What's going on with High on Fire?

"king of days" too

i've listened to these so much that there isn't a track that hasn't been a favorite tbh

still caning these guys lol.

i even got into luminiferous though it's obviously not quite as great as some of the others.

Some friends of mine are making a stink about Matt Pike coming off a conspiracy-minded crank here:

https://thequietus.com/articles/31016-matt-pike-interview

Which he is! But I was expecting much, much worse, unless I missed something major, which is possible, because he is so cranky I kind of skimmed.

Not really surprised either, hasn't he been going on about David Icke and lizard people for decades now?

I definitely remember Pike mentioning Icke in an interview I read years ago. The only musician I've ever had bring the reptoids up to me in an interview was Wino, who's now an anti-vax crank, so.

From what I've read in interviews with Pike and from my one, extremely drunken on his part, conversation with the guy, he seems more to just be into the lizard people conspiracy thing from a "this is batshit sci-fi fodder for kick-ass metal songs", I haven't gotten the sense that it's too engrained but I could be wrong.

I picked up an Icke book from a charity shop last year thinking I'd find out what his thing was. It's still sitting in a pile unread beside he toilet.
THought it be some interest. I dunno.

Like seeing how glaring the holes were or something

Oh there was definitely a time in my life I would have checked one of his books out from sheer curiosity, had I been aware enough to care.

Doing some googling, yeah, it's def. a weird purgatory of repurposing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a lizard people parable drawn from life, but the lizards are not, Icke insists, not Jews, just all powerful Zionists who *happen* to be actual, real space lizards.

I dunno, I didn't waste any more time on him. Pike, it's hard to tell what's up with Pike, though if you told me he believed or believed in literally anything it wouldn't come as a shock. Iirc the dude is even anti-earplug.

No interest in defending the guy, especially if there's more questionable beliefs of his I haven't stumbled across before, but he always struck me more as the old fashioned aliens and Illuminati corner bar type conspiracy theorist than the more dangerous, anti-vax, Q adjacent always online modern type conspiracy theorist.

Very contrarian "I would never belong to any club that would have me as a member" vibe.

he seems more to just be into the lizard people conspiracy thing from a "this is batshit sci-fi fodder for kick-ass metal songs", I haven't gotten the sense that it's too engrained but I could be wrong.

The line between aliens and Illuminati and Q has gotten thinner over time - the kooks were never quite as harmlessly goofy as we wanted to believe.

I think they were slightly more harmless before they were able to congregate online and stoke each others batshit.

a friend posted about this interview on FB with the "anarchist libertarian" bit, and I was like, "uh, I wonder if he's still in Oakland?" and then I skimmed the interview and lol of course he moved to Portland

Matt Pike seems like the sort of dude who lives wherever he wakes up. Did you see that thing about his amputated toe?

No surprise, the new song is pretty rad, but cliche or not it concerns me a little that Pike would name the album and song "Cometh the Storm." Given his predilections, he's the last guy I'd want talking about a coming storm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVr9AU9gMfo

They're in my city tonight for the first time since 2015, ten minutes from my house.

Can't sit still waiting for this

I ve loved them every time I ve seen them. But it’s kind of a weird tour, no? I wanna go to the Chicago show, but it’s in Northwest Indiana. Jersey City instead of New York, Cleveland Heights instead of Cleveland. Just seems like odd choices.

Very disappointing show.

It wasn't bad. A solid B plus.

But the sound in the venue sucked so fucking bad. Performances were fine but I've seen this band raze the fucking ground and tonight it was ....muted

Bummer to hear that, they've rocked all the other times I've seen them. Yeah, I hope they come back to play Chicago again soon because the Indiana thing is a festival for 3 Floyd's Dark Lord Day (which is actually where I last saw them play and ran into Matt earlier in the day), so I doubt it would be the same length as a headlining show elsewhere.

The album is fucking incredible though, I love it.

I've every much warmed to it, and the material went over well live.

apparently their last show in Tampa also had sound issues last year too, I'm beginning to wonder wtf is up.

Ugh, I certainly hope they get that figured out, but even more glad I'm not trekking over to Indiana to deal with the beer crowds to see their likely abbreviated set if that's an ongoing issue for them on the tour.

Sounds like a front-of-house issue more than a band issue. I doubt they travel with their own soundman. Very few bands below, say, Slipknot level do.

Being that ours was the tour opener and was in a venue that doesn't usually host bands that big, hoping it was a one off. Fingers crossed.

Abd it was still a good show...I just know they're capable of more

Xpost yeah agree

The drummer ripped out his in ears on only the second song

3 Floyds has done quite a few shows with metal bands.

Yeah, annually they have their Dark Lord Day beer release that has grown into a big daylong festival. As part of that they’ve typically had a metal stage, this year it’s High On Fire, Abbath and a few other bands. It’s fun, I’ve been in the past, but it’s also hard to do unless you manage to get a group going or don’t plan to drink, since there’s no public transportation to get there.

It is good beer. Robert the Bruce is the stuff.

really enjoying the new one. so far "burning down" and "tough guy" are favs. that shaker-ride breakdown on "burning down". i love it when they do the slow monster funk grooves a la "tough guy". pikes vocals a new level of unhinged on this one, sounds like he's trying a few new things. "cometh the storm" is very impressive. i like them in fast thrash / hardcore mode but feel like they've had better moments in that vein. this probably doesn't reach the highs of "vermiis" for me but it certainly isn't a let down.

i heard that pike quit drinking? glad to hear it.

My fav since Snakes. Hope there's more Turkish stylings coming!