HIGH ON FIRE — The Art Of Self Defense (review)

HIGH ON FIRE — The Art Of Self Defense album cover Album · 2000 · Stoner Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
The Art of Self Defense is the debut full-length studio album by American Stoner/ doom metal act High on Fire. Former Sleep guitarist Matt Pike formed High on Fire after Sleep disbanded in 1998. Here Matt Pike handles both the guitar and the lead vocal duties. George Rice plays the bass while the drums are played by Des Kensel.

The music on the album is deeply Black Sabbath influenced stoner/ doom metal. I wasn´t expecting much because bands that wear their influences that much on their sleeve usually end up sounding like empty clones. That´s certainly not the case with High on Fire though. There´s so much filthy rock´n´roll attitude and fierce energy on this album that I just can´t get enough. This album has been in almost constant rotation since I got it. The music is mostly slow- to midpaced but with lots of groove and rythm to keep it interesting. Matt Pike is a great vocalist. Think a more angry sounding Lemmy. The music is guitar riff driven and there are some great riffs on this album. The power trio format works really well for the band and while there are some solo overdubs when Matt Pike plays his guitar solos, I can vividly imagine the music on this album being directly transfered to a live environment and maybe even sounding better than on album. While all songs are above average and some are even excellent ( take a listen to 10,000 Years and get blown away), monotony does set in from time to time which is almost inevitable in music like this. It´s not a big problem like it is on other stoner/ doom metal releases I´ve listened to though.

The production is raw and even noisy at times, but it suits the filthy rock´n´roll attitude perfectly.

Fans of the legendary Black Sabbath debut album should invest their money here. Not because The Art of Self Defense is a clone of that album, but because there´s a similar wild and dark attitude and loads of heavy stoner/ doomy riffing on this album just as there are on Black Sabbath (1970). Of course that also means that this is not the most original material in the world and I´ll take away a half star from my rating because of that, but this is still an extremely enjoyable album that I can highly recommend.
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