In recent months AI-generated art has incurred the ire of the metal community. My social media feed is full of metal diehards decrying bands that use A.I. generated art. I agree with the general sentiment around protecting the integrity of art and supporting artists, but it seems like a knee-jerk reaction to something that isn’t entirely black and white. Funny enough, the most notable band accused of using this new form of forbidden sorcery is Judas Priest. In defense of their good name, they went as far as to release the artist sketches of their new record cover to prove that it was not A.I. generated and was simply good ole fashioned crappy album art. 

The awesome A.I. generated video for “Burning Down” the premier single from High on Fire’s fantastic new record ’Cometh the Storm’ received a considerable amount of backlash from armchair warriors far and wide. In its defense and without taking a deep dive into the video’s construction, I think there’s a considerable amount of confusion between A.I. and C.G.I. The video has a notable director in Lars Kristoffer Hormander and presumably Hormander got paid and Matt Pike isn’t exactly swimming in say Tool money. Pike himself was unaware of the video’s medium. Per Pike’s Instagram – “I didn’t know this was completely A.I.? I still think it’s cool cause it’s gross!”. All this to say, let’s give the band a break and revel in the gross awesomeness of both the video and the song. One thing for sure is that High on Fire with their off-the-rails raw power are perhaps the least artificial band in “Heavy-Metaldom”, and Pike and company positively ooze authenticity from their shirtless pores.

The aforementioned “Burning Down” is the audial embodiment of its “fangorian” rat-eating, black-plague-victim video. Born out of the gruesome mold concocted on High on Fire’s earliest recordings and propelled wildly forward via a crushing repetitive sludge riff and a tight groove, it is the perfect vehicle for Pike’s spiritual musings on death and destruction – “Your castle’s burning down. Not a soul left sentient. Your temple’s crumbling down. No disguise for the revenant.” Midway, melodic “Iommian” guitar leads glide across a taut elephantine stomp adding a sense of rock classicism to the standout track.

“Trismegistus” (Ancient Greek for “Thrice-Greatest”), an unwieldy “thrasher”, and the aptly titled “The Beating” with its brutal, breakneck speed, raw-throated vocals, and heavy AF half-time outro, sound like they could fall apart at any moment, but are expertly glued together by the records high production values. Produced by the band with longtime conspirator Kurt Ballou at GodCity Studios in Salem, MA, they do a stellar job of capturing the cacophonous, unhinged chaos of High on Fire’s live show on tape in a way that doesn’t betray the band’s devious intentions.

Throughout ‘Cometh the Storm’ newcomer Coady Willis’ (Big Business, The Motor City Devils) drumming absolutely slays, a commendable achievement given the long shadow cast by the impeccable Des Kensel. Together with bassist, and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Matz, they provide the burly backbone on which Pike’s ruthless fantasy-tinged epics are built.

Speaking of Kensel, he’s all over the atmospheric acoustics that drive the middle eastern palette cleanser “Karanlik Yol”. With its cinematic aesthetic, it could be the soundtrack to a long-lost Roger Corman sword-and-sorcery movie, and I’m totally here for it.

The relative restraint of the title track adds an extra melodic flair to a record that pummels more than it taps. The hammer-on riff and wounded vocals of the tom-heavy verses perfectly anticipate the catharsis of the doom-laden chorus and build into the stuttering, funereal riff that backs a deliciously indulgent hallucinatory guitar solo. 

The shadowy dirge of “Darker Fleece” closes out the record on an enticingly foreboding note. The unhurried atmospherics of its intro pave the way for a crushing doom-metal showpiece that further cements High on Fire’s place among the pantheon of modern metal giants.

High on Fire’s gift for incorporating progressive passages and ethereal textures into their unique blunt-force no-frills metal is on full display on the excellent ‘Cometh the Storm’.