Oh My God ! This is the best opening to an album i've heard in ages, Snakes for the Divine - Curtains up, its all here, the grand title, the magnificent fluting opening, the drums roll, the unpredictable stabs cut with fury, then the one time Sleep guitarist, Matt Pike's whisky soaked and smoked vocals kick in. Nothing much has changed here except everything, the songs are bigger, louder, longer, sharper, heavier and more furious than 4 years ago's Death is this Communion, and that just the first 120 seconds, there's still 6 and a half minutes of bliss still to come.
 
With barely time to catch your breath, Frost Hammer drops and oh boy does it drop, more like a 10 ton frost hammer, and another unpredictable highlight is the middle eight when the song vears off into this unexpected beautiful rock waltz for 2 minutes,then the song continues and ends as sharply as it began. The tempo slows slightly for Bastard Samurai, but its no less devastating and only serves to broaden H.O.F's sound. Up next is Ghost Neck and from then on to the finish line or should i say the brilliantly titled, Holy Flames of the Fire Spitter, its fire and brimstone all the way. With albums still to come this year from Down and Killing Joke, its gonna be tuff to touch this.
 
Its refreshing that a band of this nature have the courage of their convictions to follow their own fiery path and no doubt there are other bands on the planet that are doing this kind of thing but i can't imagine them doing it to this high (on fire) standard. Magical Stuff ! 
 
I was reading in a recent interview, Pike said he had 4 hours worth of material for this album, of which the producer trimmed it down to 40 or so minutes. lets hope its not another 4 long years till album No 6 hits. Album of the year, and its only February.