Few bands today do heavy metal like High of Fire. The California trio’s molten brand of boulder-hurling, stoner-metal rawk is truly something to behold, a monolithic, earth-shaking roar capable of sending their panty-waisted, so-called hard rock competitors scurrying under the bed like frightened puppies in thunderstorm. And next month Hudson Valley headbangers who live for such punishing sounds will be in high heaven—or perhaps holy hell—when the group lays waste to the Chance Theater’s Loft.
Assembled from the ashes of singer-guitarist Matt Pike’s previous outfit, Sleep, in 1998, High on Fire blasted out of their home city of Oakland with 2000’s exalted The Art of Self-Defense (Man’s Ruin Records). The band has since unleashed six studio albums of wailing, doom-laden riffage, the standouts being 2002’s Surrounded by Thieves and 2005’s Blessed Black Wings (both Relapse Records), the latter recorded by underground rock studio maven Steve Albini. Presently, the group is touring on the three-volume series Spitting Fire Live (Entertainment One Music/Century Media).
Grandma, put your earplugs in—here’s a video for “Rumors of War,” from 2007’s Death is the Communion (Relapse):
High on Fire will perform with Mountain of Wizard, Geezer, and Rooms of Ruin at the Loft (Chance Theater) on January 13 at 6:30pm. Tickets are $12. For more information, call (845) 471-1966 or visit http://www.thechancetheater.com/.
This article appears in December 2014.
