High On Fire don’t release soft albums, ‘De Vermis Mysteriis’ (translation: ‘The Mysteries of the Worm’) is the bands sixth studio release, and from the opening moments of the album, you are in for a heavy Sabbath/doom inspired metal monster. Produced by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou in Salem, MA, USA, this album is hard hitting and certainly one of their most punishing to date, even living up to the reputation of their second release ‘Surrounded By Thieves’.

Taking the aforementioned Sabbath doom thing and adding much intensity like their earlier releases with a touch of Kylesa makes High on Fire also come across as a bastardised heavier version of the aforementioned with their doomed downtrodden sound. The album’s concept will be written about I am sure by someone else, it’s fairly lengthy, but the idea of a time travelling twin of Jesus Christ is pretty far out there, even if the album title is a nudge in the direction of the grim fictional tales of Author: Robert Bloch (Psycho) and Lovecraft’s ‘Cthulu Mythos’. At just over 52 minutes, every second of this album is head busting Armageddon. The sound has been captured perfectly by Ballou and when you combine the often jammed riffs and ideas of Matt Pike (guitars & vocals – ex Sleep) and Co, High on Fire as a trio really live up to their name.

If you take a step back to the awesome doom heaviness of ‘Madness of an Architect’ you have a lot of depth, the way the sound is transferred to your head is like someone is stuffing your ears and nose with dynamite, lighting the fuse then putting you in a concrete mixer. That sounds warped I know, but it’s the way I was thinking when I listened to this album in full for the first time! This track also sounds a lot like Triptykon in certain places. On the flip side of things, tripping out to ‘Samsara’ is very easy, it’s laid back, effortless and very wholesome, especially the almost dreamy bass lines. If I were a betting man, then I would challenge myself to find a more striking moment on this album, and then I find the track ‘Spiritual Rights’. This is almost too much, it pushes the High On Fire boundaries, and that is a good thing by the way from which brings me to some of the same feelings and emotions felt during spinning the latest Black Breath effort.

Precision heaviness is a constant theme on this release, High On Fire always do something that little extra on each successive album, I cannot fault the ideas and musical interpretation on ‘De Vermis Mysteriis’. This album is certainly a contender for my top albums of the year; I cannot recommend this one highly enough.

(8.5/10 Paul Maddison)

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