High On Fire review

High On Fire
Double Door, Chicago
Saturday, February 11, 2006

It was fitting High On Fire vocalist/guitarist Matt Pike opened his band’s set by informing the tightly packed crowd, “We’re just going straight through, so don’t expect a lot of motivational speech.” After all, the trio (rounded out by drummer Des Kensel and bassist Joe Preston) aren’t a flashy bunch. Pike milled about the club unnoticed during the opening bands, and when it was time for HOF’s set, it was plug in, smoke a cig, take a few gulps of beer, and away they go. No stage props, no goofy outfits, no pretentious intro music — only a Blessed Black Wings (the band’s most recent record) backdrop and a dumptruck load of unforgiving metal.

High On Fire pulled out songs from all three of their full-lengths, but it was material from Blessed Black Wings that defined the night and showed how they have managed to win the praise of even the staunchest anti-metal critics. The album’s title track opened with a Slayer-esque riff before giving way to an onslaught of Pike power chords. With his gnarled riffs and rapid-shot solos, Pike was the show’s obvious attraction, but Preston and Kensel are the motor in his chainsaw and provided the death-march rhythm that made “The Face Of Oblivion” so ominous.

Pike’s garbled yowls were rarely distinguishable, but because they aren’t on most of the band’s recorded material either, it didn’t matter. It was the sheer force, the primal strength he used to deliver those words that gave “Cometh Down Hessian” its fire-breathing ferocity. By midset a shirtless Pike was dripping sweat and blowing snot rockets all over the stage, but the music didn’t suffer from the same fatigue. Like being tied to a railroad track and feeling the slight vibration in the steel long before seeing the first puffs of smoke, “To Cross The Bridge” was lethargic death in song form. Its slothful, deliberate attack and hazy howls were a nod to Pike’s past with stoner metal titans Sleep. But speedy thrashcapades like set-closer “Devilution” showed Pike is, thankfully, more than comfortable raising the ante with High On Fire.

Due to a voice-crippling bout of strep throat dealt to The Bronx frontman Matt Caughthran, Chicago was one of a handful of shows his band were forced to miss on this tour, pushing Big Business into the direct support slot. Metal without guitar is like the Bible without Jesus, and some audience members were surely skeptical as bassist/frontman Jarred Warren and drummer Coady Willis launched into “O.G.” But damn if two guys can’t make a shitload of noise. Warren’s (ex-Karp) bass on “White Pizazz” and “Off Broadway” was just as distorted as any guitar and his bellowing vocal delivery also helped fill space in Business’ Sabbath/Melvins-influenced material. The star of a Big Business live show, though, is Willis (ex-Murder City Devils) who was a blurry flash of arms and drumsticks throughout the group’s brief set.

— Trevor Fisher

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly