Band:	High On Fire
Album:	Death Is This Communion
Style:	Sludge metal, Stoner metal
Release date:	September 18, 2007
Guest review by:	Doc G.

01. Fury Whip
02. Waste Of Tiamat
03. Death Is This Communion
04. Khanrad's Wall
05. Turk
06. Headhunter
07. Rumors Of War
08. DII
09. Cyclopian Scape
10. Ethereal
11. Return To NOD

High On Fire have a distinct, unique sound that can be mistaken for no other band. This album is proof that this band is expanding that sound to make it yet even more unique.

So let me start with a description for those who are unfamiliar with the band. Picture a sound of heavy-as-hell droning, add some soaring leads on top, add in vocals that sound like a tortured Lemmy Kilmister, and as a bonus (which is a fairly new improvement made by this band) add in some folky-type sounding instruments every now and then. This is some very powerful music to say the least.

Ok, so now that the praise is over, let me get down to the album itself. The album opens up with "Fury Whip," a short yet somewhat overused type build-up intro, then breaking into a thunderous middle-eastern influenced riffage. The entire album is filled with this great middle-eastern sounding guitar work. Sure, the chugging rhythms build up a tank-like heaviness, but frankly the heart of this heaviness comes from the drums, who would've thought? Unique drum sounds are usually a hard thing to find in rock or metal, but Des Kensel creates an off-the-wall tribal sound which not only adds to the music, but makes the sound complete. As previously stated, there is a more folkish atmosphere added to this album than in there previous efforts, but at the same time they are careful not to add it in too heavily, so as not to have a cliché folk metal sound that is steadily becoming overused, and not to alienate the previous fan base.

On the flip side, this album can get tiring. There definitely is a droning aspect that falls in between the leads and choruses that makes it hard to tell certain songs apart at times. In comparison to previous albums this repetitive droning happens a lot less, which will be sure to give anyone who dislikes this band a reason to take another look. If you can tolerate a bit of raw, sludgy droning every now and then you'll have no problem with this album.

I truly believe High On Fire have found there sound with this album. All instruments seem to fit together amazingly, as if every second of recording they took into account every instrument, rather than having drums and bass revolve around the guitar work as so many bands do.

I normally end my reviews with: "highly recommended for those into _____" but frankly this band is difficult to classify, lets leave it at "raw heavy metal"?for lack of a better title.