High On Fire

Snakes For The Divine (E1 Music 2010)

Album review

Home | Interviews | Live Pictures | Reviews | News | Tourdates | Message Board | Links | Search | Trade Index | I appologize for the lateness of this review, as the point of an album review is to excite the reader for an album's upcoming release and give them a sneek peek into what to expect. Unfortunately this is impossible when the band's PR or label refuses reviewers access to an album before it's release date (although it's leaked onto the internet anyways), and for some reason this seems to be the new trend. I feel sorry for any band trying to move an album right now with this label/PR mindset of "let's not let anyone review this before it's leaked onto the internet, I mean, released". This makes my job really hard. Enough bitching though, here's your really, really late review, a day before the album release date, no thanks to anyone's PR. Once you get past the Iron Maiden masturbation intro, this turns into quite the High On Fire album. There's more flashy shredding, and the production is too polished for my taste, and I can't say I like the kick drum sound, but the songs are tight as usual. Pike and crew are of the riff-worshipping variety, so they've never steered the wrong way. The signature riffs and slides are in full force, and "Bastard Samurai" has me hitting repeat already. Pike's gravel-gargling vocals are in fine form, athough they take a bit more getting used to this time, being so far out in front of the mix this go around and all. There are the great little tidbits on the first few listens when yells of "Frost Hammer" sound like "Fist Enema!!!". I haven't managed to figure out all of the lyrics yet, but I'd check out www.davidicke.com for shits and giggles. This album is more on the thrashy side than the groovy-stoner side, but like most High On Fire albums, it's a nice mix. Album Rating: Reviewed by: Wolfie ©2010 AbsolutMetal