Band:	High On Fire
Album:	Luminiferous
Style:	Sludge metal, Stoner metal
Release date:	June 23, 2015
A review by:	BitterCOld

01. The Black Plot
02. Carcosa
03. The Sunless Years
04. Slave The Hive
05. The Falconist
06. Dark Side Of The Compass
07. The Cave
08. Luminiferous
09. The Lethal Chamber

High On Fire are one of a few select bands in metal, or even in the music industry. Six albums out and none of them suck. Not too many bands you can say that about now, are there?

Luminiferous marks their seventh studio release and some highly flammable straw men might have been worried that they'd run out of ideas or Matt Pike's sobriety might fuck up their awesome dynamic?

Bitch, please.

From the opening strains of "The Black Plot" it is abundantly clear Matt Pike and the boys are back with balls of steel.

Luminiferous contains everything you'd expect from High On Fire. Jeff Matz and Des Kensel provide the metal framework of the band, a bass and battery backbone which makes The Terminator (Ahnuld version) seem a soft lad by comparison. Matt Pike shouts out conspiracy theory lyrics while he bashes and shreds the hell out of his guitar, following up crushing riff after crushing riff with chaotic soli.

You've got your rawkin fast barn burners like "The Black Plot", "Slave The Hive" and awesome, pounding, relentless the title track.

Of course you'll find lots of slower, more epic tracks like "Carcosa" and "The Sunless Years".

Hell, this even has some form of a ballad on it. "The Cave" ain't no "Nothing Else Matters", though. Still total HOF. Also early-Pink Floydian trippy build up gives way to a riff that pounds your ear hole like a Tsunami batters a shore line.

So it is another High On Fire album filled with typical High On Fire stuff. What's the big deal? Why bother? (Lols, silly questions.)

Like Bolt Thrower, The Ramones, Motörhead and more is they have developed their own way, their own sound, and paved their own path. They tinker and improve upon their formula over time.

What makes Luminiferous a great listen is the sound. They followed up their high water mark (my opinion) Death Is This Communion with two albums that suffered in the sound department. Snakes For The Divine had some great tracks (shout along? FROSTHAMMER!), but really oddball production. De Vermis Mysteriis was a solid album with no real stand out tracks and some dense production that might have been a bit off the chain.

Luminiferous sees the band cutting solid to great tracks with the best sound they've had since DITC. It is a sonic bar fight. You might take a bottle to the back of your favorite melon and a few punches to the gut, but you enjoy the carnage with a smile on your face.

So go, what are you waiting for?