Oakland, California stoner- rock band High On Fire’s last album “Snakes For The Divine” was released pretty much exactly a year ago
Oakland, California stoner- rock band High On Fire’s last album Snakes For The Divine was released pretty much exactly a year ago, and wound up on many stoner-rock fans top 10 albums of the year for 2010. And deservedly so; it’s a blistering collection of mega-heavy southern rock/metal tunes, and is arguably the most complete work of their 13 year, five album career. Guitarist, vocalist and main-man Matt Pike is still very much in love with the piece of art they created.
“Well shit, I still love the work we did on it,” he enthuses in his heavy Californian drawl. “I love everything about the latest one. It’s been like this for a while, it’s like ‘how are we gonna top the last one?’ So far I think we’re a band that’s been heading in the right direction and not the wrong.”
It the right way to be headed, sure, and it something that didn’t go unnoticed here. “Yeah,” he states, when informed that many Aussie rock/metal fans rated the album so highly, “for a fact, Aussies love their metal!” he chuckles.
High On Fire are yet another heavy band that is descending on our shores very shortly for the overwhelmingly massive Soundwave festival, that will be assaulting our senses across the country in late February and early March. And like virtually every other act involved, Matt and his band are stoked to be included and can’t wait to get out here for it. “I’m ecstatic,” he gushes, “some of the people we’re playing with… I’m just going to have a good time. I’m sure it will be overwhelming with thousands of people and shit, but sometimes that can be fun. I think I’ve sat on my ass enough for the last month or so, so it’ll be good to go to a far off land for something huge like this.”
And despite their lengthy existence, this will only be High On Fire’s second trip Down Under. “We did a bunch of shows with Lamb of God, Devildriver and Shadows Fall. I think it was 2009 or something, not that long ago,” muses Matt. “But that’s it. So this will be our second time over. The first time was a good exposure, we didn’t do too many shows, but we did enough to kinda put us on the map a little bit. So hopefully it’ll go over as well as the last time we were there.”
This being the case, Matt is still somewhat uncertain as to what to expect from Aussie audiences this time around, but firmly believes that their no-nonsense ‘realness’ will be something that Australian crowds will connect with and respond to on the Soundwave tour. “Well obviously we’re hoping that Aussie audiences accept up and love us,” he says, “we’re kind of a blue collar, working people’s band. So hopefully a lot of people dig on where we come from. Oakland, California, is a pretty hard, industrial town, and hopefully people who are from the same sort of places can relate to us.”
In return, Soundwave crowds can expect a blistering, in-your-face set from these masters of stoner rock, but with a bit of a difference: “Just very heavy and aggressive music,” Matt describes their show as, “with a bit of a clever twist to it. And a lot of energy. It’s gonna be four o’clock in the afternoon, so there’s not gonna be some laser light show. They can just expect some fuckin’ rock and metal going on.”
Beyond the Soundwave tour, the band have a number of dates across Japan, which will probably form the end of their current album/tour cycle, and Matt and the band plan to waste very little time in getting back in to write and record the next titanic High On Fire opus. Doubt remains as to whether they will be able to better Snakes For The Divine however.
“Yeah, exactly, that’s the plan, man,” Matt agrees emphatically, “I want to get some new material under our belts, and get another one out there. This one’s going to be hard to top though. This was really fuckin’ technical and good, and really aggressive. It’s hard to do that every single time, but somehow we keep being able to pull it off.
“We kind of write (for the new album) on the road, but not really together,” he states. “It’s a little harder ‘cos you don’t have band practice every day. You get like a 20 minute sound check, or half hour sound check, and you can kind of fuck around, but you can’t sort of sit there and put pieces together like you want to.”
High On Fire have kept up a pretty dizzying schedule of album releases for a decade now, with an album being released virtually every two years since 2000’s The Art Of Self Defence, but Matt is quite confident they can keep this up for a few more years at least. That is, if a certain Mayan Prophecy doesn’t come true…
“As long as 2012 doesn’t kill us!” Matt quips. “I think I’ve been watching too much of the history channel! No, I think this next album will be really, really good. And I’ll always be sure to come back to Australia. That place is great.
“I can’t wait to come there and meet you guys again,” he concludes, “and hopefully we’re entertaining!”
Of that, there can be little doubt.
HIGH ON FIRE play the SOUNDWAVE festival at The Melbourne Showground on Friday March 4 – along with Iron Maiden, Slayer, Rob Zonbie, Stone Sour, Murderdolls and heaps more – it’s sold out. They also play a SIDEWAVE at The Espy Gershwin Room on Wednesday March 2, however, with Trash Talk, Protest The Hero and Kylesa – tickets from moshtix.com.au. Snakes For The Divine is out now through E1/Shock.
