Throwing "Some Bullshit Together" Just Isn't In The Cards

California-bred metal icons High On Fire have gradually, by a combination of volume and stealth, become one of the most lauded outfits in the heavy world, decimating all and sundry with their thundering riffs and furious explorations of metal bombast.

This maelstrom is all abetted nicely by the well-versed but wary worldview of frontman Matt Pike — also guitarist for '90s doom legends Sleep — whose thought-provoking screeds and deconstructions of modern society and the human condition add great heft to the band's already humungous power.

On their seventh album Luminiferous — which when released last year was lauded by many pundits as the pinnacle of High On Fire's formidable bastion — Pike's lyrical attention wandered to aliens, mind control and conspiracy theories, all par for the course for this fascinating behemoth.

"I take metaphors and I mix them up so that it's not so much about myself even though it's about myself."

"Once I have an idea and I have the first line written, usually it just flows," Pike tells. "I'm lucky like that I guess. Once I have an idea and once I write the first line everything falls into place. The lyrics are a very important part of the process for me though — I just wouldn't feel right about myself if I just threw some bullshit together. I'm pretty thorough about the way that I want to present it and the point I'm trying to make, whatever that song might be."

A couple of the album's tracks such as The Sunless Years and The Cave, however, seem a bit more personal than the standard High On Fire diatribe.

"Yeah, they are," Pike admits. "They're personal themes but I use metaphors; I take metaphors and I mix them up so that it's not so much about myself even though it's about myself. I'm not trying to feed my ego or anything like that, I'm trying to express my childhood or the death of love in my life. A lot of them are very personal, and I'm very conscious of what I'm talking about if it is personal."

Pike, for his part, seems more excited about the music that he and his bandmates Des Kensel (drums) and Jeff Matz (bass) concocted for Luminiferous.

"It's some of the best music I've ever been fortunate enough to play on," he enthuses. "It's a great record, and I'm stoked on it still. I still listen to it, and usually I can't stand listening to myself. I knew what I was aiming for: I was just aiming to make it as epic as possible."

And, somewhat strangely for a band considered such a live force, Pike doesn't believe it's difficult for High On Fire to capture that lightning in a bottle in the studio.

"No way, I think that's where we shine," he booms. "That's where we shine. We get into a studio and we know what we want to do but then we're experimenting like a science project: you're trying to get perfect tones, you're trying to get the perfect take and on top of that you're excited about being able to hear a complete song instead of just a bunch of cut-up riffs here and there. When it all comes together it's a pretty amazing feeling."