High On Fire with Charger, Takaat and Bastardane at The Wayfarer – Costa Mesa, CA

“HIGH ON FIRE is the sludgy resin from 30 years of super-hard-rock history transubstantiated into three men from Oakland with low-slung jeans.“ – Ben Ratliff, New York Times: ROCK REVIEW; ‘Underground’ Means Digging for Pleasure”. October, 2002

Words written more than two decades ago to quantify a group that “played as if they invented hard rock” following a live performance at the former Northsix in Brooklyn, hold even more weight in hindsight.

Universally recognized as one of the most potent acts in music today, High on Fire creates dynamic metal that merges primal fury and aggression, hesher bombast and hall of fame heaviness. Described as “a supersonic exercise in conquest by volume,” High on Fire has rewritten the hard rock rule book since its formation in 1998, forging a style and sound that is both critically celebrated and unique. “I think this band’s always had a really good drive,” states vocalist/guitarist Matt Pike.

“We’re all just really ambitious. It’s definitely a specific type of person that is going to listen to a High on Fire record. I don’t think it’s meant for the whole of society to consume. It’s a little bit rough for the radio sort. It’s a different entity. It’s its own thing. Which, I think, makes all of us very proud to be a part of it. It’s not an average band.”

It has been more than five years since the band’s revered LP ,‘Electric Messiah’, earned High on Fire ‘Best Metal Performance’ at the 2018 GRAMMY Awards placing the unit among the ranks of groups such as Black Sabbath, Motorhead, and Metallica as winners of the prestigious award, presented by The Recording Academy to recognize achievements in the music industry. “Being nominated for a Grammy was pretty mind blowing, but winning one was truly surreal,” says bassist Jeff Matz.

“A Grammy win was certainly not something we were aiming for, but it’s quite an honor to be recognized in that way, and we are grateful. In terms of how it’s affected us, it has definitely opened some new doors—we’ve gained some new fans and wider recognition, but it hasn’t changed how we approach our craft. We’ve always tried to create uncompromising music that feels good to us, and is in line with what we would want to listen to.”

In the half decade since the band’s Grammy nod, the world has seismically shifted and is a different place. The same can be said for High on Fire. The band’s musical archetype has been modded, morphed, and evolved; its blast radius widened. Bassist Jeff Matz joined Mutoid Man and traveled abroad to study and learn the techniques of Middle Eastern folk music and the plucked string instrument, the bağlama (or saz), Matt Pike formed a solo band, released an LP , and toured the U.S., and world-renowned percussionist, Coady Willis, he of Melvins, Big Business, and Murder City Devils united with Pike and Matz to breathe new life into the group a quarter century into its captivating career.“Coady was definitely at the top of my wish list when we found ourselves looking for a drummer,” adds Matz. “We go way back.” Willis agrees. “I’ve known Jeff since his band, Zeke, took my band, The Murder City Devils, out for our first European tour ever. Big Business, my other band, when we first started touring, in 2003, we had like five CDs in our van that we listened to and one of those was High on Fire’s ‘Surrounded by Thieves’, so I’ve definitely been familiar with the material for a long time.”

In 2011, High on Fire and Melvins united for a tour that was marred by two devastating earthquakes, first in New Zealand, then in Japan; two unprecedented natural disasters in a 16-day span. The bands – cumulatively including Matz, Pike, and Willis– were in Christchurch, New Zealand at the time of the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake then in Tokyo, Japan at the time of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. “We’ve all known each other for a really long time,” Pike offers.“When the idea of Coady joining the band popped up, I said, ‘Dude, absolutely. It’s fuckin’ Coady Willis. Let’s get that goin’”.

The lead track on High on Fire’s new album,‘Cometh the Storm’, is the invigorating “Burning Down”, a vigorous barrage which exemplifies the prowess the unification of the three professional musicians owns. “Burning Down” kicks off with a classic Pike riff,” says Matz.“I think this song harkens back to the early High On Fire sound, but infused with fresh, new elements. It’s a lot of fun to jam on, and It has a killer groove that you can really sink into. The body of the song took shape in our PNW rehearsal space, and we came up with the bridge/solo section and finalized the arrangement while we were at GodCity. Kurt Ballou’s input as a producer was also hugely helpful. His keen ears and fresh perspective were invaluable in making this album.” “It’s interesting, whenever there’s a lineup change in a band,” states Ballou. “It can take a little while to rebuild. But it’s also an opportunity to reinvigorate the band and I think that’s what’s happened here.” It’s funny, Matt and I both honed in on ‘Cometh the Storm’ as a possible album title, individually at different times,” adds Matz. “I was listening to the demo recording that we had laid down and that line, “cometh the storm”, really stuck with me. Months later we were at GodCity listening to the playback of Matt’s vocal take for that song, when he said ‘Should we call the album ‘Cometh the Storm’?’, so we were tuned into the same wavelength. I think the title suits the dark, foreboding feel of the album, as well as allegorically reflecting the uncertain times we’re living in.”

“Being a fan of each other’s bands for a long time, and especially after many shared experiences, it feels like all bets are off and anything goes which is a liberating feeling,” shares Willis. “That feeling of making something out of all of these imperfect parts and it becomes this magical, weird, new idea that none of us ever anticipated. Against all odds. That’s the joy of it.”

Partial Discography: ‘The Art of Self Defense’ (2000), Wings’ (2005), ‘Death is This Communion’ (2007), (2012)’, ‘Luminiferous’ (2015), ‘Electric Messiah’ (2018), ‘Surrounded by Thieves’ (2002), ‘Snakes for the Divine’ (2010), ‘Cometh the Storm’ (2024) ‘Blessed Black ‘De Vermis Mysteriis’

Charger is the powerhouse trio that’s been making waves (and a lot of noise) since forming in the East Bay. Andrew McGee plays guitar, Matt Freeman (Rancid, Operation Ivy) sings and plays bass, and Jason Willer (UK Subs, Jello Biafra’s Guantanamo School of Medicine) drums and sings too. Those are names you might recognize if you’re the type of person who reads liner notes to genre-defining albums.

Formed in 2018, Charger was much as a musical challenge between a few lifers in the punk scene who wanted to push each other to dig deep into their shared roots, influences, and musical passions, to create something truly exciting. As a result, Charger’s music feels indebted to the giants but not reliant on them. There is plenty of space for growth and innovation within this decades-old blueprint of how to make someone’s heart race and blood pump.

Charger stormed out of the gate in 2019 with the release of their self-titled EP on Pirates Press Records, generating both critical and fan acclaim all the while touring with the likes of their labelmates The Old Firm Casuals and also supporting the follow-up single “Watch Your Back.” In 2020, that single was pressed on 12″ UV digitally printed vinyl-making it one of the first digitally printed records in history!

To complement “Watch Your Back,” the band hit the studio and churned out another bombastic track, “Stay Down” and that was released as a 12” picture disc. During the pandemic, the band stayed active writing and recording their debut album, Warhorse, at the iconic Atomic Garden Studios with a 2022 release date in mind.

Reinvigorated and reenergized after months and months of being locked in writing rooms and recording sessions, Charger are ready to take the stage once again and melt faces!

TAKAAT (pronounced tuh-cot), meaning “noise” in the Tuareg language Tamashek, is the trio of Ahmoudou Madassane, Mikey Coltun, and Souleymane Ibrahim, also known as the rhythm section of Mdou Moctar. TAKAAT is sonic chaos, improvisation, freedom of exploration, and the punk styles of bands such as Fugazi and Unwound, all mixed together with the guitar music from the Sahel.

TAKAAT started during soundchecks while on the road with Mdou Moctar when the trio indulged their shared love for amps cranked to 11 and the sound of blown out speakers. Towards the end of 2023, the three started writing music together, inspired by their shared experiences with the sounds and energy of Hausa bar bands, gritty soukous, and 2000s post-punk. The music of TAKAAT is intense, dark, and energetic. Deeply inspired by the DIY ethos of punk, Ahmoudou, Mikey, and Souleymane capture that thrill of the new and the ecstasy of togetherness in these heavy rockers. TAKAAT follows in the spirit of the independent music culture that birthed hardcore basement shows, bedroom tape labels, and generator-powered pick-up wedding bands.

One of the bands of all time.Bastardane gives you music.

With high-gain riffs, groovy grooves and dissonant chord progressions, the boys in Bastardane supply an untamed concoction of sludge, thrash, progressive and melodic rock for your listening pleasure. The world needs wild, scruffy, unwashed youths who don’t care about bullshit. Youths who want nothing more than to throw themselves and their gear into a transit van and survive the roadways of America, huffing from gig to gig with nary much more than a pot to piss in, one bar of Irish Spring between them, and a stack of ramen to bridge the hunger gap between gig sandwiches. Most importantly, the world needs these youths to make music that is weighted in lead whilst carrying a cracking riff, propelled by feral sledgehammer drums, an overall Sabbath-meets-COC air, and a total disregard for convention within that framework. The world (that includes you) needs Bastardane.

Founded in the basements of the sludgy, punk and psych-metal scene of Savannah, Georgia and relocated to Los Angeles, California, Bastardane is a three-piece group of noise-makers that bring a new air of ruckus. Praised for their intense, unapologetic live performances, Bastardane makes the kind of music that they want to make because they want to make it.