HIGH ON FIRE – Frontman Comments On New Album

“In the story, Jesus Christ has a twin [named Liao], and his twin died so that Jesus Christ could live. But his twin instantly becomes a time traveler. Now, you can only go forward through time, but he comes across a scroll that was taken from ancient Stygia—and this is where I go into Robert E. Howard. Stygia was a land of black magic and witchcraft. The Vanirs, a race of warlords came and killed all the Stygians and burned all the scrolls, but some of the scrolls were smuggled out.”

“In ancient China, Liao found a scroll that’s about how to make black lotus into a serum, which allows you to travel back through time and look at the past through your ancestor’s eyes. Now, Liao puts his name on the serum and he goes on a quest to find why his brother is this religious icon in the future that’s caused all this destruction and massive war.”

HIGH ON FIRE will release its new studio album De Vermis Mysteriis on April 3 via eOne Music. Recorded in Salem, Massachusetts’ GodCity studios with producer and Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou, the 10 song effort — touted as “direct, eye-opening and powerfully supernatural” — is the band’s sixth studio recording and the follow up to 2010′s Snakes for the Divine which debuted at #62 on the Billboard Top 200 and has been called “wonderful” by The New York Times and “an exhilarating rush” by The Chicago Tribune.

De Vermis Mysteriis (or “Mysteries of the Worm”) takes its title from a fictional grimoire created by Psycho author Robert Bloch and incorporated by H. P. Lovecraft into the lore of the Cthulhu Mythos (Lovecraft mentioned De Vermis Mysteriis as one of the books that “repeat the most hellish secrets learnt by early man”). The album carries a deeply mystical undercurrent, incorporating fantastical themes and lyrics detailing, among other things, time travel, a serum called liao that is made out of a black lotus and “a Jesus twin who can see the past through his ancestors’ eyes.” And that’s just scratching the surface!

Musically, De Vermis Mysteriis is absolutely explosive, showcasing the California power trio’s thundering roar and expanded harmonic and rhythmic palettes while the songs move confidently through multiple riffs and movements. High On Fire construct tough, burly stoner metal that is at once devastatingly epic and mercilessly metallic as superstar guitarist Matt Pike’s sizzling ax and avenging-angel riffs fuse with Des Kensel’s double-kick-drum onslaught and Jeff Matz’s concrete crushing, Burton-esque bass guitar. Over the course of forty-five minutes, High On Fire have created an amalgamation of fantastical lyrical ideas and brute force musicianship anchored in an endlessly captivating, punkishly frantic sound. Simply put, the band generates awesome on demand and has a virtual chokehold on monolithic-sounding, masterfully crafted epic music. High On Fire is a savage bull in the china shop of modern metal.

When asked for comment on De Vermis Mysteriis, Pike somewhat cryptically replied, “Prepare for your dark journey.”

The track listing for High On Fire’s De Vermis Mysteriis is as follows:

1. Serums of Liao
2. Bloody Knuckles
3. Fertile Green
4. Madness of an Architect
5. Interlude
6. Spiritual Rites
7. King of Days
8. De Vermis Mysteriis
9. Romulus and Remus
10. Warhorn

Source: The PRP

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