The wait for High On Fire's first new album since Electric Messiah in 2018 is almost over! The band has reposted a photo of bassist Jeff Matz holding test presses of the new record, which means we are just so damn close to all those smoky stoner riffs destroying our ears.
"I just listened to the vinyl test press of the new High On Fire album, it sounds incredible and I can’t wait for you all to hear it," said Matz. "Kurt Ballou and Alan Douches really helped make this a sonically striking piece of work."
The new record will be High On Fire's first to feature drummer Coady Willis (Big Business, etc.), who replaced longtime drummer Des Kensel after his departure in 2019. As for how the new record will sound, frontman Matt Pike and Matz revealed in a 2023 interview with Loudwire that it'll be sure to please old-school fans… and fans of Turkish music!
"Well, it's definitely noticeable that Jeff's been playing a lot of Turkish music, which I was kind of enthralled with, but I never took up a study of it like Jeff has," said Pike. "But I can play along to it 'cause I understand it to a degree. And so that there's a lot of that thrown in there, which leads to, like I was saying, just some different types of drumming styles, which Coady's like a master at being creative.
"It's been real good just, kind of figuring out that and having that move us along and still keeping some of the same Black Sabbath mid-tempo blues riffs alongside of that I think compliment each other well.
Matz added: "Yeah, I think the way that the new material came together, as Matt mentioned, I've been studying Turkish folk music pretty intensely for the past few years and that's definitely sort of contributed to the stuff that I've brought to the table for the new album.
"But there's definitely a lot of classic High On Fire type material in there. You know, some stuff hearkening back to the first album as well, getting back to the slow heavy kind of bluesy roots which is super cool. You know, since the last couple albums have been a little bit on the faster side overall. So yeah, I think fans of the older material will will enjoy this new album."
