| | High On Fire Death Is This Communion CD High On Fire Discography of CDs
 (7 Customer Reviews)
 |
|
Our Price: $11.69  CDFor Sale Usually ships in 1-2 days
Our Price: $10.89
|  |
Personnel: Matt Pike (vocals, guitar); Jeff Matz (banjo, tamboura, background vocals); Des Kensel (drums, background vocals).
Audio Mixer: Jack Endino.
Current titleholders of "metal band you may be able to get your indie-rock friend into", Oakland stalwarts High on Fire play their tar-black rumble metal like there's nothing else they'd rather be doing. Certainly the direct offspring of Motorhead's Lemmy, singer/guitarist Matt Pike growls like a '70s muscle car's exhaust system while his guitar tears up reality, at once heavy as a truck and thick as motor oil. New bassist Jeff Martz plucks the strings with suitably deep menace and drummer Des Kensel moves from train track gallops to plodding footsteps with ease, creating a primal caveman racket. Often dismissed as "stoner metal", the thick miasma of cannabis clings around the group's sound, but there's just as much classic proto-black metal like Celtic Frost and Venom in the sound as well, making it just as well suited for strident head banging. Dark and powerful, DEATH IS THE COMMUNION reveals a beast of a band, ready to feast.
Album number four from High on Fire offers a few change-ups right out of the gate. For starters, it marks the debut of the band's third bassist, Jeff "Zeke" Matz. Secondly, it's thus far the most varied set in the batch. Matt Pike has always been a very texturally oriented guitarist. His strumming technique filled a lot of the space that can be the death knell of a power trio metal band. He's been inventive without having to be a guitar hero. (But in this sense, putting the sound of a band before his own ego gratification actually makes him one.) In producer and recording engineer Jack Endino -- who worked with both Soundgarden and Nirvana -- this crew found a very able and willing collaborator. Endino understands "heavy," but he also understands dynamics, and he encouraged Pike to explore some new sonic territory as a soloist as well. The slippery elements of strangeness on tracks like "Waste of Tiamat," where acoustic guitars strung high introduce the tune's opening bars before that crushing riff drops the hammer and is immediately followed by a brief but furious drum solo. Elsewhere, on the brief instrumental "Khanrad's Wall," a tambour and a 12-string acoustic (played by Matz) engage tom-tom heavy drumming, but it's followed by the speeded up near-Motörhead intensity of "Turk." The guitar solo in the middle, while mixed down just above the riff, is insane; just off the rails. That intense pace is furthered by the brief but well-paced drum orgy on "Headhunter," which gives way to "Rumors of War" in all its doomy (yet a bit quicker) riff-laden glory. Those who long for the old-school sounds of High on Fire will not be dismayed by this sound since there is plenty of the extreme doom riffing on "Dii" and extreme distortion of both guitars and bass in "Cyclopian Scape," after the 12-string intro that has its own strange resemblance to something off of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti. For all the changes and advances, this is still High on Fire. No matter the proceeding, they are a band with a signature sound and it gets milked -- only with interesting colors, and textures added. Death Is This Communion is a step up from Blessed Black Wings, and just may be the band's finest and most focused moment yet. ~ Thom JurekSpin (p.104) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[H]ere, the Bay Area band increase their stylistic range, with flashes of psychedelia, droning Eastern folk, and creatively druggy overtones..."
Kerrang (Magazine) (p.48) - "Every riff Matt Pike unleashes is beyond colossal and the perfect counterpoint to the black-hearted lyrics torn from his tortured larynx..."
Kerrang (Magazine) (p.72) - Ranked #18 in Kerrang's "The Top 20 Albums Of 2007" -- "[A] lumbering metal juggernaut." Death Is This Communion Music High On Fire Death Is This Communion Songs Death Is This Communion Music Death Is This Communion Music Review Average Rating: (3.3 out of 5 stars)   List All Reviews Don't Listen To the Previous Review!
High On Fire aren't a Mastodon clone. If you look on allmusic guide, it says they were both formed in 1999. Before that, the guitarist/singer Matt Pike was in a stoner/doom band called Sleep, which are considered one of the best bands ever in this genre. Mastodon and High On Fire have some similarities, but HOF is much more original than the reviewer gives them credit. Death Is This Communion has a lot of really well thought out riffs, and in the end the vox aren't a sour point. Good album.
Submitted by michael-mcdonell (Canada) 
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No 1 of 1 found this helpful.
 High on Fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyone who gives this album less than 4 stars can't be listening to the same CD I am---this CD is brutally awsome. Having been a fan of Sabbath, Slayer and Motorhead for years, this album became an instant classic wwith me (this is the first HOF album i bought, Blessed Black Wings is on order). This band isn't a copycat of any of these, but they are definately not ashamed of their influences. The vox are not bad at all if you like metal, he sounds a lot like Lemmy, the guitars are heavy, the drums have an almost tribal sound. This is the best album by a "new band" (new to me) that Ive bought in a long time. Try it.
Submitted by Dan (Georgia)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No 1 of 1 found this helpful.
 a bloated Sea Bass sings?
Heavy? Yes? Well recorded? Yes, per everything that Jack Endino does. Unfortunately, these guys want to BE Mastodon as was pointed out in another review. Also, they are in dire need of a vocalist/singer that sounds like something other than the final exhale of a sun-baked, bloated sea bass.
Submitted by Riff Slayer (Continental, USA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No 1 of 2 found this helpful.
horrible
Raspy & strained vocals and a band that tries to sound 70s with less than half the talent. Boring, lethargic, directionless and annoying are all words that apply here. Sleep, a band that is a precursor branch on the family tree was even worse (so-called doom but with ZERO talent). The zero talent theme has been perpetuated here...much to my dismay having recently bought this steaming pile of bovine refuse.
Submitted by Prog Fan Winkle (Better Hair than Ear, WA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No 1 of 2 found this helpful.  Mastodon "wannabes"
High on Fire are label-mates to Mastodon and yup, you guessed it, here is a band trying to shamelessly cash in on Mastodon's ground breaking success. I'll throw in a point for the beefy Jack Endino produced sound and another point for the fact that this is truly a heavy record but it is rendered mostly annoying by horrible vocals...if you are into thin, raspy & strained "singing" then maybe this is for you. The guy sounds like a wild boar being suddenly hauled up into the air on the tips of a psychotic farmer's gleaming pitchfork. You can here the grunting and snorting for miles around and unfortunately, High on Fire used the resulting animal kingdom choking sounds as the vocal track for their new album. The sticker on the front of the cd wrapping lists a number of bands that the "author" believes to be of similar stylings. All you need to know is that this is 3RD RATE Mastodon and you can pass on this to buy that. High on Fire? Maybe and let's hope that the inhaled flame plume burns this dung pile into insta-ash before it stinks up yet another unsuspecting household.
Submitted by The Trooper (Spokane, WA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No 1 of 2 found this helpful.
List All Reviews | Have you heard this album? |  |
Purchase Death Is This Communion CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart
|
34302 
buttons below to play song samples
Adobe Flash
Email a Friend
