High on Fire prepare to torch Atlanta

ALBANY — With his band’s latest North American tour in full swing, High on Fire drummer and co-founder Des Kensel says he’s ready to get back to his favorite part of the job — taking the band’s relentless, no frills metal show to rabid fans around the country, including the faithful in Atlanta, where Highon Fire will perform later this month.

“I’m feeling good, and I want to get started,” said Kensel during a recent phone interview on the eve of the tour. “I’m ready to be in work mode.”

For Kensel, work mode means travelling across the U.S. and Canada this summer with bandmates — singer guitarist Matt Pike, with whom he founded the group, and former Zeke bassist Jeff Matz, who has been a part of the trio since joining full-time during the recording of 2007’s “Death Is This Communion.”

The band, which has cultivated a loyal following within the metal community thanks to its stripped-down, riff-heavy attack, released its seventh studio album, “Luminiferous,” to critical acclaim in June and subsequently embarked on a series of shows across the United States, which began July 30 in San Diego and will hit Atlanta’s Masquerade on Aug. 22.

A sizable portion of that show will feature tracks from the new album, which Kensel said came together relatively easily for the band, once the members convened earlier this year for recording sessions.

“Basically it kind of went like every High on Fire record goes, going in feeling unprepared,” Kensel said with a laugh. “This time we had budgeted our time better and we had most of the material. We mostly spent our time finishing the arranging and working out some of the changes. We (ultimately) spent a little less time on this one than the last one (2012’s ‘De Vermis Mysteriis’).”

Kensel explained that the band’s writing process is somewhat informal, and the tracks on “Luminiferous” were born out of material (riffs, bass lines, drum beats) the members had accumulated over time, often during rehearsals for shows and sound checks.

“We basically have a stockpile of junk parts, usually some sort of riff or cool drum beats and stuff, and we brainstorm on how to put them together,” said Kensel. “We just kind of build off of that. We’ll put two or three parts together and if we hit a roadblock, then we decide what to do next.”

Kensel said it also helps that band members all have similar core tastes in music, which naturally influence the writing.

“We pretty much come from the same place as far as core influences,” he said. “There’s like that core circle of what everyone likes, but each member has his own stuff that he really likes.”

For Kensel, most of those influences stem from his childhood when he first discovered pioneering bands like Judas Priest and classic records like “Screaming for Vengeance,” “Blizzard of Oz” and “Master of Puppets.”

“When I was a little kid — I think I was maybe 8 or 9 years old — a friend down the street, his dad had a big classic rock and metal collection,” Kensel said. “When I got a little older, I got into skateboarding and got introduced to all that punk and hardcore stuff. That opened up a whole lot of new stuff.”

Those similar influences and their shared creative process have served the group well since Kensel and Pike first came together in 1998 after Pike’s other group, the influential stoner, doom metal band Sleep, went on indefinite hiatus.

Since then, High on Fire have amassed an impressive catalog of what many critics consider some of the best heavy music made in the past 15 years and have built a rabid fan following based on the power of the group’s live performances, which is where Kensel says he feels he and High on Fire really shine.

“The creative process can be stressful sometimes, just because it’s collaborative,” the drummer said. “It can be mentally challenging. Playing live has this whole different vibe. It’s where I get my adrenaline rush, from being a drummer in a metal band. It’s great to get up on a stage and realize there’s a room full of people who are there to see something we created from scratch. It’s a very good feeling to know there are people out there who appreciate what we’re doing. I’m really proud about that.”

As was the case with past tours, shows on the band’s latest run of dates will showcase High on Fire music, with no nonsense and very little theatrics, just giving the fans what they came for — a loud, agressive, metal show.

“Matt’s not much of a talker in between songs, so it’s pretty much 75 minutes of continuous music,” said Kensel. “We feel that’s good, that people are getting their money’s worth. Anything longer than that gets a little strenuous. Especially for me. We just give it our all. There’s no props, no costumes, it’s pretty basic. Maybe one of these days we’ll get a good light show going.”

Kensel added that fans who come to the Masquerade show will get to hear a good mix of older material, combined with a healthy portion of “Luminiferous,” which Kensel says he’s excited about playing.

“We’ve got the new album out so we’ll be playing a lot of those songs, which will be cool,” he said. “The first song, ‘Black Pot,’ I think that one live is really good. I like playing some of the faster songs. We’ll play some older stuff, too. We always try to get a least one song off of each record into the show. Plus, there’s a couple of fan favorites that we like to play. ‘Rumors of War’ … That always seems to be a crowd pleaser, and ‘Snakes for the Divine’ is a crowd favorite.”

While the current tour features a busy schedule of 21 dates in less than a month all over North America, Kensel said he’s looking forward to coming through Atlanta again, where the band always gets a warm reception.

“We’ve been there a bunch,” he said. “I actually think we started our last tour there. It’s a great city; we always have a blast there. We played there when we did a lot of touring with Mastodon, and it’s always fun. We’ve had many a night closing down El Myr, (even though) that makes for a rough day the next day.”

Kensel offered no word on whether the band will once again pay a visit to El Myr after the Masquerade show, but he did promise that fans who come to the show will have a good time.

“We just did three weeks in Europe, and it went pretty well,” he said. “We hope to see a good crowd at the Masquerade. It’ll be fun.”

Tickets to the Aug. 22 show, which will also features Pallbearer, Lucifer, Venomous Maximus and more, are currently on sale and and are available through ticketmaster.com.