The Art of Self Defense

Those of us who know about High on Fire know that Matt Pike originally played in Sleep. We also know that High on Fire would go on to dominate the sound of fast, aggressive stoner metal, combining the speed and grit of Motörhead and various thrash bands with the riffing and density of the stoner sound Pike helped to pioneer. In the early days of High on Fire, their sound was basically a more aggressive version of Sleep. Everything sounds similar, just a bit angrier. The riffs are a bit faster, the tuning is darker and lower, and Matt Pike's vocals are sung in a similar style to Al Cisneros with just a bit more grit. High on Fire delivers some extremely heavy and punchy stoner sludge right out of the gate on The Art of Self Defense and the songs hold up well, it’s just that High on Fire had yet to establish their identity and crank the barbarity into overdrive like they would later on.

The whole album follows a pattern of very murky, churning riffs that would not be all that unfamiliar to anyone who's paid much attention to stoner metal and certainly worth stomping along to. "Baghdad" sets the tone with how it sways and shoves with its weight. The riffs curl around quite a bit and make for some very mighty sounds. Stomping, aggressive, curling, and fuzz-drenched is how The Art of Self Defense feels all the way through. If you like your music consistent, you'll probably like this. If I can put a positive spin on this, it's that these riffs are certainly infectious and do a lot to give this album its strength. The songs are long, but they can trudge in a way that makes you want to go along with the crushing, mid-paced gallop of thick guitars. If I could point out the negatives, I'd say that all the similarity without a massive uptick or downswing in aggression or variance in song structure makes me feel tired when listening all the way through. Matt's singing also feels too subdued for this kind of stuff. Perhaps that's just me fixating on the future High on Fire, but I like this stuff more when Matt is bellowing like a demon, rather than sounding relaxed enough to get overwhelmed by his own avalanche-like guitar playing. While I will always enjoy the mighty riffs of "10,000 Years", I can't help but feel that this kind of music needs more of a kick to really work. This is nice, but it's nothing I'd break my back over.

High on Fire came up like a plume from Sleep's smoldering body. The signature groovy and lethargic style of Sleep is still here, perfect for any listeners looking to enjoy a bit of ganja. However, this means that at this point in their career, High on Fire had to change, mature, and find its own skin if they wanted to succeed. The Art of Self Defense is an example of what High on Fire sounded like before they could shake off the connection to Sleep and created their later ball-blasting style of high-speed stoner metal. There's a lot of good riffing on here, and some smoky muscle to the music, but what I get is an album that's more aggressive than Sleep, but gets the balance between new anger and old lethargy in a very middling position. More menace and more speed could give something like this a real kick. An increase in variation is also a good idea. What I got was okay, but it felt undercooked, even if the songs themselves were nice, thick, and smoky like any good barbecue should be. Anyone who loved Kyuss or Sleep and wants something like that, but just a bit meaner, The Art of Self Defense is probably a good addition to your listening regimen.

From the crumpled remains of an hour plus long doom/stoner masterstroke crawls Matt Pike. A love child of Tony Iommi and Lemmy Kilmister with no tolerance for hip-hop sensibilities, mall grooves, or memorable guitar solos, but he plays them anyway because only solos are real.

There are still some Sleepisms to be found on this album not only because of its doom grooves, but it contains an average bpm much slower than most other High On Fire albums. They were not quite the Frank Frazetta fueled thrash/sludge/heavy fucking metal beast that gave us Devilution, Rumors of War, and Hung, Drawn & Quartered just yet. Which also ties into wunderkind Des Kensel's drumming as well. He's still brilliant as ever, but if you're expecting the multi-tom avalanche trademark, that's not quite there here either. We get a "what's that 500 miles out" peek of this around the second half of Master of Fists, if anything speed is not quite the name of the game here, but neither is doom. No-one is going to be confusing this for a Trouble or Candlemass album anytime soon (not that there would be anything wrong with that). I'm actually having trouble coming up with moments on this album that are harbingers of what's to come (buried somewhere on Fireface or Last maybe?).

But if it's songs you want, High On Fire were in no way rough around the edges with that regard, right out of the gate. One might argue they set too high of a standard for themselves with the atom cleaving Blood From Zion. Unfortunately, this wasn't the #1 rock song in the country because it gives no fucks about nookies, Iowa, wounds, issues, davidians or butterflies. It cares about riffs, nightmarishly possessed vocal lines, and reminding everyone that having your opinion be damned, if you don't worship the Priest, the Sabbath and the Motorhead you'll sleep with the fishes. Being "the one guy that didn't like" is NOT FUCKING TOLERATED HERE. This is METAL. It also shows how not to groove like a half-wit monkey. This has at least 2 or 3 separate slow rhythms that will break your neck and yes, bob your body to and fro. But shit, that's what classical songwriting was before Robb Flynn and his closet Sully Erna type ruined everything.

The Iron Maiden mannerisms of epic songwriting come more in form rather than in strict substance, although you could certainly argue Sabbath mastered it before they did. Master of Fists, 10,000 Years definitely deliver the epic, but more in the form of jams rather than multiple rhythms and sections expertly stitched together. Maybe 30 seconds too long in the case of the latter as on rather rotten days I have found myself snapped out of the trance by the notion that the song is still going on. It's a rather difficult task to pull off if you aren't Randy Rhoads in terms of leads. Matt Pike, god bless him, is not Randy Rhoads, playing his solos as a mean of stubborn, punk rock principle. Very likely the only time I will truly agree with such a silly anti-musical sentiment in theory.

The Art of Self Defense is to High On Fire as Fatal Portrait was to King Diamond. Despite breaking clean there are still traces of the old presence before the cocoon fully hatches. But shit, last time I checked, we all liked Sleep, right?


Recommended songs:

Blood From Zion
Master of Fists

One of Sleep's notable alumni, Matt Pike took a turn for the heavier end of the spectrum following the demise of the stoner heroes in the late-90's to form High on Fire, the band who resemble a Black Sabbath and Motörhead love-child and consequently are about as pretty as a disfigured troll. The earliest result of this partnership is 2000's "The Art of Self Defense", now being reissued on Southern Lord and a fine start to their consistently strong discography.

Naturally the stamp of Sleep remains at large within the 8 songs of "The Art..." from minor guitar licks to the whole song structures but Pike's gravelly vocals and the funkier bass-led charge bring the aforementioned two gods to the table in a blisteringly groovy fashion. Built less upon Sleep's holy mountain of drugs than a slagheap of riffs (and some weed), "Blood of Zion" and "Baghdad" offer a true audial punch in the face, with each drum beat seemingly accompanied by a terrible rumble from the fuzzed out bass of George Rice. "10,000 Years" opens with his work before Pike's guitar leads the song into a leaden weight stoner doom haze, the lead riffs of which I'm a little surprised haven't caused any tectonic disruption on the notorious San Andreas fault in their native California.

Following through into "Last" you will start to see the influence of High on Fire on Mastodon (who reputedly formed upon meeting at a HoF show) - the ceaseless bassy grooves of Pike and Rice ploughing away atop the ADHD drumming of Des Kensel, whose tendency to maximise the number of fills in each song is more than a little similar to Mastodon's mighty Brann Dailor. "Fireface" feels like a Sleep relic and by the conclusion of it's 8 minutes of battering riffs is likely to make you require one, before last song from the original album, "Master of Fists" (see what I said about their knack of writing bad-ass song titles in "Snakes for the Divine") is pure stoner heaviness and massively influential on the more recent likes of Black Pyramid to plough the stoner/doom furrow.

"Steel Shoe", which was included on a 2001 re-release, is a much faster and more direct tune recalling the old vibe of Motörhead, before 4 extra tracks of this rerelease - three rough and ready demo versions of "Blood from Zion", "10,000 Years" and "Master of Fists" which demonstrate the sweaty rehearsal feel that has always existed about High on Fire, and a particularly down-tuned version of Celtic Frost's classic "The Usurper" which is just as heavy as the original (no easy tasks all purists will understand) and no less resounding. This rerelease of "The Art of Self Defense" is not only a great excuse to dig out a highly under-rated album from a most under-rated band but also portrays how important the band have been to the development of metal since 2000.

Originally written for www.Rockfreaks.net

It seems like Señor Pike didn't waste too much time forming High On Fire and picking a new direction after the untimely dissolution of Sleep. You could tell though that his paws were still partially frozen in the Gnostic frosts of lumbering mammoths that personified his previous outfit. A friend once said to me "If Sleep was weed music, then High On Fire is whiskey and cocaine music", which I find to be pretty much true, especially later in the HOF catalog. The first album, however, was not able to achieve to such purity of form and in retrospect seems more akin that awkward and unforgettable feeling of doing a bunch of shitty, speedy blow, and then trying to "level yourself out" (at about four o'clock in the morning after all of your friends at the party have already passed out and/or gone home) with some handy ganja crumbs that happen to be lying around. You, of course, don't find yourself leveled off or chilled out by any means, but rather confused, staring red-eyed at the eastern horizon, waiting for dawn's cold kiss to usher you into another day.

So what of Sleep is still trailing behind here? Pike's unmistakable guitar tone and wild solos are in full effect. Lumbering heavy riffs are present and accounted for, but are slowly being outnumbered by a new kind of creature. In this phase of evolution, a faster, leaner, meaner form of predator appeared on the savanna. The Sleepiest vestigial remain is the epic, plodding 10,000 Years, an eight minute journey through the rise and fall of ancient pre-civilizations. Master Of Fists is another slow burner, clocking in at about ten minutes and heaving with the focus of an enraged Kung Fu master. The slovenly beasts are in danger of extinction at this point though, surrounded by more advanced killing machines. The unique HOF style is emerging and a big part of this is Des Kensal. Though too obsessed with Neanderthalic pounding to be considered "technical" at this point, he is very METAL, and he simply hammers away at the drums so relentlessly and so powerfully that the difference cannot be ignored.

HOF was developing a not-so-easily-described style that's way beyond their stoner rock contemporaries, like if you took the weird-heavy parts of Black Sabbath, some mid-period Celtic Frost, the stoniest dregs of death metal, the tribal hammering of contemporaries Neurosis, and frosted it all with the triumphant dignity of classic rock. All the weird counting and repetitive 6/8 beats filling up the album...I really can't quite figure out what inspired it, but it's fucking awesome. Blood From Zion, Fireface...where the fuck did this come from? Maybe just a unique combination of musicians who wanted to do something a little different. This is the real sound of High On Fire sprouting, a sound that they would fully realize and take to the next level on the second album, Surrounded By Thieves.

Those only familiar with the newer HoF releases will be somewhat surprised by this album; not much in the way of rollicking semi-thrash riffs here, less epicness, less overt metalness.

It's still a pretty cool album but closer to, say, a really noisy and riff heavy QoTSA/Kyuss than the Celtic Frost + Doom +Thrash that the band became later.The vocals are (relatively) melodic, less big guitar hero moments, it's all bassy and hazy and really stoner-y, and a lot of it's actually genuinely catchy. It's a bit too noisy for mainstream consumption but the vocal melodies and riffs of '10,000 years' coulda almost been some left-of-field big rock song, for sure; likewise 'Baghdad' is catchy as hell (and with a super awesome breakdown around the 3 minute mark).

It's not all easy listening, of course; the Celtic Frost cover crushes (and reminds you of just how much HoF are indebted to said band) and there's a lot of long, wandering noisy jams throughout the album. Steamrolling mid paced riffs in Fireface, the huge stoner epic that's Master of Fists (Bruce Lee tribute?). Lots of that sweet dual guitar noodling that Pike does so well, but lower in the mix than usual. In general I'd say that Pike and co. hadn't really nailed the sound of the band yet; it wouldn't surprise me if a few (or a lot) of these riffs were old Sleep leftovers that got sped up a bit and given a more aggressive production.

Yeah, this isn't bad, nice bassy mix, songs that vary from (relatively) short and catchy to long, fuzzy monoliths. Not the best thing ever but there's a lot of good moments; a decent and promising start for a band that would get a lot better.

High on Fire is Matt Pike's rebound band. They do NOT sound like a rebound band. They are concise, heavy, and aggressive, and the combination of all three adjectives and points, make High on Fire very different than Sleep. Sleep is heavy, but droning, HoF is not. In fact, they are one of the most engaging bands I've ever heard. Just listen to Baghdad. Despite being five minutes, it may seem only two minutes or a mere one and a half minutes. If that's what this album has to offer, than everyone should be all over it.

The guitars are hazy. Not in a bad way, but in a stoner/doom way. The riffs flow on top of one another, and it becomes a field of haze while you're watching a war going on. Picture looking over a cliff while two armies clash while hawks and vultures fly above waiting for the men to fall in battle, so that the hawks and vultures can have a hearty feast. That's what the guitars do. Such a vivid mental picture.

The bass is in there, maybe a little low, but the bass maestro Joe Preston does wonders for the sound. The doom wouldn't be there without the rumbling of the artillery and catapults that is the bass.

Drumming is slow, well put together, and very, very on spot. While a war is going on, you do need some support and that's what the drums do.

The vocals are sparse, but they can be heard as cries of dying men, cursing their enemy. It's funny how some lyrics can actually be more or less, about fighting, if not here, then HoF's next album.

Tracks for battle:

Baghdad
10,000 Years
Master of Fists

Tracks for crying in self-pity:
None

Bad things:
The bass can be brought up, and maybe the guitars shouldn't be so hazy, a little less, and we have perfecto.