UMUR Snakes for the Divine is the 5th full-length studio album by American stoner/ doom/ thrash metal act High on Fire. The album was released in February 2010 through E1 Music. There are 8 tracks on the original album and a 9th bonus track on some versions ( the vinyl version and some CD versions), but there´s a version available with 3 additional bonus tracks too, so look out which version you get a hold of. There´s a limited vinyl version of the album available too. The lineup that recorded Death Is This Communion (2007) is intact, so we have Matt Pike on lead vocals and guitar, Des Kensel on drums and backing vocals and Jeff Matz on bass and backing vocals.

The music on Snakes for the Divine is a combination of doom, stoner and thrash metal and as such not much has changed since Death Is This Communion. If you enjoyed that album I´m pretty sure you´ll enjoy Snakes for the Divine too. That doesn´t mean that there has been zero development in the 3 years between the two albums as it seems High on Fire keep raising the bar with each album. The quality of the songs just gets better and better IMO. Which also means that they have become more and more memorable with each album release. We´re not talking about a band who reinvents the wheel or try to make things more complicated than they are. In fact High on Fire do the opposite. They play harsh and filthy doom´n´roll with enough bad attitude to roll over an elephant. Just take a listen to the strong title track that opens the album or the energetic Ghost Neck. Matt Pike´s vocals are as caustic and biting as ever albeit with a bit more melodic sense than usual. The riffs are catchy and groovy yet heavy and doomy and occasionally thrashy. A really powerful combination.

The production is excellent. Very powerful and while it´s not as filthy and noisy as the sound on some of the earlier efforts it´s much more professional and really brings out the best in the music. The sound is still raw though so don´t expect a polished lifeless production.

Snakes for the Divine is another excellent album by High on Fire. There´s something extremely charming about their brand of filthy and wild doom/ stoner metal that just makes me so happy that I´m alive to hear it. A deserved 4 star rating.