Death Is This Communion, High on Fire's fourth album, was one of my 10 favorite albums in 2007, and I was far from alone. If you aren't already in the know, though, let this serve as some sort of wakeup call to the Oakland band's best collection to date. Don't worry about arriving late at the party: Despite the music's unrelenting roll, my entire experience with Death has been laid back...I listened to it a dozen times before bothering to check the song titles.
After memorizing each track, the shifts in those torching guitar riffs, the names didn't come as much of a surprise. For instance, "Fury Whip" is the perfect way to describe the lashing opener. It starts with more than a minute of galloping guitar, drums (note Des Kensel's double bass thumping), and bass from new member Jeff Matz, before guitarist/vocalist Matt Pike tears in with his hoarse chipped-tooth snarl. More than ever before, Pike's singing, not just his guitar playing, is a power onto itself. We already knew from his Sleep days he could pick an axe like a motherfucker, but man...maybe it's the cleaner, bigger, ballsier Jack Endino production, or the proper combination of whiskey and cigarettes and time, but Pike's at the point where his vocal and guitar chords have grizzled and wizened perfectly. (Lemmy, sir, watch your back.)
When discussing Death you need to focus on Pike, but also go back to Endino. To the collection (and Jack's) credit, it ends up a deflating experience listening to 2005's Blessed Black Wings in tandem. At the time of the earlier album's release, it seemed like Joe Preston's bass and Steve Albini's production had given High on Fire their most monumental, thunderous sound to date, but weirdly, it's pretty limp in comparison. Musically, Blessed Black was punkier, and in restrospect, the songwriting just isn't as good.
Outside of production, Death is both streamlined and epic. There are a number of rollicking patterns and shifts to the usual hard-edged rock, like the Eastern-tinged instrumental "Khanrad's Wall", the rising clatter drum solo of "Headhunter", or the jangle that establishes itself behind the smokiness of "Waste of Tiamat". The shimmering acoustic intro jangle to "Cyclopian Scape" offers a whiff of pastoral Sabbathian doom before the riff explosion. High on Fire are getting uncanny at knowing when to insert these sorts of details, but for all the awesome adds to the music, it's the rawest moments that feel the best: From its opening Celtic Frost grunt onward, "Rumors of War" rollicks all bad-ass and overdriven like a mathier spin on Motörhead's "Ace of Spades". The fucking mighty "Turk" reels through War Metal until it slides into groovier (but just as heavy) bong waters and "black psychology": "My cage's walls are closing in on me/ The rage that surfaces is not my soul/ It's like a devil taking control/ The violence lives in me and will not leave/ Like a magician with pain up his sleeve." Pike has said he was inspired by conspiracy theories and H.P. Lovecraft on the album (what metal band isn't these days?), and a number of the songs have that enjoyable occult tinge to their lyrics, though maybe nothing as D&D as something like "Surrounded By Thieves" (OK, minus "Cyclopian Scape"'s reptilian alien race, "lemurian throne," and etc).
In terms of Sleep-- because those terms refuse to go away-- this is High on Fire's Jerusalem. Outside of HoF's ascent, it's interesting to see Pike hit his peak just as his ex-Sleep bandmates in Om moved toward theirs with the appropriately titled Pilgrimage-- they continue chiseling into a sparer minimalist realm, while High on Fire inscribe additional accents into their crusty rock. It's rare to see such a cohesive trio split into two groups that both become so powerful, ascending at the same time with such distinct aesthetics. Here, actually, the title track's vocal lines are kinda Om-- that smearier stoner incantation slide-- but Pike and Co. otherwise continue moving deeper into their amphetamine-laced rock monster. Much less the old dope smoke. So, high on a different sort of fire. If you haven't already, make sure to inhale both.
