High On Fire
Minus being interrupted the past few weeks by Jay Reatard and Dax Rigg's last records, I've been playing the SHIT out of this band since summer 07.
Before that too, of course, but when I got the leak of "Death Is This Communion" they became an obsession of mine. "Black Wings" and the above both
kick all kinds of ass. One produced by Albini, the other by Endino and both are great, yet totally have their own vibe. "Art of Self Defense" is
fucking great too and for whatever reason "Surrounded By Thieves" is my least favorite by 'em. A lot of ppl. seem to like it best, but I actually
prefer "self defense" of the 2. Their last 2 though, holy shit......
I liked Sleep well enough back in the day and I know a shitload of ppl. that still say they prefer any Sleep stuff to HoF, but I think Pike's taken
his craft several notches beyond anything Sleep ever did. And Desi, shit, that guy can beat the shit out of some drums. They always end up with kick
ass bassists too...."black wings" with Joe Preston and "communion" with Jeff Matz (Zeke). Matz actually comes up with some really kick-ass acoustic
interludes on the new record too.
If you're not really familiar with 'em and think you might dig something that sounds sorta like old Sabbath mixed with old Venom, played in a
methed-up Motorhead style, pick up "black wings" or "communion" and see what you think. "Black Wings" hit me immediately, "communion" took 4 or 5
spins to absorb but I love them equally and highly expect both to be on my top 'end of decade' list in a couple more years.....
....way off topic, but thinking of great, pumelling albums of this decade, I miss Ramallah/Rob. Sorry if its been rehashed a thousand times but I
haven't been online for a while - any Rob news?
|
![[*]](images/thorp/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
