### High On Fire: De vermis mysteriis

#### 12/04/12 || Smalley

As harsh as he seemed to get at times in his review for 2010’s ”Snakes for the divine”, and as much as I enjoyed that album, I still have to admit that I agree with ex-staffer Khlytoris that “Snakes” was undeniably a step down from the likes of 2007’s “Death is this communion”. But, while I would’ve preferred something more on the same level as “communion”, I do understand the need to ease up on bands and give ‘em some space, and allow for a minor disappointment or two; otherwise, you run the risk of them doing too well and burning themselves out too early. I mean, you do have 80’s Metallica, but then afterwards, you have… anything else Metallica. Fuckin’ ouch.

But enough beating a dead metal horse, this review is about High On Fire & their new record “De vermis mysteriis” (“The mysteries of the worm”). And what a new record it is; unlike “Snakes”, which suffered some from a more restrained approach in both production and songwriting, “vermis” represents a return to the ballsier songwriting and gnarlier production of “communion”, which should come as a welcome announcement, considering “communion” was their best album. Er, and still is, actually, but I have no prob with declaring “vermis” their 2nd-best record, which, coming a good 6 albums into the band’s career, is some very nice still-goin’-strong action for sho’.

You see, “vermis” represents High On Fire at their best, which they only achieve when they take their appeal as a wild, rough ‘n tumble band with Lemmy Jr. on vocals, those elements of their sound that appeals to all metalheads’ primal, uncontrollable urge to headbang, and fuse that with highly virtuosic instrumentality and engaging, almost “progressive”-ish songwriting experiments. And within that context, this album represents the best of all of HoF’s various worlds; from the very first frantic, pounding drum pattern on opener “Serums of liao”, Fire seems determined to prove that they haven’t lost their… fire, and prove the “Snakes” haters wrong.

“Serums” could be called a lil’ “predictable” when it comes to its amount of repetition, but that hardly matters in the face of the aggressively hooky riffs and wild-but-still-masterful solos from Matt Pike, Des Kensel’s insanely intense, groovy drumming, always ready to veer off in a crazy (but logical) tangent at the drop of a hi-hat, the Pikeman’s oh-so-endearing Lemmy Jr. vocal style (or Bastard Lemmy more like it, considering how much the MoleMan sleeps around), and of course, the band’s barely-containable sense of energy & enthusiasm. All this is aided by a stellar production that drops the polish of “Snakes”, and gives thick, punchy sounds to everything here, especially that uniquely-gnarly rhythm guitar sound, and the sound of the solos really fucken SING whenever they show up. And I can make out the bass!!! Mild repetition notwithstanding, the track is still pieced together perfectly logically, the different sections flowing together well, with a good sense of dramatics (knowing when to crank the intensity up or dial it back), so there is no way in hell “Serums” isn’t a really good way to open up a record.

Follow-up “Bloody knuckles” slows the tempo down some, but this allows for some doomier riffing that puts that wonderfully thick, rough guitar sound to even greater use, and the songwriting is as irresistibly catchy and wild as ever, so things continue on as strong as ever here. “Fertile green” makes a nice transition from booming, tribal percussion into the fastest tempos of the album, complete with chaotic, rushed (in a good way) verses, then “Madness of an architect” comes as the first truly experimental track here, with its super doomy, super distorted, opening stoner-riff that sounds like the bastard (samurai?) spawn of Black Sabbath & Electric Wizard.

Instrumental “Samsara” takes the trippy shit even further with another stoner-riff, but this time on the bass (I’m guessing), and with all the doom taken out, as it’s so fucken lazy ‘n mellow, it sounds like the guitar just directly smoked some of the finest herb itself. The song doesn’t majorly switch up either, just repeats and repeats and repeats that bass line, holding the main pattern down, and allowing Pike to make sweet, sweet solo-love all over his fretboard (and on our faces). “Spiritual rites” pleasantly takes us back into the heavy, frantic material, then “King of days” sticks out in the way it tries out something new for the band, not with any new sounds/instruments or anything, but in the specific way Pike wrote the riff on this one; it has this slow, steady majesty to it, almost like a song Dio could’ve sung on in his more epic moments. Add on some unexpectedly clean background vocals, and you got yourself a nice fucken lil’ song here.

The title track is a bit of a disappointment due to an unnecessary vocal distortion and some mildly droning songwriting, but it’s still decent, and “Romulus and remus”/Warhorn” close out the record well with a compellingly slow, unstoppable groove on the former, and tensely quiet verses and doomy riffing in the former. But forget about song specifics for a sec; while “vermis” does represent a return to form for Fire, with some cool, unexpected touches, it’s hardly an an Ulver-esque 180 for them, but rather, much more of a return to form, so it isn’t just super different from their past material. Rather, the real appeal here lies more in the way that the band consistently gets things entertainingly, uniquely right again, in combination with their endearing, ever-so-niche style, and the way they transcend influences from any one source in order to almost become a genre unto themselves (something you already well know I have a weakness for).

Thrashy, groovy, doomy, stoner-y, and a bit experimental; you’ve already heard HoF excel in mixing all of these together before, but it’s still so fresh, it’s a blast just to hear it again, and to hear it done with the old amount of cojones to it, as well. In this day and age, with such a saturated metal market and so many cookie-cutter, neo-thrashers/At The Gates metalcore rip-offs/Pantera wannabes/Suffocation follow-the-leaders and whatnot, it is just nothing but refreshing to hear a band create, pursue, and stick by their own lil’ niche of sound like High On Fire is, as much of an odd duckling they may sound like at first. More fucken metal auteurs like them, that’s what we really need! Kick-ass auteurs though, of course, I think we’ve seen enough “hipster metallers” for one lifetime, wouldn’t you agree?

- Information
- Released: 2012
- Label: eOne Music
- Website: www.highonfire.net
- Band
- Matt Pike: vocals, guitars
- Des Kensel: drums
- Jeff Matz: bass

- Tracklist
- 01. Serums Of Liao
- 02. Bloody Knuckles
- 03. Fertile Green
- 04. Madness Of An Architect
- 05. Interlude
- 06. Spiritual Rites
- 07. King Of Days
- 08. De Vermis Mysteriis
- 09. Romulus And Remus
- 10. Warhorn