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Band's Riffs Ignite Heavy Metal Fire

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By CURTIS ROSS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 31, 2008

It's midafternoon and High on Fire's Matt Pike is nursing a hangover.

"I had way too many shots last night," Pike says by telephone from a tour stop in Little Rock, Ark. "It really hit me over the head."

Intoxicants crop up regularly when Pike is the subject - after all, his previous band, Sleep, was most famous for a 63-minute riff-and-feedback extravaganza called "Dopesmoker."

Plus, he probably needs a little something after a set of the ferociously pummeling riffs for which High on Fire is known.

The trio - Pike on guitar and vocals, Des Kensel on drums and Jeff Matz on bass - are touring in support of last year's "Death Is This Communion."

Produced by Jack Endino (Green River, Nirvana, Soundgarden), the album features some of the band's most intricate songs and arrangements while still maintaining the bruising power of its previous work.

The band's 2004 album, "Blessed Black Wings," was produced by Steve Albini (Big Black, PJ Harvey). Both producers are known more for underground alternative rock than metal, a fact that made both more appealing to Pike.

"We're not a traditional metal band so we don't use a traditional metal producer," Pike says. "I'm more interested in someone who comes in and says, 'OK, how do I do this,' and has to come up with his own formula rather than the guy who did the last Pantera album or something."

Albini "did a good job of capturing what we do live" in the studio, Pike says. "He captures what you're doing but he doesn't really push you hard."

Endino, on the other hand, "is more like, 'You've got a better take in you.' He's pushing you and that's the beauty of it."

Endino is part of the reason "Death" sounds more layered and complex to Pike's ears. Another is the addition of Matz. The band has gone through a few bassists but Pike believes Matz may be here to stay.

"Jeff seems to be a permanent fixture," Pike says. "He's brought a lot to this band. He's severely talented. He can pick up any instrument and make it sound good. That's the dream guy to be working with. He's the John Paul Jones of the group."

Pike formed High on Fire following the breakup of Sleep, a band legendary in stoner-rock circles for its glacial pace and wall of sludge riffage.

High on Fire kept Sleep's brute force but applied it to more visceral songs, drawing from metal, punk and prog influences.

Pike became the new band's lead singer by default.

"I was trying to get someone else to do it but no one else could do it right," Pike says. "It took me a long time to get good enough to convey my ideas the right way."

He's gotten more comfortable with his voice, from the sound of it, since his vocals are higher in the mix on "Death" than on "Blessed Black Wings."

The next album, Pike hopes, will follow more closely than the three-year wait between "Blessed" and "Death."

"I've got six weeks off when I get home," Pike says. "When I buy the composition book, it's on. And I've bought the composition book!

"I'm starting to assemble pieces," Pike says. "It takes a good year to come up with every idea and know what budget you have. If I start now we'll be ready to record in a year, maybe less."

ON TOUR

High on Fire

WITH: A Life Once Lost, Saviours and Rwake

WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Crowbar, 1812 N. 17th St., Tampa; (813) 241-8600

COST: $12

Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568 or cross@tampatrib.com.

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