Review: High Priest ‘Invocation’
Hailing from the same city that gave the world the legendary American doom band Trouble, Chicago’s High Priest have unveiled their debut album, Invocation, to the world. The press mentions the band’s affinity for doom, metal in general, melodic vocals, and bringing some optimism and hope to the music they’re crafting, in which, who am I to argue? We could all use some more optimism in our lives. Trouble also, at least initially, projected an optimism that was borderline spiritual, and High Priest seem to be taking this approach as well, except minus the groundbreaking riffs and sound of their legendary local forefathers.
Invocation, while possessing some heavy riffs, is about as heavy and ‘doom’ as ‘90s Tony Martin-era Black Sabbath, which bordered on hard rock more than metal. Invocation opens with the title track, which exemplifies the ‘90s Sabbath description perfectly. Plodding rhythms, from vocalist/bassist Justin Valentino and drummer Dan Polak amidst epic, soaring, melodic vocals, with lyrics that I would describe as ‘spiritual’, and some quasi-heavy riffage from guitarists Pete Grossmann and John Regan. The track picks up the pace and gets a little rowdier heading towards the outro, with a decent burst of energy that actually had me checking the tracklist to see if we had moved onto another song. The second track Divinity has some decent riff-chug, and some cool stop-start action, but the soaring vocals about ‘feeling alive’ didn’t leave me feeling very doomy, despite some decent shred.
And thus, that’s pretty much where Invocation takes the listener. Ceremony teases some heaviness with a colossal main riff, but when the vocals come in, any sense of pending doom or menace is evaporated. Cosmic Key follows a similar path, with a decent enough main riff that loses any venom with the melodic soaring vocals, to say nothing of the body of the song which again, flows like a kind-of-heavy, ‘90s alt-metal track. Down In The Dark, despite its ominous title, is practically uplifting with the uber-melodic vocals, and the fact High Priest has now, three tracks in a row, utilized the exact same plodding tempo. Make it four, as Universe, although possessing a tough-enough main riff, quickly dissipates into another uplifting, borderline-spiritual vocal approach at pretty much the same tempo but without any dynamism.
Conjure is probably the heaviest track, and here, Valentino finally adds just a little more bite to his vocals, especially in the song’s massive chorus. High Priest take off the reins and throw down with some banging, doom-ish ripping on the outro that will have the listener bobbing their heads. Also, Polak’s drums sound massive here, his performance and tone are a highlight. Conjure, is to my ears, the most compelling track on the album. Closer, Heaven is far and away my least favorite track. More plodding tempos, more stock riffing, and soaring, praise-be-to-god vocals extolling the virtues of ‘heaven’ which left this grizzled, old-school, stoner rock, and doom metal worshipping reviewer shaking his head.
Plodding rhythms, from vocalist/bassist Justin Valentino and drummer Dan Polak amidst epic, soaring, melodic vocals…
High Priest mention Alice In Chains in their press, citing the famous harmonized vocals of Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell as an influence. The difference is AIC were fucking dark, and there was an edge to their delivery, and High Priest possess none of this. There’s nothing dangerous about any of the songs on Invocation, to say nothing of the vocals. Don’t get me wrong, Valentino can most certainly sing, no doubt about that, there’s just no urgency, or edge to their delivery, and it has me thinking soft, alt-metal, as opposed to the harrowing, doom of Alice In Chains.
If I’m being honest, I wanted to savage Invocation initially. However, I listened to it a ton, both at work, and on headphones, trying to find something that spoke to me. As always, music is subjective, and a record I may not like, the next reviewer will praise as a best-of-the-year candidate, and I’ve seen a lot of admiration thrown High Priest’s way as I was researching them for this review. Also, playing an instrument and being in a band is not easy, so any group of musicians that can write and perform an entire album worth of material deserves praise for accomplishing that in itself as I’ve certainly never done it.
However, for me, I just could not get into this band and album, and I most certainly gave this record a fair shake. It reminded me too much of ‘90s hard rock, the aforementioned Tony Martin-era of Sabbath, and I would say that I didn’t experience anything ‘doom’ as I know the genre. As well, I really wasn’t into the borderline-Christian lyrics, as that’s just not something that speaks to me in any way. However, that’s just my sonic experience with Invocation as I’m sure there will be many more people who will dig this release.
Label: Magnetic Eye Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
Scribed by: Martin Williams
