If there's one thing you can count on with High on Fire, it's riffs. And sure enough, the Pacific Northwest trio are back to blasting your hair back with Cometh the Storm, their first amp-annihilating full-length release since 2018's Grammy-winning Electric Messiah.
While on the surface it's business as usual — and a loud business, at that — quite a lot has changed for the act over the past six years. First off, co-founding drum force Des Kensel exited the group in 2019, leaving High on Fire without a full-time drummer for a couple years. But then vocalist-guitarist Matt Pike and bassist Jeff Matz remembered one of the hardest hitters in their contact list: Coady Willis, the Big Business skinsman and sometimes Melvins member with who the musicians had bonded at various points in their respective musical histories. When they found out he was available, they immediately rammed through some High on Fire classics together — but in a brand-new way.
"Des is a very unique drummer, totally one of a kind," Matz explains of the switch-over, while praising both percussionists' beast-mode performance style. "[Coady's] not trying to reproduce Des' parts verbatim. He really brought his own unique style and flair to the band's existing catalogue, and did his own thing with it. He's an amazing drummer and we're really fortunate to have him on board."
Where that took High on Fire next was a mix of heavy-as-hell jam sessions with Willis, while Matz also combed through the stoniest unused riffs in he and Pike's shared Google Drive of ideas. The bassist banked a few riffs on Cometh the Storm's opening "Lambsbread" on his phone, Beavis and Butthead-style; he also took Bağlama lessons to infuse that same bludgeoning brutalizer with the traditional folk-stringing of a Turkish bazaar.
While energized by the new tunes and lineup, there were tough times, too. The pandemic was still happening. Pike went "broke." And the guitarist adds that the political climate — specifically the threat of nuclear war, he notes — was only getting "crazier" each passing day.
It brought Pike into a deep depression, but between the new record's anthemic, believe-in-yourself-styled "Hunting Shadows," his recent illustration work and some green-thumbed rituals, he and his High on Fire bandmates are pushing through in the face of the storm.
Six years is, obviously, a long stretch of time between albums. Are you two riff collectors, or was this a tightly crafted batch of songs you made with Coady?
JEFF MATZ A little bit of both, actually. We have what we refer to as the Riff Vault, which is like a Google Drive folder that contains everything that we've collected over the years that hasn't been used in a song yet. It's fallen on me to become the riff librarian. [Laughs] We had a decent amount of material in the bank, after the last album [Electric Messiah], but a lot of the riffs on the new album were written fresh, as a result of jam sessions with Coady.
What's the oldest thing from the Google Drive that's on this record?
MATZ Maybe "Lambsbread?" That chorus and bridge riffs I've had around since probably 2010 — I was actually jamming that with another group of guys that I was playing with in Oakland at the time. And I think the riff for the B section of "The Beating."… That's kind of a hardcore riff that Matt has had around for a long time, too — probably just after Snakes for the Divine was recorded. So, that was another one that's been that's been lurkin' in the shadows for a while.
You know sometimes we'll write stuff that it'll be a really good piece of music, but we won't know how to utilize it at the time. We have a hard time finding a home for it. Sometimes things need to marinate for a few years before they find their place.
How did Coady get involved with this record?
MATZ I've known Coady since 2000, when I was playing in Zeke and he was in Murder City Devils. We used to play shows together quite a bit. Actually, Coady and I did our first European tour together — Zeke and Murder City Devils shared a bus.
I actually ended up playing a few shows with Murder City on that tour. Their bass player, Derek [Fudesco], jumped up at a show in Glasgow and knocked himself unconscious off a rafter, and then came down and snapped his ankle. It was bad! He ended up having to leave the tour. I played a few shows with those guys on that tour, just helping them out. So, that was actually the first time that I got to play with Coady. He's been a friend for ages.
He's an absolute monster of a musician. And then you know, High on Fire obviously has history with the Melvins. We were on tour together in 2011, when Coady and Jared [Warren, Big Business bassist] were playing in the band. We [experienced] two earthquakes together [on that tour], which was pretty rattling.
And now Coady's quaking for you guys.
MATZ That's right, yes. Much to our benefit.
You mentioned "Lambsbread" at the top. It's a song that references a green goddess, red-eyed rituals and the wisdom of the Green Man's daughter. This record also happens to comes out the day before 4/20. What can you tell us about the connection, there?
MATT PIKE Well, I correlated it to the mythology of the Green Man, which is [in the] Celtic folk realm. I did that on [De Vermis Mysteriis'] "Fertile Green," too, and I thought I'd continue with that.
With the lyrics about Poseidon, the Elders, and the stoner… I basically used Poseidon as the ritualistic god of the bong, you know? I'm breaking down the ritual of smoking weed and buying, if from your dealer, who would be the Elder. Your friend is the stoner. It just reminded me of childhood shit and ditching school. So, all those lyrics are metaphors for smoking weed, ritualistically. [Laughs]
What else are you covering on this record, thematically? Or to put it another way, what exactly is the coming storm?
PIKE The storm is people running around talking about nuclear war like its normal. No one wins that war, dude! That shouldn't even be an option, [but] we have nukes so that we don't have nuclear war… that's a weird conundrum that I've never understood.
I mean, I suppose being a world leader you should consider that's [nuclear war is a] possibility, but it shouldn't be an option [in terms of] getting what you want, you know?
Somewhat on that point, "Hunting Shadows" has you singing about "politics and fools" and the "priests of folly." Where are you coming from on this one?
PIKE It's actually coming from me looking in the mirror and grabbing inner strength from myself to not be influenced by others around me or what's on TV. And [it's about] finding the spiritual center that all beings need to have.
What's weird is, I thought I was singing the song to someone else [originally], but I ate a bag of 'shrooms and started crying because I realized that I was singing to myself. I was pointing fingers somewhere else, and then pointed them at myself. I was like, "Oh my god… this song is about me."
What did you teach yourself, through that process?
PIKE I think I just found a renewed hope and strength in myself, to get through doing this album. Everybody goes through some bad times, and I was in a bad place. I was very broke, and I'm ADHD. Because [my body doesn't] make dopamine or serotonin, I have a proclivity towards having chemical and alcohol dependencies. And you know, no matter how much you say you're sober forever, once you're an alcoholic, you're always an alcoholic. That's always going to be there.
So ["Hunting Shadows"] was me gathering my strength to step back into my spiritual zone. And to get out of how bad the world is… and how much it makes you want die, sometimes. It was me pulling myself out of depression.
How are you dealing with the depression right now?
PIKE I'm doing great! I've been painting and illustrating a lot. I'm not half as good as my amazing friends that are [visual artists], but it's a kind of therapy.
As much as I love music, it's still my job. Sometimes taking yourself out of your "job" and doing [something] you don't do normally is a good way of [practicing] therapy. I have to stay busy. If I'm not busy, that's when I fuck up. I've been trying to keep myself busy with 80 different things. I'm equipped to do that. That's what ADHD is!
Jeff, where are you standing with your own experience with High on Fire at the moment?
MATZ I feel great about it. Coming out of these difficult years — some of the rough roads that we've experienced since the last album — we had our share of obstacles. But now that we are on the eve of releasing this, I feel really great about it. I feel really good about having Coady in the mix. I feel like the three of us have a really great chemistry, and I we made a pretty monstrous album this time around.
Last year you two caught up with Revolver to perform and dish on some of the heaviest riffs in the High on Fire catalogue. Is anything getting knocked off that list by what's on Cometh the Storm?
MATZ It's so hard to choose, you know? That was difficult for us to narrow down list of our favorite riffs when we did that interview. I think that there are some definite contenders on the new album, though. I think the chorus riff for the title track is brutally crushing.
This interview has been edited and condensed for flow and clarity.
