High On Fire

As the Sleep adventure ended in 1998, his guitarist Matt Pike (chant/guitar) decided to set up a new band whose sound will integrate the Thrash influences of his youth. Again based in San Francisco, High On Fire, like Sleep, takes the form of a trio of which Des Kensel will be the drummer, and George Rice the bassist. After a first demo, the band released its first album in 2000 at 12th Records , The Art Of Self Defense , subsequently republished by Tee Pee Records with two bonus tracks. A little later, the Extreme Label Relapse noticed High On Fire and rushed to sign them. This led to the second album Surrounded By Thieves in 2002, which allowed them to turn massively until George Rice decided to leave the ship. The time has come to put a third opus on the track, and that's why Matt Pike is recruiting a figure from the American alternative scene, Joe Preston (ex- Melvins, Sunn O's collaborator)) on the Whites, Thrones. The recording can therefore be performed and Blessed Black Wings was born in 2005. It's a marathon that is then committed to High On Fire, and Relapse will feed the promo as it should with the release, limited to two thousand copies, of Live From The Contamination Festival. This frantic rhythm will be right for Joe Preston's motivation on the start, but he will eventually be replaced by Jeff Matz (Zeke) on the remainder of the 2006 tour. However its status remains to be determined to date, since it is still unknown whether it has become a permanent member or not of High On Fire. But at the announcement of the release of the fourth album in September 2007, entitled Death Is The Communion , Matt Pike states that the bass player is an integral part of the combo. The trio followed the regular releases: Snakes For The Divine (2010), De Vermis Mysteryiis (2012), Luminiferous (2015) and Electric Messiah (2018).