ALBUM REVIEW: High On Fire – Electric Messiah

In a distant area of the multiverse, there exists a plain, a plain scarred, barren and desolate. On this plan, lit only by guttering flame, there are vast heathen armies that are locked in bitter, endless bloodshed. Above the clamour and the din of battle, there is a roaring, earth shaking tumult, a sound track exulting the warriors to ever greater feats of slaughter. The sound track? The eighth opus from HIGH ON FIRE; Electric Messiah.

While Matt Pike may be familiar to many metallers for his work with ‘BLACK SABBATH of the 1990s’ SLEEP, his work with HIGH ON FIRE has made no less of an impact up the opposite end of the tempo spectrum. Far from being a side project, the trio’s twenty year career has seen them conjure more blazing, serpentine riffs from the ether than physics should possibly allow.

And Electric Messiah is no exception. Spewn From The Earth tears out of the gate with stabbing slabs of chords backed by earth shaking kick drums, skidding into a pick slide that whips things into a foam mouthed gallop. All instrumentation is locked in, barrelling head down with a relentless focus, with Pike occasionally peeling off to throw in spiralling guitar vamps and dives or to gurgle out his signature gravelly crow.

Steps Of The Ziggurat/House Of Enlil stalks in at a predatory mid pace, Des Kensel’s tribal tom work hammering beneath flurries of guitars and burly group shouts that keep time like a labouring work gang. Passing through a sinewy chug, riddled with machine gun bass drum, it drops into that a single guitar line dripping with that signature HIGH ON FIRE tone before bursting into cascades of tumbling drums and a smooth yet gnarly bass run. Title track Electric Messiah was, according to Pike, inspired as tribute to the much mourned Lemmy, and the thrashing pace and stripped back riff worshipping fittingly showcases every inch of the band’s MOTORHEAD influence.

Sanctioned Annihilation gives a rare moment of respite with it’s drifting, meditative beginning before buckling down into a brutal drive, navigating the dynamic peaks and troughs of stuttering solos and galloping drums. The Pallid Mask’s big growling chords open up into a skipping guitar line that sounds like a more menacing DROP KICK MURPHYS, complete with sea shanty bellows and the crushing weight of savage downstroke riffing.

God Of The Godless’s trilling call and response guitar intro alchemically morphs and mutates into a torrent of dizzying riffs and pulsing kick drums, constantly gathering pace with no signs of stopping or slowing. Freebooter grinds and ascends atop twitchy drums, lumbering, atonal and threatening, ending in squealing feedback and amp noise. The Witch And The Christ sees Jeff Matz‘s rumbling bass mirroring Pike’s restless riffing, layered shouts and animalistic drums finally coalescing into an unstoppable juggernaut that runs headlong into a listing swing.

Drowning Dog ends things in righteous style, soaring guitars take flight over hissing cymbals and punchy, swinging riffs that is truly, fist pumpingly triumphant. And triumphant is the watchword for Electric Messiah as a whole. Many bands two decades into their career would have fundamentally changed their sound, or simply have run out of steam. For Matt Pike and co, this couldn’t be further from the truth. An album that resists the limits of endurance (how Des Kensel can leather his kit with such consistent, precise brutality is frankly inhuman), the only points approaching a flaw are that the elongated running time of the few of the tracks causes momentum to flag a little, the band working outside their usual focus on concision in riffsmanship.

While no tune here reaches the heady heights of ‘classic’ HIGH ON FIRE cuts like Death Is The Communion or Snakes For The Divine (which features the best metal riff of the 21st century) alone, as a whole, Electric Messiah is the trio’s most consistent and singularly focused record. Music to chug brews, bang heads, and conquer worlds to.

Rating: 8/10

Electric Messiah is out now via eOne Music.

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