Matt Pike has had a long and storied career as a member of pioneering stoner-metal trios Sleep and High on Fire. But the pandemic has been hard on team players, and so this year the guitarist and vocalist is releasing his first solo album, Pike vs the Automaton—a heartbreaking work of cabin fever. He recorded […]
Tag: High on Fire
Posted inMusic
They came, they saw, they smoked: Sleep celebrate their decade-long reunion and impending hiatus at Thalia Hall
Most band reunions don’t live up to the hype, but most bands aren’t Sleep. In the early 90s, the Northern California trio—bassist and vocalist Al Cisneros, guitarist Matt Pike, and drummer Chris Hakius—laid down a guttural strain of Sabbath-worshipping blues metal, filtered through a crusty psychedelic lens. They broke up in 1998 following a years-long […]
Posted inMusic
After a couple of setbacks, High on Fire return better than ever
It’s finally happening! High on Fire, the most beloved heavy-metal band of the modern era, are going on tour in support of their eighth studio album and best release yet, last year’s Electric Messiah. They’ve tried twice before, but both times they hit roadblocks. In January, the band canceled the second of two tours when […]
Posted inMusic
Hank Pearl of Black Pearl Photo on masked Swedish synth masters Priest
Current musical obsessions of Hank Pearl of Black Pearl Photo, Joshua Hasken of the band Fernando Doppel, and Jamie Ludwig of the Reader
Posted inBlogs
A lantern lights the way for an ax murderer on the gig poster of the week
This week’s featured gig poster was created by designer Rick Leech for High on Fire’s two-night New Year’s celebration.
Posted inMusic
Fall’s best concerts and music festivals
Chance the Rapper’s Magnificent Coloring Day, Seu Jorge, and more of the season’s best live music
Posted inBlogs
Photos of Abbath, High on Fire, Skeletonwitch, and Tribulation from Friday’s Metro show
The Decibel Magazine Tour, which hit Metro on Friday, featured one of the most photogenic front men in all of black metal.
Posted inMusic
Our favorite music of 2014
Six Reader music writers share their favorites from 2014 with year-end lists that do more than just put the same records in a different order.
Posted inBlogs
The debut of Uncommon Ground’s Greenstar, the first organic brewery in Illinois
A Hofbräuhaus veteran launches Greenstar Brewing with two organic pale ales that showcase rich malts.
Posted inBlogs
Reader’s Agenda Fri 5/30: Do-Division Street Fest, Festival Del Taco, and Bill Charlap Trio
What’s on the Reader‘s Agenda for Friday, May 30
Posted inBlogs
Dark Lord Day 2014: Three Floyds tweaks the festival’s new model for speed
More than you could conceivably want to read about Three Floyds’ 2014 Dark Lord Day—but there are lots of pictures too!
Posted inBlogs
Spiteful Brewing celebrates the end of winter with Dibs Are for Dummies
Spiteful says good-bye to winter with an English-style barleywine—and looks forward to summer with enough new tanks to double its capacity.
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best Outcall Soundman
At a Yob show in February he turned the Flat Iron into a white-hot doom-metal blast furnace, and at this year’s Dark Lord Day he made High on Fire’s stampeding barbarian metal sound as overwhelming outside as I’ve ever heard it indoors.
Posted inBlogs
Dark Lord Day spreads out and levels up for 2013
In which our correspondent attends the annual festival of beer and metal that revolves around Three Floyds’ notorious Russian imperial stout.
Posted inBlogs
Metal Alliance tour to thrash the crap out of House of Blues
Thrash bands new and old converge on Chicago tomorrow