High On Fire don’t play background music. Matt Pike’s guitar has been arriving at venues like a controlled demolition since he formed the band in Oakland in 1998 (six months after Sleep dissolved), and the riff-first fury has not softened since. Cometh the Storm, their ninth studio album, has given them the most critically praised material in years. Forbes called it an 8.5/10 and the band a “sludge metal powerhouse.” On September 4, they bring it to a 200-capacity bar in Syracuse.
About the Show
High On Fire headline with Acid Witch and Graveripper in support. The current lineup — Matt Pike on guitar and vocals, Jeff Matz on bass, Coady Willis of the Melvins on drums — recorded Cometh the Storm with producer Kurt Ballou at GodCity Studio in Salem, Massachusetts, their fourth collaboration. The album runs 11 tracks across 57 minutes. Forbes called it the band’s “most polished production to date” and singled out Pike’s vocals as “never sounded better.” Standout tracks include the title cut, “Darker Fleece,” and “Hunting Shadows.” The Grammy for Best Metal Performance came in 2019 for Electric Messiah; Cometh the Storm is their first album since.
The support bill is genuinely stacked. Acid Witch, formed in Detroit in 2007 by Slasher Dave and Shagrat, plays doom/death built around a horror-film aesthetic: slow sludgy tempos, psychedelic synths, and occult imagery carried since their 2008 debut Witchtanic Hellucinations. Graveripper, out of Indianapolis, plays black/thrash and describes themselves as “if Exodus and Kreator had a kid and Immortal babysat frequently.” Signed to Wise Blood Records, with albums including Seasons Dreaming Death and From Welkin to Tundra. Three bands, three distinct flavors of heavy.
Venue & Logistics
The Song & Dance is a 200-capacity bar and music venue at 115 E Jefferson St in Syracuse, part of the Central NY heavy music circuit After Dark Presents serves regularly. A Grammy-winning sludge metal band in a 200-cap room is rare; when it happens, the room tends to remember it. Doors open at 6:00 p.m., show at 7:00 p.m. The event is 16+ with ID; under 16 admitted with a parent or legal guardian.
Tickets
Tickets start at $35.71. They went on sale July 24 and are available through TicketWeb; e-delivered closer to the event date. All sales are final unless the event is cancelled or postponed. Buy tickets