Oh PR wire, just when I think I’m out, you pull me back in. Here’s the latest news on High on Fire‘s new album:

World-renowned power trio High on Fire has completed work on its long-awaited, fifth studio album and follow-up to 2007’s Death is this Communion. Titled Snakes for the Divine, the record will drop on February 23, 2010 via E1 Music.

Recorded at The Pass Studios in Los Angeles with producer Greg Fidelman, Snakes for the Divine is High on Fire’s magnum opus, capturing every nuance of the legendary band’s ongoing musical progression and evolution into one of heavy music’s all time greats. Sharper, faster and darker than anything the group has ever recorded, Snakes for the Divine is an unrelenting tour de force, showcasing cult guitar hero Matt Pike’s utterly unique and inventive musicianship and the band’s epic, thundering sound. From the moment the leviathan-like title track explodes to kick off the album, it is immediately evident that High on Fire is determined to push modern heavy metal into new and uncharted realms.

The track listing for High on Fire’s Snakes for the Divine is as follows:

1.) Snakes for the Divine
2.) Frost Hammer
3.) Bastard Samurai
4.) Ghost Neck
5.) Fire, Flood and Plague
6.) How Dark We Pray
7.) Holy Flames of the Fire Spitter
8.) Mystery of Helm

Snakes for the Divine’s album artwork will be brought to life by longtime High on Fire cover artist Arik Moonhawk Roper.

“Stay” was the first single from Swiss hard rockers Toad in 1971. The band formed after splitting with the psychedelic group Brainticket and just gradually got heavier as time went on. This shit rules. They only ever put out three albums — Toad, Tomorrow Blue and Dreams (and someday I’ll own all of them) — but that doesn’t stop any of it from being awesome. Hey man, not everyone could have Blue Cheer‘s tour schedule. Anyway, hope you dig it.

After their stellar A Love of Shared Disasters release on Invada, my interest in Crippled Black Phoenix‘s 200 Tons of Bad Luck was immediate. It may be a collection of tracks culled from the double-disc offering, The Resurrectionists/Night Raider, but as a single-disc album, it works completely, from the breathtaking opener “Burnt Reynolds,” down through the rest of the psychedelic darkened folk or whatever the hell you want to call it. I’ve returned to it more than I even thought I would, and considering I was still digging into the last one when I bought this, that’s saying something.

I never reviewed it, which is kind of a bummer, because it would have been fun to go through track by track and talk about the wide swath of musical ground covered in these 12 tracks, but for the purposes of this year-end list, I’ll just say that Crippled Black Phoenix are one of few bands out there who can execute a heaviness in their songs without actually being heavy. Despite having something like 47 members in the band at any given time, the sound still evokes a crushing, desolate feel that’s more prevalent in “Crossing the Bar” and “Whissendine” than in any number of death metal albums I heard this year.

The only bummer about 200 Tons of Bad Luck (aside from the music itself, which is kind of depressing, but in a good way) is there’s so much more material on The Resurrectionists/Night Raider I haven’t heard yet. The Invada UK store has it for £16, which I’m pretty sure works out to $180, so I’ll have to start saving my pennies. In the meantime, there’s plenty of dreary minimalism here to accompany me through the bleak winter months ahead.

I just popped on Different Realities, the latest and fourth full-length from Swedish analog experimentalists Siena Root (on Transubstans, if you’re curious), and not only does it rock a good deal, but the concept of the record is pretty cool as well. There are 10 tracks total, but it’s two pieces of music under the headings “We” and “The Road to Agartha.” “We” is exceptionally well done retro ’70s vibes, guitar rock, intricate and a cool listen. I knew that, I’d heard either a promo of the record or some mp3s a while back, I can’t remember which.

It’s only after I got the physical album itself — do you see, downloaders, what you could be missing? — that the full dichotomy of the release made itself known. From previous listens, I just thought it was an album that started (relatively) straightforward and morphed into a huge India-style jam. Turns out not only is that on purpose, it’s the whole point. About “The Road to Agartha,” the band writes:

“The Road to Agartha” is a musical piece in the form of a raagmala. The raags, being the melodic framework of Hundustani classical music, are here presented together with both sha’abi and baladi rythms (sic) from Northern Africa. Also, the classic rock setting is in dialogue with traditional and medieval instruments from the very same places where people throughout history have been looking for entrances to Agartha. This is not only a meeting of cultures, but also a journey through time and space.

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When it comes to doom in Austin, Texas, most people will point you in the direction of either the commercially successful haircut metal of The Sword or the hipster arthouse sludge of The Roller. Well, Mala Suerte have been around longer than either of them and when it comes to pure doom execution, absolutely smoke both bands. The Austin four-piece are a mainstay at the SXSW music festival, which is how I stumbled on them a few years back, and I’ve been a fan ever since. I even bought the t-shirt. So, you know, impartiality: fuck it.

The Shadow Tradition (out through a label called Illwill, which one assumes is not the same as that owned by the rapper Nas) is listed as their first full-length, though the compilation of their Non-Serviam demo and the track “Self-Deprecation and Loathing” from their split with Coffins hit 35 minutes, and if it weren’t for the added 20 minutes of the closing title track, The Shadow Tradition would be about the same length. That’s not to discount the closer at all, I’m just trying to make a line between the two releases. “The Shadow Tradition” is a doom epic in every sense of the phrase.

Those seeking a comparison point for Mala Suerte need look no further than Cathedral at their doomiest. In both the occult subject matter and in the vocals of Gary Rosas, there’s a clear Lee Dorrian influence, but Rosas has a gruffer, shouting delivery and the music he sings over holds a masterful middle pace. Drummer John Petri is able to keep guitarist David Guerrero and bassist Mike Reed in line at a rate that’s slow compared to most of what passes for doom these days, but rarely falling into something so slow as the funereal. Of course, tempo changes come and go, but there’s always enough movement in the songs for The Shadow Tradition to keep an undercurrent of rock and groove, which works greatly to the album’s advantage.

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The only real surprise about Wino‘s Punctuated Equilibrium (Southern Lord) being on this list is that it’s not in the top five, top three, or top one. Being the nerd I am for the work of guitarist/vocalist Scott “Wino” Weinrich, even I expected a higher showing from this first “solo” album. Weinrich, along with Clutch drummer Jean-Paul Gaster and Rezin‘s Jon Blank (since deceased) on bass, crafted a rock album that was both emotionally gripping and full of the kind of mind-boggling guitar work the cult of Wino has come to expect.

Songs ranged from the fast and aggressive title track to the sunnier “Smiling Road” and the doomier “Eyes of the Flesh,” always maintaining the natural flow that Weinrich has brought to the songwriting in bands like Spirit Caravan and The Hidden Hand. As a vehicle for him to shine, in Wino, he did.

So what’s the deal? Why isn’t Punctuated Equilibrium higher on the list? Well, if this was some feigned effort at impartiality — that is, if I was going to do a would-be definitive list; inevitably a work of bullshit — it probably would be higher. As it is, though, Weinrich appeared on another album this year that I wound up listening to more than this one (we’ll get there, don’t worry). It has nothing to do with the value of either record, just the way it happened, and it would be dishonest of me to act according to anything else.

In the end, although I feel a little guilty about its placement, the fact that Punctuated Equilibrium came out on Jan. 20 and is still up front in my consciousness as regards rating albums should say something about the lasting quality of the work. This is one that, after I’ve put other albums away over the course of their novelty having worn off, I’ll go back to. True to his character and track record, Wino proved once more why he’s earned so many followers over the course of his decades in this genre.

Despite the differences in locale, both Empires and Hellas Mounds share more in common than one might think. Both young bands, the former from Minneapolis and the latter from Phoenix, play a definitively American style of post-metal, taking elements from the heavier works of Isis and adding a sense of hardcore immediacy that comes across in the intensity of the material. With two songs from Empires and one from Hellas Mounds, this unnamed split CD (released last year via Saw Her Ghost Records) hits the marks for post-metal in its current developmental stage. There are pieces culled from outside genres, heavy/ambient switches, and rising and falling tension throughout.

Empires start their segment of the split with “Unease from up North.” If it sounds like a black metal parody track, it might be, but since three out of the four players in Empires are also involved with Minneapolis black metal outfit Manetheren, the execution of the track comes off less tongue-in-cheek than it otherwise might. At 6:55, it is the shortest song on the split, and puts its blackened influence to work offsetting post-metal rhythms in a manner similar to Prosthetic Records’ Withered, if rawer. Their 10:16 “Perpetual Downpour” is less of a genre bender, but boasts an insistent rhythm line and enough spacey guitar work to make it an interesting listen.

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As over the course of this decade San Francisco has become a hotbed of neo-artsy metal, it’s not surprising that the aughts should end with a release like the Profound Lore debut from the trio Worm Ouroboros. It’s been called chamber metal because of its classical influences and operatic vocals, but over these nine mostly extended tracks there are a wide variety of styles and sounds, mostly mellow in execution, but periodically picking up into a post-doom heaviness that’s notable in its grace and flow.

Profound Lore followers will recognize bassist/vocalist Lorraine Rath (also responsible for the album artwork) from Amber Asylum, and joined in Worm Ouroboros by guitarist/vocalist Jessica Way and drummer Justin Green (both World Eater), Rath shines in both her principle roles. Perhaps it’s because of the relative minimalism of what’s happening on the record, but with a song like “Goldeneye,” her bass and Way’s guitar offset each other with a jazzy perfection, feedback toward the end acting as a subdued alarm, while Green adds cymbal accents. This is a chemistry that plays out for most of Worm Ouroboros, across material more straightforward like “Falling Moon” or more ambient like “Brittle Heart.”

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