San Jose’s music scene may be resurgent across all genres, but ask any metal fan and they’ll tell you it never went anywhere. The Epicenter Heavy Music Festival aims to demonstrate the strength of local metal acts, as well as the support the genre has among South Bay denizens. Organized by Oskar Blues Brewery and Heavy San Jose, the totally packed bill will be headlined by High On Fire—the Oakland-based stoner trio led by Sleep frontman Matt Pike. Direct support comes in the form of Big Business from Seattle and Mos Generator from Port Orchard, Washington. Plus San Jose’s very own Kook.

High On Fire
Sat, 8pm, $45+
The Ritz, San Jose

Tucked behind the burned out husk of an old tattoo shop, there is a little room decked out with posters of countless metal bands. Above them all hangs a huge banner emblazoned with the letters K-O-O-K—with the second “K” flipped horizontally.

“Personally, I wanted something that was symmetrical, word-wise. Something you could spin different ways and always have it be more of a symbol than a word,” says Karl Larson, the band’s guitarist and primary songwriter. More than just symmetry, the logo creates a sort of mathematically impossible logic.

“One is less than zero, and zero is greater than one,” Larson says, looking up at the banner, which could be read thusly: 1<00>1.

“That’s just how Karl’s brain works,” Jeff Wilson, the band’s bass player, says from the other side of the room.

There is obvious camaraderie between the band members as we talk. Besides Eric, the band’s drummer (a recent transplant from L.A.), all the members of KOOK have been a part of the San Jose scene for years.

“I was in kinda like an AC/DC band, called Sin City. Then that changed into a band called Motorfly. And then I was in Imperial Space Pod,” Larson says, name-checking the groups on his resume. Notably, Larson also played in the earliest incarnation of Oakland-based metal band High on Fire—itself a spinoff of San Jose doom legends Sleep.

“Very, very beginning,” he says, of his time with the group. “Me and Matt (Pike) just started writing songs and then that just kinda morphed into what became High on Fire.”

Pike is a legend in metal circles for his continued output with bands like High on Fire and his role in Sleep. Back in the ’90s, Wilson’s old band used to rehearse in a practice space next to theirs.

“They were so fucking loud that we had to clear out and wait for them to be done,” he says. “It was just like, ‘Seriously guys, does it really need to be that loud?’”

“It does, though,” says Troy Aschenbrenner, KOOK’s singer, interjecting with conviction. While KOOK’s music is certainly sludgy and indebted to stoner metal (Baroness, Ghost, Kylesa, and the Melvins are all listed as influences), Aschenbrenner’s vocals distinguish the group from their peers. Like Ozzy, Aschenbrenner is a metal singer, landing his delivery somewhere between Mercyful Fate and the dark theatrics of Nick Cave.

“It sounded a bit like a heavy version of The Cramps to us—the first songs that we were throwing out,” Larson says, sitting on an overturned road case in one corner of the room. “I think it’s Troy’s element, the style of singing mixed with the heavy thing, it just creates a different sound.”

Aschenbrenner nods, before saying something that sounds decidedly un-metal.

“Growing up, my parents were just Elvis, Elvis, Elvis,” he says. “I love Elvis. I saw Elvis.”

The sense you get talking to the band is that they love playing music, and they love meeting other people who love playing music. Wilson even runs a metal production group, Heavy San Jose, which is working on booking a dedicated metal night in the South Bay one Saturday a month. “It’s like with anything,” he says. “If you want something to happen, just make it.”

And since KOOK started out, that’s what they’ve been doing: making connections with likeminded bands, and trying to get them to San Jose to play.

“We put that on,” Wilson says, pointing toward a banner for a fest called Beers in Hell, which was held at the late, great Johnny V’s dive bar and music venue. “That was 11 bands. I’d never seen Johnny’s like that. We went from 6 until 2 in the morning. That was the first time I really thought San Jose might be able to support a scene.”

Nice guys or not, KOOK make sure their music is loud, visceral, something you can feel. “A friend said to me one time he saw us he felt like his guts got rearranged,” Wilson says.

Aschenbrenner nods in agreement. “My brother said the whole floor was shaking.”

KOOK
Dec 17, 8pm, $6-$8
BackBar SoFa, San Jose

The San Francisco Bay Area has long been a fertile breeding ground for metal music. It’s either given birth to, or supported the growth of, such legendary acts as Exodus, Testament, Death Angel, and of course, Metallica.

Since their foundation in 1998, Oakland’s High on Fire have proven themselves to be a most worthy addition to the list of Bay Area metal luminaries.

The power trio, known for their hard-hitting, sledgehammer riffs, is set to be one of the headliners at Kirk Von Hammett’s second annual “Fear FestEvil” this coming weekend in San Jose—sharing the stage with Meshugga, Agnostic Front and more. The event, which combines the worlds of metal music and horror films, is one that High on Fire’s singer and guitarist Matt Pike is looking forward to—both as a performer and a horror fan.

Pike, who got to know Von Hammett while High on Fire was touring with Metallica in Europe, says he jumped at the chance to play FestEvil.

“He offered us the show, and I was like, ‘Oh fuck, of course!’ I’ve always been into horror films and literature, and all that kind of stuff,” Pike says over the phone. “I think it will be interesting to walk around and trip out on the horror collection, apparently he has a huge one.”

Pike is also looking to get back into the groove of playing live shows with High On Fire again. After the band finished recording their as-yet-unnamed new album—due in stores this summer—Pike took some time off to play with Sleep, the influential San Jose stoner metal outfit he co-founded in 1990.

“We’re ready to play again, but it’s kind of like getting in shape for a boxing match or something,” Pike says. “If you’re an athlete, you’ve got to keep your chops up, and keep moving around. But it all comes back really quick. We don’t party like we used to; I’m staying off the booze.”

Pike and his fellow band members drummer Des Kensel and bassist Jeff Matz were in the studio earlier this year with producer Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou, who worked with the band on their previous effort, 2012’s De Vermis Mysteriis. The band members were so happy with that record, that it was an easy decision to tap Ballou again.

“The last one came out extraordinary, that’s why we went with him again,” Pike says. “He’s got a knack for us. He’s a great engineer and if we get stuck he always has good ideas. His band is pretty trippy, out-there music, so he’s a creative guy.”

Pike and the rest of his band still need to put the finishing on the new record, which he says he is looking forward to releasing.

“It’s really good—everybody says that about every new album that they have, but I really do think that it’s the best one we’ve ever done,” he says. “The takes on it are so good, the way it’s put together. It’s what you’d expect; but not what you’d expect.”

Fans can expect to hear a couple of the new tunes at this weekend’s gig, but not too many; Pike says he notices different audience reactions when they play new, unreleased material live.

“We’re going to be randomly playing some new songs—because if they don’t know the songs, the crowd always stares at you all uncomfortable, they don’t know what to do because they’ve never heard it,” he laughs. “You just throw one in there after you get ’em fired up.”

Pike is also excited to be performing in front of a home-town crowd.

“The Bay Area has always been a really great place for [metal],” he says. “I was fortunate enough to be dropped here as a kid; so from ’89 on, I was kind of spoiled rotten, because there was such a good scene here, and it was really easy to get into bands, and there were lots of people to jam with.”

Although fans have been enthusiastic about everything Sleep has done since reuniting in 2009—including a series of one-off concerts and the release of a new single last year (their first new material in nearly two decades)—Pike dances around discussing the possibility of any more Sleep records or shows in the near future.

“Sleep is a fun thing we can do, and go make some bucks,” he says. “We enjoy playing together, but we all have other full-time bands. We have to take things as they come. I can’t say much more than that.”

High on Fire is playing Kirk Von Hammett’s Fear FestEvil on April 11.

Murder mystery dinners are fun and all, but lets be real—aside from the candelabra used to bludgeon the poor victim to death, they just aren’t metal enough. That’s about to change this April, when Metallica guitarist and horror fanatic Kirk Von Hammett hosts his second annual Fear FestEvil in San Jose, which will feature a whodunnit dinner and party at the Winchester Mystery House and two days of punishing performances from the likes of Swedish face-melters Meshuggah and Oakland-based stoner metal trio High On Fire.

The VIP murder mystery dinner and tour of the Winchester mansion will be held on April 10. Hammett will join the guests, along with some “very special ‘horror royalty,'” according to the event’s website. The following two nights—April 11 and 12—Hammett will be showing off some of his horror film memorabilia at the RockBar Theater, where Meshuggah, High On Fire, Orchid, Blues Pills, Agnostic Front and Asada Messiah will perform.

“It has always been my intention that Fear FestEvil events carry both the weird and the loud,” Hammett says in a press release on the event. The first Fear FestEvil was held last year in San Francisco at the Regency Ballroom.

Check out the flyer below. Click here for more info.

Matt Pike (right) of High on Fire has checked into rehab.

As part of Sleep, Pike set the bar for stoner rock with hallucinogenic doom metal so sludgy it sometimes out-Sabbathed Sabbath. After their break-up in the ’90s and throughout their sporadic reunions, they’ve become almost more a legend than a band. That legend continues to grow, thanks to war stories like the time in 1995 that record execs refused to release their third album, Dopesmoker, because it was one hour-long song. Under the pressure of endless label blowback, the band split into Om and High on Fire.

Just last week, Sleep headlined at the Scion A/V Rock Fest in Tampa, where cake was brought onstage at the end of the set to celebrate Pike’s birthday.

It’s now been 14 years since Pike formed High on Fire in Oakland. They just released their latest album, De Vermis Mysteriis, in spring. That it debuted at #61 on the Billboard charts despite the fact that HOF’s music is even harder than Sleep’s ever was is a testament to the fact that it is also hookier and simply undeniable. What Pike has created with the band represents nothing less than the future of metal.

The band’s other two members, drummer Des Kensel and bassist Jeff Matz, released a statement saying “High on Fire would like to thank everyone involved with the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival for the opportunity to be a part of this year’s tour. We regretfully will have to bow out as our friend and bandmate begins his recovery, but very much appreciate having been asked to be a part of this summer’s festival run.”

As SXSW reaches its peak, Austin is getting progressively louder, more crowded and beer-soaked. Highlights from the passed two days include blistering performances from Off! and High on Fire at Thrasher’s Texas Style Death Match Party, hip-hop at the Fader Forth, a strong set by Bass Drum of Death, local blues tunes on Sixth Street and a warehouse party featuring AraabMuzik, Atrak, Questlove and Diplo.

Photos by Chris Ellis unless otherwise noted.

High on Fire at Thrasher's party.

Off! at the Thrasher party. // Photo by Matt Crawford

Reigning biggest metal tour the Rockstar Mayhem Festival has announced its line-up for this year, which features headliners Slipknot and Slayer, along with Anthrax, the Devil Wears Prada, As I Lay Dying, High on Fire and Whitechapel. The 26-date tour begins on June 30 and comes to Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View the next day, July 1.

Another as-yet-unrevealed band referred to so far only as a “major special guest” will be announced on March 5. Tickets go on sale April 6.

Slayer and Anthrax have joined up several times over the last couple of years for the historic “Big 4” shows that saw them touring with Metallica and Megadeth, uniting the top thrash bands for the first time. This tour will be different, as Slayer will be on the main stage, while Anthrax will be headlining the secondary Jagermeister stage, which is getting a huge upgrade.

Another interesting addition is High on Fire, the offshoot of legendary San Jose stoner-metal band Sleep. Their 2010 album Snakes for the Divine was the best record of frontman Matt Pike’s career, and may finally make him more famous for the albums he did finish than the ones he didn’t.