High On Fire is seven albums deep into their career that started back in 1998. Drummer Des Kensel has been along for the ride ever since the band's inception, and now he's revealed his 20 favorite songs to Louder Sound. Some of his reasoning for the choices below are pretty straightforward, but some songs have a great story behind them.
One such example is "Faces Of Oblivion," which is actually a fairly terrifying story that involves being drunk on a motorcycle.
"Matt and I spent many drunken nights down at the studio till 4am finishing writing (2005 album) Blessed Black Wings. I can remember riding my bike home through Oakland hammered! I even thought to myself that I’m too wasted to ride. Anyway, this song was one of my favourites from writing because it’s heavy yet kind of emotional. I remember Matt doing the end on an acoustic and I forced him to play it in power chords. He reluctantly did at first, but when he eventually got it down it sounded awesome!"
Or how they may or may not have accidentally ripped off Ozzy a little bit with the track "Fertile Green."
"The drum intro was inspired by all the Fife and Drum Corps parades I used to go to as a kid. Every July there was a Fife and Drum 'Muster', and I always looked forward to it. Lots of loud drums and the officers of the drum corps would shoot muskets, rifles and cannons. What’s not to love about that as a kid! Anyway, I thought it was a cool intro until someone pointed out to me it sounded exactly like the drum intro to Ozzy’s 'Little Dolls'! I guess subconsciously it was inspired by my hours of listening to Diary Of A Madman as a kid."
Check out the full list of tracks below. High On Fire wrapped up recording their new album with distortion god Kurt Ballou back at the end of March, so I'd imagine we'll be getting news of Album #8 any day now.
"Master Of Fists"
"10,000 Years"
"Last"
"Speedwolf"
"Eyes And Teeth"
"Hung, Drawn And Quartered"
"Sons Of Thunder"
"Face Of Oblivion"
"Silverback"
"Death Is This Communion"
"Rumors Of War
"Ethereal"
"Frost Hammer"
"Bastard Samurai"
"Fertile Green"
"Kings Of Day"
"Bloody Knuckles"
"Serums Of Liao"
"Slave The Hive"
"Luminiferous"
