Paranoia, doom and aggression from High on Fire
High on Fire front man Matt Pike’s massive vocal heft is the Oakland trio’s weapon of mass destruction.
He’ll unfurl whiskeyed howls from great heights one moment and then drop into a guttural bellow the next. Together with drummer Des Kensel and bassist Jeff Matz, Pike is the fiercest force in Bay Area metal.
The band recently released another red-eyed batch of sonic aggression with “Luminiferous,” a frenzied, tightly wound record that careens between speed metal, doom and hardcore punk powered by Pike’s lyrical (and apparently, very real) paranoia about how hopeless the world has become.