High On Fire

High On Fire galvanised stoner rock at the turn of the millennium by injecting furious metallic riffage and thrash-calibre speed into the genre’s cloudy grooves. Cofounded in 1999 by Sleep guitarist Matt Pike, the Oakland, California, band debuted the following year with The Art of Self Defense and soon after linked up with respected metal label Relapse Records for 2002’s Surrounded By Thieves. High On Fire subsequently worked with Steve Albini and Jack Endino—the latter produced the band’s 2007 breakthrough, Death Is This Communion—before settling into a productive working partnership with Converge’s Kurt Ballou. That led to ferocious full-lengths like 2012’s De Vermis Mysteriis and even helped the band win a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for the title track of 2018’s Electric Messiah.