_________________________________________________________________________
| . . | . | . | . | . | | . | . | , |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | > | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | ` | ' | | | ' | | ` | ' | ' |
___|___|___|___|_______|_______|___|___|_______|___|_______|_______|_______|___
\______________________________________|______________________________________/
/ \
| Artist..: High on Fire |
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
| Album...: The Art of Self Defense |
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
| Genre...: Metal | Label...: MNRK Heavy |
| Year....: 2023 | Cat.No..: |
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
| R.date..: 2023-08-06 | S.date..: 2023-08-04 |
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
| Source..: WEB (24bit) | Encoder.: libFLAC |
| Bitrate.: 2904kbps avg. | F.Rate..: 96.0kHz |
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
| http://open.qobuz.com/album/jde55dxf3ribc |
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
| Disc 1 / 1 |
| -------- |
| |
| 01. Baghdad 5:20 |
| 02. 10,000 Years 7:51 |
| 03. Blood from Zion 4:53 |
| 04. Last 6:35 |
| 05. Fireface 8:33 |
| 06. Master of Fists 10:11 |
| 07. Blood from Zion (Demo) 5:01 |
| 08. 10,000 Years (Demo) 7:39 |
| 09. Master of Fists (Demo) 10:19 |
| |
| |
| --------------------- |
| (1443.4MB) 01:06:22 |
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
| From the crumpled remains of an hour plus long doom/stoner masterstroke |
| crawls Matt Pike. A love child of Tony Iommi and Lemmy Kilmister with no |
| tolerance for hip-hop sensibilities, mall grooves, or memorable guitar |
| solos, but he plays them anyway because only solos are real. |
| |
| There are still some Sleepisms to be found on this album not only because |
| of its doom grooves, but it contains an average bpm much slower than most |
| other High On Fire albums. They were not quite the Frank Frazetta fueled |
| thrash/sludge/heavy fucking metal beast that gave us Devilution, Rumors of |
| War, and Hung, Drawn & Quartered just yet. Which also ties into wunderkind |
| Des Kensel's drumming as well. He's still brilliant as ever, but if you're |
| expecting the multi-tom avalanche trademark, that's not quite there here |
| either. We get a "what's that 500 miles out" peek of this around the |
| second half of Master of Fists, if anything speed is not quite the name of |
| the game here, but neither is doom. No-one is going to be confusing this |
| for a Trouble or Candlemass album anytime soon (not that there would be |
| anything wrong with that). I'm actually having trouble coming up with |
| moments on this album that are harbingers of what's to come (buried |
| somewhere on Fireface or Last maybe?). |
| |
| But if it's songs you want, High On Fire were in no way rough around the |
| edges with that regard, right out of the gate. One might argue they set |
| too high of a standard for themselves with the atom cleaving Blood From |
| Zion. Unfortunately, this wasn't the #1 rock song in the country because |
| it gives no fucks about nookies, Iowa, wounds, issues, davidians or |
| butterflies. It cares about riffs, nightmarishly possessed vocal lines, |
| and reminding everyone that having your opinion be damned, if you don't |
| worship the Priest, the Sabbath and the Motorhead you'll sleep with the |
| fishes. Being "the one guy that didn't like" is NOT FUCKING TOLERATED |
| HERE. This is METAL. It also shows how not to groove like a half-wit |
| monkey. This has at least 2 or 3 separate slow rhythms that will break |
| your neck and yes, bob your body to and fro. But shit, that's what |
| classical songwriting was before Robb Flynn and his closet Sully Erna type |
| ruined everything. |
| |
| The Iron Maiden mannerisms of epic songwriting come more in form rather |
| than in strict substance, although you could certainly argue Sabbath |
| mastered it before they did. Master of Fists, 10,000 Years definitely |
| deliver the epic, but more in the form of jams rather than multiple |
| rhythms and sections expertly stitched together. Maybe 30 seconds too long |
| in the case of the latter as on rather rotten days I have found myself |
| snapped out of the trance by the notion that the song is still going on. |
| It's a rather difficult task to pull off if you aren't Randy Rhoads in |
| terms of leads. Matt Pike, god bless him, is not Randy Rhoads, playing his |
| solos as a mean of stubborn, punk rock principle. Very likely the only |
| time I will truly agree with such a silly anti-musical sentiment in |
| theory. |
| |
| The Art of Self Defense is to High On Fire as Fatal Portrait was to King |
| Diamond. Despite breaking clean there are still traces of the old presence |
| before the cocoon fully hatches. But shit, last time I checked, we all |
| liked Sleep, right? |
\_____________________________________________________________________________/
ixxu!imp