Band: High on Fire
Album: De Vermis Mysteriis
Genre: Stoner/Doom Metal
Well boys and girls, Matt Pike has done it again. He has dished up another heaping helping of metal for our hungry little ear drums, while still managing to take High on Fire in a new, fresh direction. Unlike their last full-length, Snakes for the Divine, the band goes for a slower, groovier approach. You can hear the difference in the albums just by listening to the intros of each opening song on said albums. But, enough with all of this bullshit. Let's get to talking about the album.
I think one of the most intriguing things about this album still remains the heavy, and bold concept that Pike wrote the album around. In an article online with Revolver, they quote Pike saying the following about the concept behind De Vermis Mysteriis:
'“In the story, Jesus Christ has a twin [named Liao], and his twin died so that Jesus Christ could live,” Pike says. “But his twin instantly becomes a time traveler. Now, you can only go forward through time, but he comes across a scroll that was taken from ancient Stygia—and this is where I go into Robert E. Howard. Stygia was a land of black magic and witchcraft. The Vanirs, a race of warlords came and killed all the Stygians and burned all the scrolls, but some of the scrolls were smuggled out.” Continuing the tale, Pike gets even more esoteric and story gets more bizarre: “In ancient China, Liao found a scroll that’s about how to make black lotus into a serum, which allows you to travel back through time and look at the past through your ancestor’s eyes. Now, Liao puts his name on the serum and he goes on a quest to find why his brother is this religious icon in the future that’s caused all this destruction and massive war.”'
As far-fetched and bizarre as this concept truly is on the album, it leaves a lot to think about. Also, it's just plain metal as fuck. But now that we have got all of the philosophical, inner-thinking's of this album, lets move on to the music itself!
As far as the album and individual songs on said album go, the material is definitely slower, less progressive, and more on the sludgy side. You could tell the band had something to prove on Snakes for the Divine. What that is, I'm not here to say. All I'm saying is that on De Vermis Mysteriis, the band is pretty much saying "We are High on Fire. Fuck you. We make sludgy jams." Each song has it's own slower pacing, and while the guitars still have their fuzzy, "High on Fire" sound, the album seems to hold a heightened sense of heaviness.
What I appreciate the most about this album is that, to some degree, I feel that it will bring some middle ground to each end of the spectrum within the fan-basis of this band. A lot of people dig HOF. I do. But there are a legion of Sleep (Pike's other stoner/doom band from the 1990s) fans out there who can't get over how different the two bands sound. Thus, they don't approve of High on Fire. Though it's elitism at it's best, I feel like De Vermis Mysteriis does a good job of presenting a High on Fire that even die-hard Sleep fans can get behind. It just has that heavy, drowned, groovy doom sound that they have been slowly losing over their past few full-lengths. It seems like the guys have taken some time to get close with their instruments. All of the music on the album is flawless. This is some truly inspired, original doom that these boys are serving up for you. You best enjoy it.
The sound on the album is great. The production sounds very clean, yet the distortion on the guitars mixed with Pike's gruff vocal stylings give this album a grungy, down and dirty sound like any good doom release should, while also breaking clean for a crystal clear projection of any solo that may come your way on this album. If you ask me, it makes sense. These guys have been doing this shit for a while. They just want us to know that they know what they are doing.
Simply put, this is High on Fire at their very best to date. If you are a fan of the stoner/doom genre, I'd highly encourage you to go pick this up. If you haven't picked up a High on Fire album in a while, then prepare yourself - It's going to be awesome. Come to think about it, this album is going to be pure awesomeness for just about anyone who tunes in. So, what are yu waiting for? Get this shit now, now, NOW!
Score: 9/10
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