KTVU.com Talks To High On Fire Drummer Des Kensel

The Missing Link -- a 7+ hour festival featuring some of the leading lights of the metal underground being held at the Fox Theater in Oakland this Saturday -- marks a triumphant homecoming for Oakland-based outfit High On Fire. Founded by renowned Sleep guitarist Matt Pike over a decade ago after that seminal stoner-rock outfit imploded over label problems in the late '90s, the band continued to explore his Sabbath obsession in a power trio format with monster drummer Des Kensel and original bassist George Rice.

High on Fire

Crafting unrepentantly aggressive riff-powered songs that nod equally to the classic-era thrash of Metallica and Slayer and the grinding crunch of Motorhead (Pike's growling croak bears a distinct resemblance to Lemmy's gravelly voice), High On Fire established itself as true juggernaut of metal power with its recorded material and furious live shows. While Melvins/Thrones bassist Joe Preston stepped in for the band's acclaimed Steve Albini produced effort 'Blessed Black Wings' in 2005, his departure later that year led to the addition of former Zeke bassist Jeff Matz to establish arguably the band's strongest line-up yet.

Earlier this year High on Fire followed up its celebrated 2007 effort 'Death is This Communion' with its debut album for E1 Music, 'Snakes For the Divine.' The incendiary recording has already been short-listed by some critics as one of the essential metal releases of the year. KTVU.com caught up with High on Fire drummer Kensel to discuss the new album, their Saturday homecoming show as part of The Missing Link festival with longtime cohorts Mastodon and the band's upcoming European tour opening for metal icons Metallica.

KTVU.com: Have you just been in the States touring the album so far?

Des Kensel: We’re actually in Seattle today. We’re on the last leg of this tour. This is our first five-week tour for the new record. So next we’ll be in Portland and then the show in Oakland on Saturday.

KTVU.com: The last time I saw you was with Mastodon too when the Metalocalypse Tour with came to San Jose this past November. As a San Francisco resident, I don’t end up traveling to the South Bay for too many shows, but I couldn’t pass that up.

Des Kensel: Yeah, that was definitely a fun tour. We did a bunch of touring with Mastodon when we first started with Relapse, so it was good to be back on the road with them. And the whole Dethklok thing was interesting…

KTVU.com: You know, I think the first time I saw Mastodon was with them opening for you here in San Francisco at what’s now the Independent. That must have been seven or eight years ago…

Des Kensel: Yeah, it was called the Justice League back then. That was the first show of our ‘Surrounded By Thieves’ tour.

KTVU.com: How significant was the change in your writing method for this album? From what I’ve been reading this is the first time you’ve written as a three-piece with Jeff. I wasn’t sure how much input Joe Preston had or your original bassist George Rice had on earlier albums…

Des Kensel: Jeff definitely contributed a lot to the writing on this one. On Blessed Black Wings with Joe, that record was pretty much already written before Joe showed up. So he just kind of played his bass parts. And then with the last record ['Death is This Communion'], that was our first record with Jeff. He had just joined the band and I’m sure he wasn’t quite as comfortable as he is now. Once you get into the studio and into the writing process, for us it’s almost a sacred place. I’m sure at first his confidence wasn’t up there yet to really bring forward a lot of his ideas.

Des Kensel

But he’s been with us for about three years now and I think on this record writing-wise we all had a lot of input on it. We all disagreed a lot on a lot of things which definitely made it kind of difficult and prolonged the writing process. But I think in the long run we all came to agree on stuff. We’re all very happy with it. Writing-wise I think on this record we’ve kept progressing.

KTVU.com: As far as I understand it, it sounds like you guys come up with a bunch of different parts and riffs and just kind of go through them and put together the songs, figuring out what pieces fit together. Is that accurate?

Des Kensel: Yeah. Well, with this record, definitely. We had so many parts and pieces, whether it was something that just started with a guitar riff, or a drum beat that someone would lay stuff down on. We had to get a dry-erase board and name each riff or part and just kind of sit there and figure it out. Sometimes it would be things that fit naturally, like this part would go after that part because it’s the same key or the same timing or it’s a key change that works. But with this album, we were trying to fit so many different parts together that didn’t work for one reason or another. So then we’d have to maybe slow one part down or take a part and do it in A instead of E. It was like trying to put together a model without instructions [laughs]…

KTVU.com: It does seem like the songs are amongst the most complex the band has ever done. In the past you’ve had acoustic guitar intros and multiple riffs in tunes, but these have way more mechanics to them and a lot more parts being put together.

Des Kensel: We didn’t go with the typical songwriting of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse or something like that. There was a lot more to it. And I think just because some of the parts themselves take longer to develop and unveil themselves – they’re a bit longer than your typical four-measure riff. So it takes a little longer for the whole song to evolve. Plus, with all the touring we’ve done and this being our fifth record, as musicians I think we’re getting a lot better too. We’re just trying to challenge ourselves with each record when we go in and start writing stuff. Everyone’s kind of trying to outdo themselves from the last album.

KTVU.com: In the SF Weekly article that came out when the album was released, Matt mentioned that Greg Fidelman was a much more "hands on" producer than Steve Albiniand Jack Endino had been on the previous two records. To what extent did he contribute to forming or arranging the material on the album?

Des Kensel: This is actually the first time we really did any pre-production. We had about five songs done and lots of other parts two weeks before the recording. So we went down to LA and got a rehearsal room that had a little PA and small mixing board. So for two weeks we were in there rehearsing what we had, trying to fine tune that, while trying to write a few more new songs. Greg basically came down and was hanging out with us for each session, almost like a fourth member putting in his input as far as brainstorming and trying to finish parts. In the pre-production we wrote "Bastard Samurai" and "Ghost Neck," so he helped out a little with those and he helped out fine-tuning some of the other stuff.

At first we were a little uneasy. Like I said before, that's our sacred place when it comes to songwriting, you know? Don't come in! [laughs] But personality-wise, he clicked with us. He liked us as people and as a band and he really showed his enthusiasm with our music. So that was really cool. It was easy to let him in...

KTVU.com: In the last couple of albums, you have made some significant changes in your instrumentation between you starting to play double-kick bass drums and Matt getting into some acoustic 12-string and 9-string electric guitar. It doesn't seem like there's the same kind of change on Serpents, but much broader dynamics between the tonal palette of Matt's guitar sounds and a wider range of tempos came into play...

Des Kensel: Definitely tempo-wise. It seems like on every record there's a song that's quicker than anything on the last one. So tempo-wise we stepped it up a little bit. As far as guitar tones, he used a bunch of different guitars on tracking along with his 9-string and his Les Paul. Jeff actually used this new 12-string bass on "Bastard Samurai" that he go. When he showed up at the studio with it, I remember I saw that thing and was like 'Jesus Christ!' The headstock on it was huge. If we're ever paddling down a river and it starts to sink, I hope we've got that thing with us! [laughs] That'll get us to shore. So that thing was cool. And Matt used a lot of different amps and cabinets on this record, because Greg had a bunch of different set-ups that he owns. But other than that, we didn't do as much experimenting as I thought we would.

KTVU.com: Did that get borne out of having the more complex songs? Was there a conscious decision to broaden your sound? The earlier material you recorded usually runs at a full gallop, and even the slower tunes keep the tempos pretty fast. On this album there are a couple of points where the tempo slows down almost to Sleep speed for the first time since Matt played in that band...

Des Kensel: I guess on some of the longer songs like the title track -- that one is almost nine minutes -- after five minutes of the double-bass, quicker Motorhead tempo, we thought 'Hell, lets put in a breakdown in here and totally take the song somewhere else.' It was either end it here or take it in a different direction, so that's why we have that slower part with Matt doing that cool, eerie sounding guitar. We tried to do stuff like that on a couple of the songs. Like on "Fire Flood and Plague" we incorporated the same type of idea. Its the same tempo -- the same beats-per-minute -- but I shift where the downbeat is. I think that gives the song some dynamics.

High on Fire

KTVU.com: On "Frosthammer" there's that part where the song shifts into this slower, almost psychedelic section that has vocals like I've never heard on a High On Fire tune. It struck me today that it was something that wouldn't sound out of place in a Mastodon song. I know you've been a big influence on a lot of the underground metal bands that have emerged in the past few years; to what extent are some of the bands that you inspired like Mastodon influencing you on this album?

Des Kensel: We have the same influences that got us started in music, like old Metallica and Slayer. As far as when we're writing, maybe sometimes a band that we've toured with or been listening to might influence us a little bit or we might get some ideas. We're great friends with Mastodon. I'm sure a little bit of us has rubbed off on them and a little bit of them has rubbed off on us. It's possible. We're at the point where stuff like that might happen. Obviously we have our main influences, but we're also honing in on our own sound too. Any music you hear is going to sound like something, and definitely something that the person writing the music is listening to or likes. We didn't consciously go in and try to make anything sound like Mastodon, but they're a modern that would influence us for sure. We're friends and fans of the band.

KTVU.com: So how did The Missing Link festival show come about? Both you and Mastodon are currently headlining your own tours. You probably could have headlined the Fillmore with the current bill you're on the road with [Oakland duo Black Cobra and Canadian band Priestess have been supporting High On Fire since mid-April]. Instead, you're part of this epic underground metal show that's already looking like its going to be a highlight of Bay Area concerts this year...

Des Kensel: It's partly because our tour was being booked to end in the Bay Area. We have the same booking agent as Mastodon and also the same management. So basically the tour was going to end a week ago, but they were like 'Hey man, do you guys want to stay on the road for another week so we can combine packages in the Bay Area?' It was originally going to be at the Warfield. Of course we're like 'F&%$ yeah man, let's do it!' And I actually remember telling our manager 'You know, there's this killer space that's been open for a while and is the same size as the Warfield in Oakland called the Fox Theater. You might want to look into it.' Everybody has been talking about how great that place is. He checked it out and said 'You know what? Let's do it at the Fox.' It's funny too, because when that place was being remodeled, I was hoping we'd get to play there one day. And here we are.

KTVU.com: You might not be closing the show, but you have to feel good about being so high on the bill in your hometown...

Des Kensel: Totally. We're going to go on third to last, so we have a good slot and a good amount of time. We definitely feel like its something cool to do for the homecoming show. We rarely get to play Oakland. It's always San Francisco, so that's pretty cool too.

KTVU.com: You don't have much downtime before you're off to Europe for the tour with Metallica, do you?

Des Kensel: Yeah. That show is Saturday. We have Sunday off, then Monday morning we're flying out.

KTVU.com: Are the stadium shows on the itinerary the biggest shows so far in your career?

Des Kensel: Oh yeah. By far. Some of these are like 50,000 seat soccer stadiums. And Metallica is playing in the round. It's not like a stage set-up where the whole end section is cut off. It's like every seat in the stands and seats on the field will be filled. I'm psyched about it because it's going to be my first time ever seeing Metallica live. Even though I've gotta say when I first heard Master of Puppets, that totally changed my metal world. And definitely my drumming. I used to try to play along to that every day until I got it down perfect. So it's the first time I get to see them and I actually get to play with them too. That should be cool.