Words such as ‘legendary’ and ‘trailblazing’ are banded around all too often nowadays. With their actual meaning beginning to lose all substance and power. However, when you talk about a band with the kind of pedigree and originality of HIGH ON FIRE, then you’re not too far off the mark using the aforementioned adjectives. Since the formation of the group twenty-five years ago they have taken the metal world by storm, carving out their own niche with their sludge-drenched, thrash metal sound. They have no peers. Nobody sounds like them. And when it was announced that they would be laying down Cometh The Storm, their first studio album in more than six years the metal community at large paid attention.
It’s been a strange few years since the band dropped their previous studio effort Electric Messiah. An album for which the lead single won the band an unexpected (but well deserved) Grammy win for Best Metal Performance. The band’s long-time drummer Des Kensel amicably parted ways with the band, and after a brief stint with touring member Chris Maggio, the band would welcome their new full-time drummer Coady Willis to the fold. This time would also see bassist Jeff Matz join MUTOID MAN and further embellish his passion for middle eastern instruments and guitarist/frontman Matt Pike would release his debut solo album under the moniker PIKE VS. THE AUTOMATON. Also, despite us all being bored of the constant reminders, there was also a world-halting pandemic that put pay to any touring music for more than two years.
With the members of the band having their fingers in so many proverbial pies, one would expect that it could be difficult to allocate riffs and song ideas to particular projects. However, Matz quickly shoots down that theory and explains, “it’s actually pretty obvious when we get writing when riffs or concepts are for HIGH ON FIRE. We have been playing together for so long and the style is so distinctive that we just know what works and what doesn’t.”
“Quite often for my own stuff I use different tunings, that offsets the sound quite dramatically,” adds Pike. (since the inception of the band, they have pretty much exclusively used the C Standard tuning). Close your eyes at any point of this album and listen to the thunderous instrumentals and you can see the boys beating the life out of their instruments with a wall of Orange amplifiers behind them and utter destruction in front, and the fact remains true. The sound of a High On Fire song is as unmistakable and inimitable.
It’s a well-known, well documented fact that Matt Pike is a riff lord. Conjuring up multiple sections per song that any other guitarist would sell their soul to come up with just once. This means that by the time the lads got together to craft their latest album there was never any danger of a shortage of ideas. “By the time we got into the studio we had most of the skeletons for the songs. We always leave plenty of space for creativity, but the main carcass of the songs was down by the time we got into recording,” explains Matz. “The songs that don’t make it onto our albums get locked up in the riff vault. There are hours and hours of riffs and ideas that we like to look back on and rehash at a later date,” tells Pike. “The riff vault is a very, very scary place to go,” laughs Matz.
What makes the recording of the albums even easier for HIGH ON FIRE is the working relationship that they have forged with the production monolith that is Kurt Ballou. A recognised legend and sonic pioneer in his own right with his band CONVERGE and his impressive production/mixing discography, the man has been the unofficial fourth member of the group since the first time they worked together on De Vermis Mysteriis more than twelve years and four albums ago. “At this point he’s a very integral part of the band at this stage. He’s an actual producer, not just an engineer,” explains Pike. “He let’s us cook, but he is always forthcoming with suggestions and little tweaks that help to make this album the thing that it is,” adds Matz.
Another big change to the recording process for this album was the studio debut of new drummer Coady Willis. There was always going to be a question of whether or not the new stickman could fill the gargantuan shoes left by Kensel. However, the lads explain that this worry was never really on their mind once they watch their new bandmate rip. “He has brought a whole new element to the way we play. Des was an absolute monster, but Coady has brought such energy and enthusiasm to the band,” says Pike. “It has been strange though, because there are certain little nuances that he has brought to the older songs that took a little getting used to. We wanted him to bring his own style in, rather than just play like for like and it has meant that we have had to almost re-learn certain parts of twenty-year-old songs which has been a lot of fun!”
Another new addition to the HIGH ON FIRE machine is Pike’s new signature guitar produced by Woodrite. The guitar manufacturer only came to fruition back in 2021 when Woodbine Customs Guitar Shop joined forces with Steve Reis of the Does It Doom? Podcast with the ambition to create guitars and effects pedals specifically aimed at guitarists playing doom, sludge, or stoner metal. “They approached me a little while ago and asked me if I would like to work with them with my own signature model and to help out with their promos etc and I jumped at the chance. They’re fucking beautiful guitars and sound great, I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out,” explains Pike. The Woodrite is now in full rotation in the band’s touring arsenal along with the usual Gibson Les Pauls and the classic Seger custom.
It seems like a really exciting time for HIGH ON FIRE who have picked up exactly where they left off with the astounding Electric Messiah more than half a decade ago with the monstrous Cometh The Storm and with a full calendar of headline tours both domestically and internationally, as well as a full summer of festivals in the pipeline it seems as though these metal titans have no plans to slow down any time soon. And when they are delivering music of this kind of quality time and time again, then why would they!?
Cometh The Storm is out now via MNRK Heavy.
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