In his 1964 book Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase "the medium is the message." As advances in technology yielded an inscrutably decentralist, mechanized culture that hypnotized viewers with sensory overload, many stopped questioning content: mere association with a valid medium validated any product. As far as contemporary music is concerned, genre has usurped "medium" and many listeners have come to define an album or artist according to its relative standing within a predefined class.
If "medium is the message," image is its courier. Within the contemporary metal scene, we've seen a rash of bands latch onto a core group of image-conscious (but decidedly working-class) metalheads seeking to supplant stereotypical, thuggish "old-school" modes with a politically correct amalgam of MENSA and anger management. As is often the case, especially with bands like Isis and Mastodon, so much effort goes into manufacturing that sludgy, choleric sound that most of the music's spontaneity and excitement goes missing in action. Northern California's High on Fire, on the other hand, show there's still hope for a metal band to not only operate according to its own whims, but also produce organic and monstrous music, devoid of bullshit.
Working at the fringes of stoner/doom metal, High on Fire-- guitarist/vocalist Matt Pike, bassist George Rice, and drummer Des Kensel-- are as powerful and gargantuan a threesome as metal has produced since the mid 90s. Their new LP, Surrounded by Thieves, pushes drone to its limits, with a crushing wall of bass tones guaranteed to alter heart rhythms and weaken building infrastructures. High on Fire have unleashed an album of old-school metal with all the meaty sloth of Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus, and the drug-induced grooves of Obsessed and Celtic Frost. Employing vintage tube amps and minimal studio acrobatics, Pike, Rice and Kensel recorded a relentless forty minutes of unadulterated gloom.
There's no interest in excess here, no melodic distraction or polyrhythmic frill; all energy is devoted to establishing mood, with thundering grooves and economical phrasing. With the album's opening title track, High on Fire launch into a massive riff, with gently shifting melodies entwined within power chords and a seismic wave of repetition. The low end is so overwhelming that it frequently washes out any neighboring treble tones. But that's the point, isn't it?
The strength of this album lies in its nihilistic theme and all-encompassing walls of drone. Pike's lyrics, while often somewhat trite, capture High on Fire's minimalist ideals perfectly; hovering between iron frenzy and hoarse despair, Pike's intonations serve as a subtle tonal counterpoint. In "Hung, Drawn, and Quartered", Rice and Kensel pound through a primal groove with marked precision, as Pike rounds out the barren landscape with, "The evil has come and the darkness will cover the light/ Above the legions, who will slay the poor and the blind/ Warriors that follow, won't you read the sign and the time/ Stand now in battle and we'll crush the clan and their kind." Pike's solo-- and make no mistake, the guy can absolutely shred-- is fantastic, and one of the band's most interesting anomalies; representing a departure from the droning, methodical pace, providing tangential harmonics and perhaps a new direction for the band.
"Thraft of Cannan" is High on Fire's most blatant homage to the slumbering stupor of Paranoid-era Black Sabbath. Trudging through an unremitting progressive blues jam at a snail's pace, "Thraft" is eight minutes of ambient, minimalist metal at its best. As the band gradually, stealthily ascends to the fastest tempos on Surrounded by Thieves, Pike launches into a ferocious solo of shapes and colors while Rice's brilliant bass work cements the groove beneath Kensel's meandering toms. With nary a snare drum in sight, and little modulation, Kensel's drumming is a lesson in feel and consistency.
If you've never experienced street drugs, it's a safe bet you probably won't enjoy this album. I'd also suggest getting your kicks some place else if you're medicated for Attention Deficit Disorder: as is the case with all doom metal, this album is an exercise in patience. Where High on Fire separates itself from the pack is its disregard for the usual cluster-fuck of tricks and trappings pervasive in the alternative metal scene. Matt Pike's threesome is a blue-collar collective; yes, the production is pure aggro, but the band makes no pretense about their DIY image-- no flashy one-sheets are necessary. Shunning all tacky ploys and glitz, High on Fire's Surrounded by Thieves develops a wholly organic aesthetic of granular strength and power, propelling this disc well beyond the hackneyed trash of lesser modern metal bands.
