ALBUM REVIEW: High On Fire, "Electric Messiah"

By: Richard Maw

Album Type:Full Length

Date Released:05/10/2018

Label:eOne Heavy

Riffs? Huge and drilled into the listener's ears. Drums? Played with animalistic fervour and power. Bass? Distorted and maxed out. Solos? Wild and emotive. Vocals? Vicious and snarling. There is no let up, no backward step. There is only volume, aggression and power.  

“Electric Messiah” CD//DD//2LP track listing:

1. Spewn From the Earth
2. Steps of the Ziggurat/House of Enlil
3. Electric Messiah
4. Sanctioned Annihilation
5. The Pallid Mask
6. God of the Godless
7. Freebooter
8. The Witch and the Christ
9. Drowning Dog

The Review:

At this point, High on Fire are nothing less than underground metal royalty. The ferocious power that the trio exude leads to inevitable Motorhead comparisons- not only that, but the comparisons are actually apt. With HOF you know what to expect and their records deliver what the fans want... even if the band has been developing and progressing from album to album.

Kurt Ballou returns as producer for the third time and the sound and performances are as mighty as we have come to expect. The opening speedball of “Spewn from the Earth” is what the band do best: balls to the wall, take your head off, axe wielding fury. Pike, Matz and Kense  play fast, tight (but loose) and with so much fire. It's breathtaking stuff. The band can do epic just as well; “Steps of the Ziggurat/House of Enlil” is over nine minutes of very weighty sounds. It's tribal in its sound and focus, huge in sound and zealous in its pursuance of bludgeoning power- no matter which section of the track the band moves through. From there on, the scene is set and the band deliver an absolute tour de force of dirty, greasy rock n roll. The title track is feral, the second epic- “Sanctioned Annihilation”- is a brutal exercise in dynamics, endurance and volume.

Really, that is the key to High On Fire's appeal: they provide an almost alchemical sound in that they take the straightforward  approach and push it to the max. Riffs? Huge and drilled into the listener's ears. Drums? Played with animalistic fervour and power. Bass? Distorted and maxed out. Solos? Wild and emotive. Vocals? Vicious and snarling. There is no let up, no backward step. There is only volume, aggression and power. 

The second half of the album is no less powerful or masterful. There is some melody, on “The Pallad Mask”, for instance- but again the key here is the straightforward approach embodied in the likes of “God of the Godless”. You can feel the force of this stuff through the speakers; it's just elemental and percussive on every level. The band have honed their style and gone more metallic, perhaps, over the years and away from the stoner grooves of earlier works but this has only made them more effective. Just have a listen to “Freebooter” and name one band doing this type of thing at the same level.

The final two tracks both push over the six and a half minute mark and while “The Witch and the Christ” showcases the more rhythmic facets of the band's sound, it is still desperately heavy. “Drowning Dog” introduces an almost maudlin sound to the riffing before swinging like a baseball bat and provides an expert finish to this superbly vicious record.

“Electric Messiah” is certainly up there with the band's best work and further elevates Matt Pike's deity status within the scene. For my money, this knocks Pike's other band's release of this year into a neatly cocked hat. It's just so... adrenaline inducing. It reminds me of why I got into metal in the first place: unadulterated exhilaration. A tour de force, in every sense of the term.

“Electric Messiah” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook