Coming a long six years after Motörhead tribute Electric Messiah, Cometh the Storm (the band's ninth full-length) sees a band that is a little more reflective and experimental, even grown-up. The first line-up change in a while may have prompted this, long-term drummer Des Kendel being replaced by Coady Willis (Big Business, The Melvins) in 2019 but also relevant is that bassist Jeff Matz apparently started taking lessons in Turkish folk music around the same time and the results are intriguing. For sure, the band's typical storm und drang is present and correct from the start, opener Lambsbread kicking out the jams and ensuring necks are sore with crunching, powerful riffage. Yet around the three minute point it starts voyaging to Eastern lands with a real influence from Middle Eastern scales and maqams, as well as Turkish folk dance (according to those with more experience with that!) which blends in extraordinarily well with the usual sludgy aggression.

Although this is limited in effect and doom still carries the day (that intro to Burning Down, for instance, is foreboding and crushing in the best of ways) this is a High On Fire album that feels genuinely different and unique to those that came before. The addition of various subtle exotic-feeling additions like percussion here and there help keep things fresh and enhance the impact of the essential riffs. There's even an outright folk interlude in Karanlık Yol with guest Rich Doucette of Secret Chiefs 3 on dilruba! And even when simply pounding ahead like usual, such as the slow-burning and intense title track, the music is well-written enough to keep your attention peeled. The return to Motörhead-esque battery in the well-titled The Beating, a short and furious blast at just under two and a half minutes long, is especially welcome, as is the following energetic and exciting Tough Guy.

It's perhaps easy to criticise Cometh the Storm for not being the best High On Fire material to date, as others elsewhere online have done, and sure, this is, in fact, not their best album! Yet although not as instantaneously infectious, the songs here have a real staying power that sticks with you through many listens. Trismegistus, for instance, rocks along with blunt force reminiscent of Mastodon at their early peak, a hammer to the ears in a delightful way, while Sol's Golden Curse is a slower, proggier take on the sludge formula with some delicious lead guitar. Lightning Beard is actually amongst the band's finest material with its intense rumbling, and Darker Fleece brings all to a perfect close in an eight-minute exercise in controlled tension. All squealing guitars and backing howls initially, it soon turns to almost droning riffs and hypnotic rhythms, crafted wonderfully to crack those neck bones. Each and every track here has something to recommend it and the album rewards repeated listens like few others this year. You can hear why it's been so well-received; an eternally underrated band even in the mainstream, High On Fire prove themselves anew here.