high on fire - cometh the storm

high on fire back in action. the lads delivered another instant hit. pummeling drums, fuzzy riffs and low-end bass lines - i couldn't have asked for more. mnrk heavy. 2024.

high on fire - snakes for the divine (colour re-press)

finally eone came around the corner with a colour vinyl pressing for high on fire's 2010 album "snakes for the divine". the records were released last year already (to its 10th anniversary), i just forgot to post it here. the splatter is subtle but looks cool when glowing. the album is splendid, of course.

high on fire - electric messiah

high on fire is an institution. since my love for this band evolved four years or so ago, i can't think of a bad album of matt pike and his two companions. so of course when i heard news of an upcoming new album, i was all over it. at first only pre-orders for north america appeared. no big deal. high on fire is on e-one entertainment since "snakes for the divine" and since they have no european distribution, century media released an eu version for each record. usually a bit later than e-one.

so i waited. release date came nearer and nothing over at century media. i couldn't find any info on the net and started to panic a bit. i was close to order from the states when emp came to my rescue. they offered a black and a red vinyl edition both labled as spv records releases and the red one limited to 100 copies. when i tried to gather information at the spv page i couldn't find anything. i ordered the sketchy red vinyl anyway but the suspicion arose that i actually ordered the red e-one edition.

when the record arrived i unwrapped the opaque red u.s. version of "electric messiah" of which emp had 100 copies available for europe. spv simply slept on a coloured e.u. version. now they corrected that error and some green marble lp is available for pre-order, set to be released in december. anyway, musically "electric messiah" is just another great stoner metal/punk n' roll record of hof. they just cannot disappoint. one of my favourites of the band for sure. go for "sanctioned annihilation"! really nice shade of red marbled vinyl. i am not sure how many were pressed. e-one. 2018.

high on fire - luminiferous (e-one version)

this is going to be my last entry for 2015. over 200 posts this year. man, i was pretty industrious. i cut down my backlog about a fair portion of the pile but didn't manage to reduce the entirety. i will fix that next year and be hopefully able to only post about recent additions to the collection. for now i'll end 2015 with the probably best looking piece of wax that i can call my own.

as a constant reader you know that i already have a copy of the latest high on fire record, called 'luminiferous'. it's the clear orange version from century media that serves as the european version of the album. it looks cool with the d-side etching and all but when i saw pictures of the u.s. versions on the net i got pretty jealous. one colour-way among them that made me crave for it in particular. a 'starburst' colour of utter most delicacy.

as it wasn't available through any retailer over here in europe i wrote it off, especially when i already had a copy. when i was browsing through ebay two weeks before christmas i accidentally came across a reasonably priced coloured u.s. version of 'luminiferous'. it was a canadian seller and i asked what version it might be. the answer was 'red yellow blue starburst' and i cheerfully pulled the trigger on it.

it arrived here even before christmas and what a beauty it is. just lovely. musically this is still the great album it was six months back when i initially listened to it, only with the slight difference that this new vinyl colour makes it even more fun to spin it. unfortunately i couldn't find any pressing numbers. u.s. version comes with download dropcard instead of cd. e-one. 2015.

post scriptum: as motörhead seems to be a constant high on fire influence, i'd like to take the opportunity to say goodbye to one who paved the way for heavy music as we know it. rest in peace, lemmy kilmister.

high on fire - luminiferous (century media version)

a new high on fire record. the seventh full length and the first one i witness right from its release date. thus i didn't have to search second hand markets like discogs or ebay, thus i didn't have to buy some re-press, no. i was right there for the pre-order process. man, this year seems to be a fruitful one for new releases i am interested in. i am up to my ears in pre-orders. but that is a different story.

to the point. when i heard news of a coming hof record european pre-orders weren't up. since 'snakes for the divine', high on fire releases their stuff through e-one entertainment from the states. and since then century media handled release matters over here in europe. no exception with 'luminiferous' and so i waited for cm to come up with a vinyl release. when they finally did, century media offered various pre-order options.

i opted for the 180gr clear orange variant. even though it was not as limited as a dark green edition, i thought it looked better in combination with the cover art. i am satisfied with my decision after checking the pictures now being available at cm distro. century media seems to have sold out on their copies already but nuclear blast has some left to get you covered.

e-one also had an u.s. version to offer. a grey with black 'starburst' pressing. i checked the net for some pictures but couldn't find some. i would really like to see one. sounds like a cool colour variant. anyway, what does the new album hold musically, you may ask? right so. 'luminiferous' is a cracker on all accounts. it comes with the right dosage of furious motörhead punk metal and their very own stoner-doom heaviness.

the whole album is very well balanced and will stand in line with their previous work. not one stinker among them. but before i bore you with more inexpressive talk, you will most likely want to check some tunes for yourself. here you go with the whole output at one dash.

lyrically it's about the wide subject of conspiracy theories. chemtrails and stuff. but i will have to go deeper into the matter before its luminiferous effect will enlighten me wholly. again a high on fire album cover art looks pretty sinister, can't say what it depicts but it looks great. the d-side etching shows the entity from the cover. comes with a cd of the album. 200 copies made. century media. 2015.

high on fire - snakes for the divine

another month, another high on fire post. but as much as i enjoyed writing about a new record of high on fire in my possession, the monthly consistency is about to cease. 'snakes for the divine' marks their fifth studio album out of six and i have them all now. so i will have to wait for a new record to write up a new post.

at first i thought this particular record to be the hardest one to come by. as i looked out for it on the bay germany for the first time, i found an offer with a fifty euro price tag and another one with a hundred euro tag. totally insane, especially as there is only black vinyl and two bigger pressings of e1 records and century media in existence. i didn't bother to check discogs and so i assumed it would be pretty much of a task to get a copy.

so when the time had come to get a hold on 'snakes for the divine', which i picked to be the last record to get because of its 'rareness', i checked the obvious sources and found an ebay offering for twenty bucks postage paid. cool. even cooler it was an american pressing on e1 records. now ebay seems to have quite a lot options for reasonable prices, so does discogs. first cut may be the deepest, but sometimes most on the surface.

musically it's great stoner/sludge worship as one came to love it from high on fire. the in the majority great songs easily outgun the one or two weaker pieces and in my personal ranking it comes third after 'de vermiis mysteris' and the superb 'death is this communion'. check out 'holy flames of the fire spitter' and the title song and move your real or imagined long hair in circles. horns up! e1 records. 2010.

high on fire - blessed black wings

to make the high on fire set complete i was eager to get my hands on the last missing two. there is 'snakes for the divine' and then there is 'blessed black wings'. 'bbw' was after 'death is this communion' the second album i downloaded and listened to and still this is my second to favourite release by this stoner doom monster.

it has this groundshaking energy and those dreamy harmonies which made me love high on fire in the first place. the stuff which 'the art of self defense' and especially 'surrounded by thieves' were lacking of. with this record the unique hof mix is back. or better it appeared for the first time fully developed. maybe they needed the first two records to evolve that sound.

actually i wanted to order this record directly from relapse but as shipping rates from the states are a pain in the ass and i didn't want two records on the same colour way ('surrounded by thieves' and 'blessed black wings' were re-pressed on the same more limited colour pattern), i was looking for a domestic solution. thankfully i found a copy in hamburg's burnout store.

i must admit i am not the biggest fan of the choice of colour for this vinyl release. i mean, nothing wrong with an opaque purple but together with the colour scheme of the cover art it seems to be an odd choice. doesn't really work well together. ah nevermind, it sounds awesome though! 918 copies made on purple and still available. relapse records. 2005/2013.

high on fire - surrounded by thieves

as i mentioned in my last high on fire post, i'm working on getting all the records together. so here is another piece of the puzzle. this time it's about their second full length record called 'surrounded by thieves. it was released three years after 'the art of self defense' now on relapse records. signing with relapse this album made them known to a broader audience. the album was firstly pressed on a single lp. i believe two pressings have been made this way. further pressings had been given the double lp treatment.

my copy is of the second double lp pressing, so actually the fourth pressing if my information is correct. the constant reader knows that i'm a sucker for split coloured vinyl. so before i ordered this one, i had to evaluate several aspects. first fact to consider was that all high on fire releases on relapse had been pressed on this colour way. as i think owning different records on the same colour way is boring, i only wanted one of the three on this nice orange/green split vinyl. but which one? 'death is this communion' was out of the picture, as i already had the opague green version. so the choice was between 'surrounded by thieves' and 'blessed black wings'.

it wasn't easy because i listened to both records beforehand and knew that i liked 'blessed black wings better' but then, the decision was made when i realised that i was able to buy 'blessed black wings' locally at burnout record store. that saved me alot on shipping and so i went for the second album. the whole order process went pretty smooth. convenient to order with relapse records. thumbs up!

after repeated spins of 'surrounded by thieves' i must say that it's the weakest high on fire record so far. i love high on fire for their dreamy melodies embedded in their very own stoner sound. i can't quite put my finger on it but there is something about their music that sounds familiar to me. on 'sorrounded by thieves' however these melodies seem to be missing. there is some good stuff, sure. for example 'the yeti' or 'nemesis' are strong songs but the whole delivery pales in comparison to their other releases. and then there is this stupid front cover. i can hang with the rest of the artwork but this fat demon guy on the front looks ridiculous. what kind of position is he in? sitting, lying? the rest of the presentation is pretty nice though. fat, sturdy gatefold sleeve and awesome half orange half green split vinyl with white splatter. 598 copies made. relapse records. 2002/2013.

high on fire - the art of self defense

in the moment i'm really working on putting together the high on fire records set. with this purchase here i have now three and still three to go. but i know this will work out pretty well as all the other records i need, 'sorrounded by thieves', 'blessed black wings' and 'snakes for the divine' are still available from various sources.

in my hands here is the re-press of high on fire's first full length 'the art of self defense' from 2001. when i was lastly in hamburg's finest record store, burnout records, buying mastodon's 'call of the mastodon' record i also looked through the high on fire section. among other was sitting this baby. i was looking at it thinking about getting it or not.

it had a hefty price tag of almost thirty euros on it and so i wasn't sure about it. in the end i put it aside hoping i could find an less expensive copy on the internet. time went by and so did my london trip. after that i had some money left to burn and of course i would put it towards some new records.

as a constant reader you might remember that i bought a clear purple copy at burnout store back then. time went by and at some point in mid 2015 i came across some copies which were on sale at the southern lord eurpean shop. they had almost every colour of the re-press for lousy 15 bucks on offer. considering that i got the clear purple copy for twice as much, i couldn't pass up to buy an upgrade copy.

i took the brown version and gave my purple one to a friend. after i threw it on my turntable the first thing that came to my mind was, that this sounded doomier than the other records i knew from high on fire, 'death is this communion' and 'de vermis mysteriis'. slower and a more sleep like approach. but as this is the first post-sleep record that matt pike worked on, this seems natural.

this re-press also includes the two songs from the original 7“ that tee pee records put into the second press package of their release of 'the art of self defense'. these two sound more like the style they developed after 'the art...', faster, more energetic. but don't get me wrong, i really like this first album alot. it just sounds different to their other stuff. furthermore their first demo recordings included as well. real fanboy package.

southern lord really did an outstanding job with this re-press. massive gatefold sleeve of thick and sturdy card. it's that thick that i couldn't store it in my usual reclosable pvc sleeves, because i couldn't close them up. had to use an slip pvc sleeve here. a nice 24-page booklet attached to the inner gatefold with many pictures of the band and a poster. even the card inside the sleeve is purple coloured. top notch presentation! the new colouring of the cover art and the whole package all around favoured the semi-translucent brown of the vinyl. put up against the light it looks more like a dark red. 500 made. southern lord. 2001/2013.

high on fire - de vermis mysteriis

when i started interest in high on fire the only record that clicked with the first listen was 'death is this communion'. i downloaded the whole discography and with the rest it was a bit difficult. not that i didn't like them, they just needed more time. so it happened with their latest output 'de vermis mysteriis'. i think that holding an actual material copy of the record in hands changes a lot in that terms. as i put the record on the turntable, suddenly i couldn't understand why i didn't fall in love with this album immediately.

it's a whole different feeling looking at the stunning artwork, reading along to the lyrics and watching the lovely coloured vinyl spin, instead of just pressing play on your digital device. that's why i am always on the hunt for these physical copies. that's why i spent way too much money for these plastic plates. that's why i spent hours and hours in the net or in stores. it's simply the real deal. amen.

in this case i was checking ebay for copies of high on fire's sixth studio album. to my surprise it was no problem to find some new and sealed copies for regular prices. even coloured copies. high on fire seems not as hyped in europe as overseas. not that i complain about it. for grabs was a white copy and a grey one. i actually wanted the white vinyl but waited for too long and it was gone. so i took the grey, and in the end i am quite happy with this forced decision. the grey looks lovely. a light shade of the colour and it's even a bit marbled, plus 180g quality.

after several spins myimpression on 'de vermis mysteriis' is a darker and maybe even a more aggressive one in comparison to 'death is this communion'. of course i lack a record, 'snakes for the divine', but it sounds quite angry with its up-tempo songs and the gloomy slow tracks. check out 'spiritual rights' and 'madness of an architect' for good examples. but whatever you think about the album, you can't deny its strong aura and sheer intensity.

there are several vinyl versions for 'de vermis mysteriis'. u.s. versions came on e-one music, to which the band was signed for this release and which liscensed the music for the different vinyl versions, and on relapse records. european affairs were handled by century media. my light grey version is a century media release with blue 'high on fire' lettering, just as the dark red version. but unlike the white vinyl edition that also came from century media, which seems to have the lettering in red. so i see no real pattern in this. furthermore i don't know about pressing numbers for my edition. can anyone help out? century media. 2012. 

high on fire - death is this communion

i am fully immersed in metal at the moment. i pretty much exclusively listen to it. that goes that far, i even missed to buy some crucial, yes, let's say existential hardcore releases of recent date. which will be corrected very soon, by the way. the hardcore stuff of my latest posts were all records from the pile sitting there for quite some time. today's post is about a new passion of mine going by the name of high on fire.

in my blogger starting days i was reading one other blog very closely - lenny's 'the emerging addiction' blog. every now and again i would re-read some of his post. such happened with his high on fire posts. back then when i glimpsed at them for the first time, i simply liked the covers but never bothered to take a listen. additionally the term stoner metal put me off. but now, as i opened my musical horizon for a band such as mastodon and liking them a lot, i thought i should try some high on fire as well.

destiny made me check out the title song of 'death is this communion' first. yeah, i liked the gloomy atmosphere but it was a little bit too slow for my taste. i put the band in a distant corner of my mind. but the idea of myself liking this band was persistent. i downloaded the whole album, listened to it and suddenly the song appeared in a whole different light. together in the whole musical context of the album, the song totally clicked with me and the rest, too. i love the record and if the last third of it was as fantastic as the two preceding, it would simply be among my ten all time favourite records. man, just look on the art. so close to perfection...

i bought this shining copy on ebay for a fair price i think. it's a first press copy and, besides 100 grey copies (and the 100 not for the public clear copies), the rarest colour of the press. which isn't that hard because after the 600 opaque green copies there were just 1200 black copies pressed. so with the help of count count that makes 2000 copies of the first press. to this date four more pressings followed, with the fourth pressing now coming on double vinyl. check the whole album here. relapse records. 2007.