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Knights of the Round Table (l - r): George Rice, Des Kensel, Matt Pike. High On Fire Not Your Parents' Heavy Metal By Kathleen Richards For headbangers who have long suffered from the depleted source of heavy metal since the glory days of Metallica's Master Of Puppets, the East Bay trio High On Fire come as a head-rushing blast of much-needed air. Formed by Sleep-founder Matt Pike, High On Fire produce a smoldering combination of colossal riffs, psychedelic mind-numbing guitar-playing, gruff and guttural vocals, and an unrelenting rhythm from drummer Des Kensel and bassist George Rice that gives it a decidedly groovy edge. Their debut, The Art of Self Defense released last year on the now-defunct SF label Man's Ruin, was described as "devastating" by California Music Journal and earned a perfect rating from Alternative Press. Now signed to the Pennsylvania-based Relapse Records, High On Fire is prepping to record a new collection of heavier-than-heavy songs. While appreciating HOF's music was easy, interviewing them was another story. After exchanging several phone calls and emails, I finally met the band one evening at a friend's house in Oakland, where they were each occupying a couch in a candle-lit room, drinking various forms of alcohol. My questions were most often diverted by their internal banter including a plethora of inside jokes and teasing. Several times, singer Matt Pike offered me a swig from the bottle of Jack Daniels he was cradling (which I politely declined). They even tried to convince me to include an ad in my article for a van they were trying to sell. For as heavy as their music is, the members of High On Fire don't take themselves too seriously, choosing to avoid over-analyzing their music, and are seemingly uncomfortable with the notion of self-promotion. All three members were noticeably more at-ease and willing to talk after I turned the tape recorder off and Pike picked it up and uttered some lyric about snail slime, at which the rest of the room erupted in laughter. At times I didn't know when to take them seriously or when to chock it up to a bunch of sloshed metal dudes. Nevertheless, the following is an excerpt from the aforementioned chaos: UV: So tell me how High On Fire came to be. MP: Should I answer this? GR: It was your big, bad idea. MP: Yeah, my big bad idea (laughs). All right. All three of us had formally gotten out of bands and I set out to put a band together. I had known George for a long time and met Des through a friend. We just got things together, members came in, booted members out, and after that, got some tunes down and set up a show. UV: What was your idea for this band? MP: I wanted to do something even heavier than Sleep. That's what was in my mind. I wanted to be heavier, just non-stop getting heavier. UV: Who are your influences? MP: Sabbath, Slayer, ZZ Top, Celtic Frost, it's endless. And progressive music. Lovecraft. UV: Tell me about the imagery in your lyrics. MP: The last album was weird religious theology -- Illuminati, Knights Of the Templar theme I was shooting for. This [record] is more fantasy, like weird parables that mean something else but sound like some sort of battle. But they have an underlying point. UV: What do you think that imagery adds to your music? MP: Makes it heavier. I would hope that would be the effect. UV: What's the new album going to sound like? MP: It's gonna be heavier and a little faster than the last album. We're coming together as musicians a little more nowadays. We have a different formula for writing songs and stuff. DK: The songs aren't gonna be ten and a half minutes long, the songs are shorter with a quicker tempo and not just power chords the whole time. UV: What are your hopes for the future? MP: I wanna take it as far as we can and be as heavy as we can. I sort of admire the career of Metallica during their first three albums. Slayer went for a long time with no radio play but kicked enough ass for people to care. DK: Tour our ass off, put out three good records, and end up with a slot for Ozzy. Nowadays, heavy bands can do well without radio play. I don't think we really need it. We're not gonna write songs to get 'em on the radio. We're gonna write songs we like and just put out good records and tour. MP: Get as big as you can without selling out. It's a hard thing to do. UV: Is there a community of bands that play this type of music in the East Bay? MP: To a degree. There's a lot of punk rock bands or heavy bands, but I wouldn't say we're like many other bands around here. There's a bunch of people who like heavy music and stuff but it's not a very big scene. UV: Do you think it's because of the lack of venue? MP: A lot of it is probably lack of venue. DK: Too many bars with cheap beers. MP: And Oakland's like a giant pharmacy so I'm sure that contributes to it too (laughs). Kathleen Richards is a writer for Gavin magazine and can be seen wandering the streets of Berkeley in her spare time. [ East Bay | Metroactive | Archives ]