De Vermis Mysteriis  by  High On Fire
Released: 04/03/2012 |  Label: Entertainment One Music |  Rating: 9

Youtube has many functions. For watching endless wanky videos of kids doing stupid things that people somehow all over the world seem hooked on, or the wonderful "Fat people falling down" series that provides hours of entertainment, and the chance to add a legendary comment under a video that will be immortalized forever.

This week's contender is CaffeinatedSnorlax who, in response to Serums of Liao on De Vermis Mysteriis, simply wrote: THIS SONG IS THE REASON I AM ERECT 24/7.

Nuff said!

The 8th record (if you include Live From...) to drop from Matt Pike and cohorts find the band at a creative pinnacle. The gravity defying riffs, bastard-like drums, bludgeoned bass-lines are all there, along with the gruffest of gruff voices drowned in years of alcohol maturing and bong-loads.

De Vermis Mysteriis stands stoically put in the foundations laid and built on previously, but the band has almost been purified and shaken off the slight excesses of the past, and streamlined the machine to work more efficiently, and brutally. "Serums of Liao" and "Bloody Knuckles" open the album with their ferocious swaying call for blood, tracks like "Spiritual Rites" echo the ghosts of "Turk" from Death Is This Communion, yet manage to sound more like High On Fire, if that makes sense. "Madness of an Architect" is the closest H.O.F tread to Dopesmoker Sleep-era and its unquestionably one of the album's highlights. Samsara brings the whole barrage to a temporary (welcome) respite, drifting along with it's eastern promises and western delivery, De Vermis Mysteriis nods back to Waste of Tiamat but delivers in a much darker, furious spillage. "King of Days" will provide hours of air-drumming entertainment for metal heads at nachspiels for years to come, "Romulus and Remus" is sure to become a live favorite with its agonizingly restrained riff that carries so much weight the strings must feel burdened. "Warhorn" bursts in before dropping to allow Matt's voice to summon the strength for what follows with his grinding thorax as the stage fills with smoke ready to be dispelled by the ensuing chaos.

It's hard to see where High on Fire will go after this, but if they manage to top De Vermis Mysteriis, then fuck me.

About Baba Upanishama

Assembled along the banks of the Brahmaputra River, spun from incense smoke and coconut shells, Baba Upanishama gained notoriety in the 1970's with this movement "Baba Upanishama and the Children of Destiny". A cult which he lead throughout Europe teaching them the 7 ways to salvation. He retired from his Guru-dom last year and became a prolific writer who we wrangled from his various jaunts across the globe seeking the perfect beer.

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