High Priest’s Stoner Rock Is Fully Alive on ‘Consecration’

High Priest is a band out of Chicago that make a pretty good argument to never doubt what heavy metal can do. The band is comprised of several members of Like Rats, the band getting an inherited pedigree from its other projects. But even ignoring all that, High Priest have made a compact and effective EP with Consecration. In under a year as a band, the group has locked into a sound many groups struggle to find in several years as a band, a kind of stoner rock (guess they're not High Priest for nothing) reminiscent of the likes of Black Sabbath and Electric Wizard, all the while retaining their own identity. Songs like "Void" weave in droned vocals with long, heavy guitars in a perfect harmony. Effects and solos appear in the song in unexpected but not unwelcome ways. When an album sounds trippy enough to make you want to blaze in your basement, as well as knock into people at a show, you've got a pretty good project on your hands.