Title: Snakes for the Divine
Artist: High on Fire
Genre: Heavy Metal
Release Date: 5th March 2010
Label: Century Media
Album Review
American heavy metal outfit HIGH ON FIRE was formed in 1998 by Matt Pike, who joined the efforts with drummer Des Kensel and bassist George Rise. In 2000, the band recorded the first full-length album entitled ‘The Art of Self Defence’ and then, after the sophomore release followed by a vigorous tour Rise left the formation and was replaced by Joe Preston whose place was taken by Jeff Matz a year later. The musicians teamed up with producer Greg Fidelman who worked with METALLICA and SLAYER to create the new CD called ‘Snakes for the Divine’.
The opening piece started with dense, resilient guitars which can overwhelm you at once and don’t seem to lose their positions even for a second. Energetic drumming that sounds like a burst of machine-gun fire began to support the melody a bit later and when I decided that the song would be instrumental, there appeared calm yet powerful vocals which is not too bad in general but still didn’t impress me a lot nevertheless the song itself is really striking. But in the next composition singing voice perfectly goes with the harsh music, blends with it so ‘Frost Hammer’ totally seizes listeners loading them with notching sounds. The following song changes the whole atmosphere with its dreadful beginning and the tension only intensifies when the oppressive riffs attack you immersing into the centre of metal storm. As the compositions change each other the pressure slackens but the solid, firm melodies close down upon you and there’s no way to escape: till the end of the tracks you are in captivate of ruthless tunes.
The single instrumental thing ‘The Path’, rather short and quite interesting pleases me most of all and after that respite the rush starts over again, not as ferocious as before but anyway very vigorous. Till the end of the CD the music goes at its best and allows a listener to fully enjoy the material of the album. HIGH ON FIRE made a strong record, which fully displays the variety of the style, meanwhile there is lack of originality but this time it’s not a serious shortcoming. Thus the fans of the band and those who just like heavy metal will surely appreciate ‘Snakes for the Divine’.
Tracklist
01. Snakes for the Divine – 8:23
02. Frost Hammer – 6:07
03. Bastard Samurai – 6:37
04. Ghost Neck – 5:01
05. The Path – 1:20
06. Fire, Flood and Plague – 6:08
07. How Dark We Pray – 8:06
08. Holy Flames of the Firespitter – 4:13
Line-up
Matt Pike – Guitars, Vocals
Jeff Matz – Bass
Des Kensel – Drums
Website
http://highonfire.net/ / http://www.myspace.com/highonfire
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 7
Extras: -
Total: 7.5 / 10
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