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User
Reviews 9
Approval 78%
Soundoffs 10
Album Ratings 2269
Objectivity 80%
Last Active 12-24-22 6:15 am
Joined 12-24-22
Review Comments 702
| High on Listicles
One of the few discogs I truly know front-to-back, High on Fire were my favorite band during my first year of college. It makes sense, as Matt Pike is clearly heavy metal’s answer to Joe Rogan, and 19 year old stoner Krietzsche couldn’t get enough. In lieu of the release of Cometh the Storm I thought I’d revisit their discog and present some cemented thoughts on one of my favorite bands. List is unoriginal and just a ranking, but placements could change as I forgot how fucking sick no. 2 was. | | 9 |  | High on Fire
Bat Salad
Meh. Wholly unnecessary if you aren’t a superfan (yes I have the record store day 7 inch shush). t/t is the only original material here, but all three songs are fun. Technically Des Kensel’s last work with the band, which is something. | | 8 |  | High on Fire
De Vermis Mysteriis
Why is it so loud?? Everything here rips but it fatigues me almost instantly because it's produced like goddamn Death Magnetic. Ugh. Bump “Spiritual Rights” and “Bloody Knuckles” and return to the rest only if you’re desperate for more HoF as listenable variants of everything here already exist on all their other albums. The only HoF album I’ve never listened to in one full sitting. | | 7 |  | High on Fire
Luminiferous
If there is any release in HoF’s discography I haven’t wrapped my head around, it's Luminiferous. Not because I haven’t listened to it extensively, but because so many of the songs are essentially a rorschach test. “Dark Side of the Compass” sometimes rules, “Carcosa” sometimes feels worthy of its length, and “The Black Plot” is sometimes their best opener. And sometimes I don’t know what the hell I was thinking liking anything from here. Everything is superficially excellent, but I find myself fatiguing on the material here far quicker than any other HoF album. “Luminiferous” and “The Cave” are fantastic enough for me to ignore this gripe, but dammit if the song about chemtrails wasn’t dangerously close to jumping the shark. | | 6 |  | High on Fire
Art of Self-Defense
What a debut! While it would take until Surrounded by Thieves for Matt Pike to really cement HoF’s sludge/thrash identity, Art of Self Defense is the best Sleep album we never got. The riff in “Baghdad” alone could convince a mountain to move three feet over. What a shame that the band took the original master off every platform, as I far prefer it to the 2023 remix, fortunately I have a CD copy of the original. | | 5 |  | High on Fire
Blessed Black Wings
A step down from Surrounded by Thieves, BBW is at its best the most pummeling HoF album and at its worst egregiously forgetful. I can’t help but think trimming ten minutes off of the final tracklist would have helped this immensely, especially as “Annointing of Seer” is probably the worst HoF song ever by a country mile. “Cometh Down Hessian”, “Devilution” and “Blessed Black Wings” are well worth the cost of entry, just temper expectations for the rest of the material. | | 4 |  | High on Fire
Death Is This Communion
Wildly overrated yet still one of the band’s better projects, Death is This Communion plays quite similar to Blessed Black Wings, in that it contains both premium HoF bangers and some real duds. Unlike other HoF duds however, which typically blast past without too much offense, DiTC’s errors are p l o d d i n g. “Cyclopian Scape” gets a lot of love, but I find it one of the more uninteresting HoF songs for its overreliance on a chorus that just isn’t that engaging. I have much the same problem with “Ethereal”, and the t/t is simply too long. Everything else completely rules however, and either “Turk” or “Land of Nod” probably carries the title of my favorite HoF song. A damn good album that sees highs yet unsurpassed, I just happen to prefer consistency over peaks. | | 3 |  | High on Fire
Surrounded By Thieves
Surrounded by Thieves might be the heaviest HoF release. At the very least it would make for a fitting soundtrack for Odoacer or Hannibal or any horde of invaders. “Hung, Drawn and Quartered” is an immediate highlight, but it is the consistent brutality of SbT that endears me to it. Be it the slow onslaught of “The Yeti,” the neck snapping groove of the bridge on “Nemesis,” or the entirety of fucking “Razor Tooth,” every moment brazenly intends to pummel you senseless. It has enough variety to keep you entertained, yet remains cohesively focused throughout. And did I mention that Des Kensel gives one the most entertaining and unique performances in heavy metal history? The drums of war usher the barbarians through the gates and they’re all listening to High on Fire. | | 2 |  | High on Fire
Electric Messiah
Electric Messiah RIPS. It's the culmination of the band’s identity post-Snakes, taking the elements of Luminiferous and De Vermis Mysteriis and refining them to a razor’s edge. Every song is a winner (even if I was always a lil lukewarm on the t/t) and every riff is immediate, yet the depth is immense. “Sanctioned Annihilation” and “Step Of The Ziggurat/House Of Enlil” somehow remain as fresh and interesting now as they were on release (and not just because “Sanctioned Annihilation” is thematically i c o m p r e h e n s i b l e). “Spewn From The Earth” and “Drowning Dog” are their best bookends since DiTC. And dammit if I don’t love “Freebooter.” A fitting full-length to end Des Kensel’s time in the band and far too consistent a release for a band twenty years into their career. How is this only averaging a 3.7?? | | 1 |  | High on Fire
Snakes For The Divine
I LOVE Snakes for Divine. It's melodically rewarding unlike any other HoF album. It obeys my main rule for a superior metal album (around 45 minutes, less than ten tracks). It opens with a stone cold classic. Every song tears. The feedback transitioning the riff in “Bastard Samurai” into the verses makes me want to punch a baby. “Holy Flames of the Firespitter” is the only arson anthem anyone could ever need. Hell, even the filler songs are great. “Ghost Neck” is far from the highest quality song here, but it stands head and heels above the duds on DiTC and BBW. Just an awesome record front-to-back that has yet to receive its dues. | |
JDubb
02.20.24 | 2 is pretty great | SomeCallMeTim
02.20.24 | High on Fire were awesome when I saw them open for Meshuggah a few years back. I remember being drunk af and vowing to jump into the pit as soon as they played Fertile Green. Think it was the second song they played. Great band
6 is super underrated | Dewinged
02.20.24 | Great band, and agree, 1 is 1. | FowlKrietzsche
02.22.24 | Thanks for the kind comments y'all!
I love 2 JDubb!
That sounds like a fantastic time Tim! I bet fertile green went. I almost put 6 over BBW, but I just couldn't since it doesn't really sound like a HoF album
Extremely based Dewinged |
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