High on Fire is a sludge metal group based out of Oakland, California, US. It was founded by the guitarist of Sleep, Matt Pike, and likewise features similar musical tones such as heavy use of drone, extreme distortion, lagging pace, and a mood reflective of stoner rock.
The band formed in 1998 and apart from Matt Pike it consisted of drummer Des Kensel and bassist George Rice. The members were strongly influenced by thrash artists like Slayer as well as doom metal bands such as Napalm Death, Obituary, Venom, and Black Sabbath. High on Fire took the mystical themes prevalent in Sleep’s music, but adapted them to a harsher and more heavy tonal style. The group released their studio debut album “The Art of Self Defense” in 2000 through Man’s Ruin Records. Southern Lords reissued the album in 2012 and included the Celtic Forest cover “The Usurper”.
The group’s sophomore album “Surrounded by Thieves” came out in 2002 through Relapse Records. Though their 1st album received high acclaim “Surrounded by Thieves” was considered a drastic improvement and is often recognized as one of the best metal albums of 2002. The song “Hung, Drawn and Quartered” was used to promote the LPs release and was included on a 7” split with Mastodon’s “March of the Fire Ants”. Bassist George Rice left the band after it’s release and was later replaced by ex-Melvin’s member Joe Preston.
Preston only appeared on the band’s 3rd album “Blessed Black Wings” before being replaced by Jeff Matz. Their 4th studio album hit the record stores in September 2007 and was declared a critical success upon release. Like its predecessor it featured lyrics inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and additionally referenced the works of David Icke and the Bible. The group toured extensively through 2007 and 2008 in support of this album and played alongside artists like Mono, Panthers, Opeth, Baroness, and Nachtmystium. By the end of 2008 High on Fire signed a recording contract with Kosh Records and in the fall of 2009 they embarked on yet another tour (this time with Mastodon, Dethlok, and Converge).
In early 2010 the band put out their 5th studio album “Snakes for the Divine”, which was produced by acclaimed sound engineer Greg Fidelman (Black Sabbath, Metallica, System of a Down etc...). This year also saw the band opening for Metallica for several of their shows in Europe. Their 6th studio album “De Vermis Mysteriis” came out on 3 April 2012. It is considered a time travel concept album and closely resembles the narrative of the TV show “Quantum Leap” though not intentionally.
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