Release Date: November 26th 2021. Record Label: Argonauta Records. Format: DD/Vinyl
HIGH FIGHTER - Live at WDR Rockpalast - Tracklisting
1. Darkest Days - 03:44
2. When We Suffer -r04:17
3. Dead Gift - 03:53
4. Black Waters - 03:50
5. A Silver Heart - 04:56
6. Down To The Sky - 04:30
7. Before I Disappear - 05:27
8. Shine Equal Dark - 03:43
Review
Live AT WDR Rockpalast is the new live album Sludge/Stoner Metallers High Fighter and was filmed for the iconic and highly influential German Music Live TV Show WDR Rockpalast. As the title suggests, this is a complete live performance that High Fighter completed back in August 2020 and features eight of their best and well known tracks from their acclaimed back catalogue.
The one thing you can say about this live album is that it's brilliantly powerful from the start with High Fighter on dynamic form from one of my favourite songs from the band Darkest Days starting the set. Maybe ironic since the band performed during the COVID-19 Pandemic but it was always good hearing a band getting back to what they do best. High Fighter bring their bruising Blues based Sludge/Stoner Metal grooves on this track to get the party started. Mona’s vocals are on fire and proves why she’s become one my favourite vocalists over the last eight years or so.
High Fighter kick their way through a storming greatest hits set and that’s what this is. A thrilling Greatest Hits which shows everything great about the band. Sludge/Stoner Metal songs that have a Blues Rock based intensity to them but sometimes going over to the darker side of Sludge Metal when Mona SHRIEKS her way through the heavy growls on certain parts of the song.
The album does have a very cold industrial feel to it which gives it a modern day sound which elevates their overall vibe to an unsettling atmosphere that hasn’t been heard fully in their studio output. Maybe, High Fighter’s songs need to be heard on stage as each of them have a dominant personality of their own with Dead Gift, Black Waters, Down To The Sky and Before I Disappear being perhaps the best songs from this live set.
This live set was recorded without a live audience mainly due to strict COVID-19 conditions which Mona explains below:
"Live at WDR Rockpalast" was filmed in August 2020 at an industrial, breathtaking setting of the Landschaftspark Duisburg- Nord in Germany, it's been HIGH FIGHTER’s only show since the beginning of the pandemic; under strict Covid- rules and without a crowd, it was aired on national German TV. It was also the last show with our former guitarist & dear friend Christian "Shi" Pappas, who left the band a few months later. From now on HIGH FIGHTER continues as a four-piece and we are currently working on our third album, but we hope you enjoy this little live affair meanwhile ;)
High Fighter have delivered one of the best and most entertaining live albums I’ve heard in a long while. I do wish the album was on slightly longer but it never out stays its welcome and High Fighter leave you wanting more. With the band hard at work on Album No 3, Live At WDR Rockpalast will satisfy your cravings until then.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Mona at All Noir PR for the promo.
Live At WDR Rockpalast will be available to buy on DD/Vinyl via Argonauta Records from November 26th 2021.
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