High on Fire

Hell at the Masquerade, Atlanta, GA

November14, 2019

High on Fire brought the tour for their Grammy winning Electric Messiah album to Atlanta Thursday, November 19. Creeping Death, Devil Driver, and Power Trip opened the show. In all fairness, I just couldn’t give Creeping Death and Devil Master enough attention to give them a thorough review. I generally look forward to seeing the opening acts, but I admit four bands on a school night is a bit much, especially when I still have a three hour drive back home from Atlanta and work early in the morning. My apologies to those bands. Power Trip I was looking forward to and gave them their own review.

High on Fire took the stage opening with “Blood from Zion” from their first album, The Art of Self Defense. The setlist included “Spewn from the Earth,” and “Steps of the Ziggurat” from their latest release, “Carcosa” off Luminerous, “Rumors of War” from Death is this Communion, “Fertile Green” from De Vermis Mysteriis, “Speedwolf” from Surrounded by Thieves, “Devilution” from Blessed Black Wings, and the title track from Snakes from the Divine, which is at least one song from each of their eight albums. Although fans were upset by the recent departure of founding drummer Des Kensel, they were able to keep that in perspective while Chris Maggio (formerly of Melvins and Big Business) held down the beat for Pike and bassist Jeff Matz.

Although High of Fire may have begun as Matt Pike’s follow up project to Sleep, he has developed an entirely different guitar style with this band. You can still hear the guitar similarities, especially in their early releases, but Pike was finding his way to a new guitar sound with a rhythm section that was far more uptempo than Sleep. It seems appropriate that a crossover hardcore/thrash band like Power Trip are opening for High on Fire as Mike Pike and company have morphed into something resembling a thrash band over the last few albums. Although they regularly have the stoner or doom metal labels lofted at them, they are not so easily categorized. Pike has found a way to maintain that density and heaviness of his tone with Sleep while still playing at high speeds. Not an easy accomplishment. That’s not to say that bands like Slayer or Metallica that tend to play fast don’t have heavy tones. Those bands had very heavy tones, and no one would doubt their aggressiveness, but speed has always required a sacrifice of thickness. When those heavy notes are allowed to ring out rather than being cut short by the rapid repetition of more notes, it creates a density that is just heavier to my ears. Slower just sounds heavier, and it’s the reason I’ve always gravitated toward bands like Black Sabbath, Melvins, Sleep, and Soundgarden. With High on Fire, Matt Pike is able to have the best of both worlds.

Unlike most thrash bands, Pike seems to prefer the power trio arrangement rather than dual guitars. Listening to High on Fire without seeing them first, one could be forgiven for assuming there were at last four members. Pike is able to drive the song forward with brutal riffs, hold down vocal duties, and still pull off amazing solos when appropriate. Although neither of his bands have been among the most popular of the last thirty years, his importance as a guitarist, songwriter, and lyricist have continuously grown in importance in the metal world. Not bad for a guy in his late forties.