Is This Communion. Drummer Des Kensel departed in 2019 and his spot is claimed by Coady Willis, whose resume includes Melvins and Big Business. Kensel was a massive contributor to the band, and you won’t find a High On Fire track that is lacking because of his performance. However, with Willis on these songs, it’s like a third eye has been opened. The guitar and bass are now secondary to tom grooves as Willis is permanently taking a drum fill. On “Trismegistus” he’s chasing a fly all over the kit, only cooling down during the guitar solo to save some of the limelight for Pike. Just once does the rhythmic chaos goes too far on “Sol’s Golden Curse” which fails at making an oddly timed riff into something worth chasing.
The tracks on Cometh The Storm are decently varied, each trying to do their own thing, so you’ll certainly walk away with your own favourites. “Lambsbread” is an amazing opening track that goes straight into cool riffage and desperate drums. The two singles “Burning Down” and “Cometh The Storm” were reasonable picks and some of the album’s slower cuts. The latter would be a venture into doom tempos if not for the wild drumming. With vocals that wouldn’t work anywhere else, Pike’s voice is so gristly that you can hear his moustache. Pike’s guitar solos are obviously a mainstay of High On Fire, and whilst no new ground is broken on this record, they are dependable solos that are never overlong.
There’s one track that is startlingly different from the rest, and possibly unique in High On Fire’s discography. “Karanlik Yol” is an acoustic track with twangy guitars, chords oozing flavour, droning grooves, vocal samples, sci-fi mellotron, and tasteful claps. With my background, I couldn’t tell you exactly which (possibly Middle Eastern) folk tradition it’s borrowing from, only that it absolutely fucks. Hinting at this influence on other High On Fire songs (such as “Khanrad’s Wall” or “Cyclopian Scape“), on “Karanlik Yol” they finally go ‘all in’. It’s also completely dedicated to being its own ditty, untied from the neighbouring tracks, thus it stands alone well. Try out this album if only for this song.
The back half of the record keeps pulling you in with smooth transitions between each song, an excellent choice as it keeps things fresh when you’re deep in the tracklist. A triplicate of quick and heavy tracks near the record’s end will scratch your Motorhead-shaped itch (“The Beating” through to “Lightning Beard”). For listeners who would rather Pike was working with Sleep, the final two songs should be a treat: “Hunting Shadows” is an upbeat and triumphant fight song for raging stormclouds, and melds into the epic closer “Darker Fleece” through a bank of shrill feedback.
When I started out with Cometh The Storm I found it hard to celebrate its existence. Like the ninth pint of your night out, surely there is nothing to learn from another High On Fire album in 2024? The new energy that Willis’drumming brings in is quite incredible, but it won’t be enough if you’re hoping for something that is really ‘out there’. Instead, the band have stuck to what they do best, and done a solid job. If you’re already eight pints in, why not have one more?
7/10
Cometh The Storm releases on the 19th April and can be pre-ordered here.