Friday, March 4, is the 20th installment of what’s become known as Bandcamp Friday, when Bandcamp passes along its usual share of revenue to the independent artists and labels selling music through the site. But that occasion was overshadowed somewhat this morning, when Bandcamp CEO Ethan Diamond announced that the company is “joining” Epic Games. […]
Tag: Matt Pike
Posted inMusic
Matt Pike of High on Fire makes his solo debut with a psych-rock blowout
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 […]
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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 […]
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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 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 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
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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
Best shows to see: Meat Wave, the Faint, King Dude, and Starlicker
Between now and Wednesday you can see Meat Wave, the Faint, King Dude, Starlicker, ShowYouSuck, the Polyphonic Spree, and more
Posted inMusic
Herb and Heaviosity
Sleep Jerusalem Just one thing stopped Sleep’s Jerusalem from being last year’s best and most ambitious rock album: it never came out. Slated for release in September 1997 by London/Polygram but shelved after the band fell apart last summer, Jerusalem is the holy grail of stoner metal, a 52-minute album consisting of exactly one song–one […]