HIGH ON FIRE WINS GRAMMY FOR BEST METAL PERFORMANCE
ELECTRIC MESSIAH OUT NOW
Toronto, ON – February 11, 2019 – High On Fire took home the GRAMMY for Best Metal Performance last night at the 61st annual GRAMMY awards ceremony in Los Angeles, the music industry’s only peer-recognized accolade and highest achievement.
This was the band’s first nomination and first win. High On Fire was nominated for Electric Messiah, the title track off their 2018 album of the same name. The band, now as winners, join the ranks of past winners such as Black Sabbath, Motörhead, Metallica and Slayer.
"We never really needed an award for doing what we love,” says frontman, Matt Pike. “Twenty-one years later, we finally got this. Thank you to the Academy." Pike went on to thank producer, Kurt Ballou among others. Bassist, Jeff Matz, sent out a heartfelt shoutout to long-time manager and friend, Nick John, who passed away last year, and who was an instrumental figure in the band’s success. Watch their speech here.
High On Fire released Electric Messiah last year to some serious critical acclaim. The A.V. Club stated that "The bar for metal album of the year has been raised" and they couldn't be more correct. Electric Messiah has landed on a myriad of 2018 year-end lists including A.V. Club, Revolver, Loudwire and Consequence of Sound.
Consequence of sound said the new LP “successfully construct Sabbath-ian, earth-moving riffs as their blueprint." Pitchfork said boldly, “When High On Fire rip, it’s like they're tearing through the whole universe.”
“I had a dream about Lemmy,” says Pike, explaining the inspiration behind the title of High on Fire’s title track, Electric Messiah. “When Lemmy was still alive I always got compared to Lemmy,” the gravelly-voiced guitarist elaborates, “so I had this dream where he got pissed at me."
"He gave me a bunch of shit, basically, and was hazing me. Not that he didn’t approve of me, but like I was being hazed. The song is me telling the world that I could never fill Lemmy’s shoes because Lemmy’s Lemmy. I wanted to pay homage to him in a great way. And it turned out to be such a good title that the guys said we should call the album 'Electric Messiah.'"
Additionally, High On Fire will be performing at 2019 Psycho Las Vegas taking place August 16-18, 2019 in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay Resort. Tickets are on sale now, click here for more info.
Electric Messiah reunites the band once again with producer, Kurt Ballou (Converge, Torche, Kvelertak) for the third time. “Kurt just has a knack for us, man,” Pike says. “We all work really well with him. Even if we have differences about how we want to record something, he works with us and understands what we do. We’ve been sticking with him because we haven’t made a bad record with him yet.”
It feels absurd to think that this late into their career High on Fire has hit a new career peak, but that’s what happens when you have a trio that works this well together. For all of Ballou’s sonic wizardry, Electric Messiah is all about the evolution of Pike, Matz, and Kensel. They simply cannot be denied a permanent spot among American royalty.
Purchase/stream Electric Messiah: smarturl.it/ElectricMessiah
"High-octane heavy rock album that'll melt your face off." - Brooklyn Vegan
"Pike and his comrades have almost casually upped the ante, delivering their heaviest, most memorable and most windy animalistic material to date." - Classic Rock Magazine
"It's fucking badass" - Matt Pike
"'Electric Messiah' reached levels of intensity hitherto unmatched in this extremely heavy metal trio's 20-year career." - Metal Hammer
"I fucking love it." - Metalsucks
"High on Fire knows who they are. One of the great bands in the history of metal. Electric Messiah is their latest impressive entry to their credentials and you shouldn’t sleep on it." - Heavy Blog is Heavy
"High on Fire remains one of the most recognizable acts in metal regardless of subgenres, and Electric Messiah reshapes that sphere as it sees fit to best serve the songs." - The Obelisk
DOWNLOAD – Album Artwork | DOWNLOAD – Press Photo
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