High On Fire – “Burning Down”

High On Fire – “Burning Down”

There are very few bands as consistent as High On Fire, Matt Pike’s long-running fuzz-metal power trio. Whenever High On Fire put out a new record, you know exactly what you’re going to get, and you know that it’s going to stomp ass. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten one of those records. Electric Messiah, High On Fire’s last album, came out in 2018, and they followed it with the 2019 Record Store Day EP Bat Salad.

While they were on tour behind that record, Matt Pike had to have a toe amputated because of diabetes complications, and the band had to cancel part of their tour to avoid further amputations. But that didn’t stop him. Pike released his solo album Pike Vs. The Automaton in 2021, and now there’s a new High On Fire album ready to go. The band recorded the new LP Coming The Storm with Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou as producer, and that guy knows what he’s doing. This time around, the band’s drummer is Coady Willis, from the Murder City Devils, Big Business, and the Melvins.

Lead single “Burning Down” is a six-minute groove-monster headbanger, and it instantly reminds me of everything that I love about High On Fire. Director Lars Kristoffer Hormander’s video is an AI-generated CGI thing about medieval plague victims eating rats, and I didn’t make it very far into that one, but you can enjoy the song just fine without watching. Below, check out “Burning Down” and the Cometh The Storm tracklist.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Lambsbread”
02 “Burning Down”
03 “Trismegistus”
04 “Cometh The Storm”
05 “Karanlık Yol”
06 “Sol’s Golden Curse”
07 “The Beating”
08 “Tough Guy”
09 “Lightning Beard”
10 “Hunting Shadows”
11 “Darker Fleece”

Cometh The Storm is out 4/19 on MNRK Heavy.

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