High on Fire-Luminiferous (2015)



High on Fire-Luminiferous (2015)

“Born to lose, live to win.”
Lemmy Kilmister

By: Ghost Writer
He might not like it, but High on Fires singer and guitarist Matt Pike sounds like a curious breed of Motorheads Lemmy and Twisted Sisters Dee Snider, kind of the motorcycle rider gang member of your nightmares.

Welcome to the nightmare of Matt Pike and his High On Fire, an amazing band that has intrigued me through their years of existence, not metal enough, but not hardcore punk either, really close to the Venom and Motorhead with Pike recycling classic old metal riffs and finding new inspiration and interesting directions thanks to their producer Kurt Ballou who once again is at the mixing desk.

Luminiferous starts with the take no prisoners The Black Pot, again the Slayer presence is felt on HOF sound with the relentless drums and brutal guitar fire, Pike is all over the place as guitar player and riding the powerful wall of sound and displaying this time a great ear for brutal melody and great arrangements.

Carcosa is another powerful theme with the band at full force and full speed, and Pikes guitar again shining with demonical fury, in an escalating theme that display amazing rhythmic muscle and Pike brutally violent vocals.

A guitar so dry and abrasive signals the beginning of The Sunless Years with the band at the top of their game channeling some of their Celtic Frost influence, full of strength and macabre overtones.

The intense rhythms of Slave the Hive reminds me a lot of the Swedish greats Entombed with their powerful rhythm section and electric saws like guitars, again Pike and company using as inspiration some of the best extreme metal of the recent decades, recycling and at the same time making them all of their own.

Great dynamics are put on display on The Dark Side of the Compass featuring a cool detour on the record monolithic intensity, letting new sound texture to show up giving great variety to the overall recording, adding some nice touches of Pikes previous ultra-slow riffing with the legendary Sleep.

The Cave again shows new and interesting dynamic with the band immersing in a more introspective sound, more laid back but no less intense and vibrating, a little closer at times to some Melvins crazy experiments, being the Melvins another cool outsider band who really knows how to use to great effect their heavy metal influence.

Some hardcore sounds show up in the title track with the band riffing at really crazy speed
Luminiferous may lack the manic overwhelming intensity of The Vermis Mysteriis, but is definitely a great and effective successor to that recording, it is obvious that Pike, Ballou and company never intended to make The Vermis… once again, and the fact that they knew form the beginning that this record was going to be something different, and for that matter they have completely succeeded here.


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