High On Fire / Silverburn @ Rebellion, Manchester 15th June 2024

The expected traffic jams of people going to see the Foo Fighters at Old Trafford didn’t materialise, so I expected to get to Manchester‘s Rebellion in plenty of time to see Silverburn, who intrigued me when I played their recent album. Sadly, due to tickets being bought from several different sources, I queued outside for about twenty minutes so I could only hear them playing.

Though I did enjoy the sight of one chap being total caught out by surprise as Matt Pike walked past to try and get in the rear of the club, only to head back past us moments later muttering ‘fucking venue’ as he couldn’t and headed to the front entrance instead! So that got lots of chuckles.

I caught the final three songs of Silverburn, who are headed by James ‘Jimbob’ Isaac, and the music is spot on. The double bass is on fire, the album material sounds pretty cool live, and they got the crowd bobbing along with heads banging all over place. The music has constant tempo changes, which I really enjoyed.

There’s no way to pigeonhole Silverburn, with bits of hardcore, death metal, sludge and metalcore type riffs coming at you in all directions, with the drums controlling the tempo across the songs, and Jimbob was in his element here. He gave a shoutout to High On Fire for taking them out on tour and thanked Manchester for coming out early to watch them. Next time, I‘ll hope to watch more!

With some bands you know what to expect, but I genuinely forgot just how brilliant High On Fire are live. They are one of those bands who should be much bigger than they are, and I was reminded by a friend when we saw them at Jabez Clegg in Manchester, many years ago, so why the hell are they still playing similar size venues, when they are such an unbelievable live band?

With Karanlık Yol playing across the PA, the 500-strong sold-out crowd packed into Rebellion are treated to one hell of a performance. With spotlights circling, they are welcomed like gods entering a gladiatorial arena. ‘We are High On Fire’ roared the now familiar shirtless Matt Pike and off they went, ripping into Burning Down with Jeff Matz looking at ease with the twin neck 4-string bass and 6-string guitar combo.

The sound generated by the trio was like a rumble of thunder and they are the consummate professionals. I watched Jeff Matz last year with Mutoid Man, and you can’t help being mesmerised by his finger plucking, there’s not many superlatives left to describe it, but I was transfixed. ‘Turk, Turk, Turk’ shouts Pike from the other side of the stage and the masters are at work once again with Coady Willis on drums like a flash of lightning, the intensity of his drumming was off the scale.

Willis leads off the stunning Fertile Green with a sublime drum intro and then chaos ensues. The music was so intense, the riffs from Pike are executed perfectly, and they just fit in with each other so effortlessly. They are in full attack mode, like having their feet on our necks and there was no letting up. Hung Drawn and Last were next up and I stood there watching with a smile on my face. There wasn’t much crowd interaction, but as the riffs continued to crush, a bit of drama.

With a puff of smoke, Matz’s bass amp went off mid-song! Pike’s mic didn’t appear to work, and the crew took to the stage with panic on their faces. Jeff stood there a bit bemused, whilst Pike and Willis treated us to an impromptu jam session that lasted about ten minutes.

With a huge round of applause, Matz was back, ‘What about this crew, huh? Thanks guys and thank you for your patience.’ With the delay, it meant missing out a few songs from the setlist, so Cometh Down Hessian and Carcosa weren’t played, instead, they ploughed straight into the title track of the latest album, the wonderful Cometh The Storm which seemed to be even louder than before, the sound was huge and the riffs more intense.

Rumour Of War was played at a breakneck speed, so fast, so heavy, so utterly brilliant, prompting the quote of the night from The Sleeping Shaman himself, ‘pure Motörhead’ and you can’t get higher praise than that. Fury’s Whip promoted further madness in the pit and seemed to take the intensity up to another level and then, the bass amp went again, albeit briefly this time, before they rip into Sol’s Golden Curse.

With the 10pm curfew rapidly approaching, the guitar intro of Snakes For The Divine completely dominates the venue. You can almost feel the foundations shaking, as that opening riff is something to behold, prompting a few crowd surfers to summon their energy reserves. They bring the house down with the final song Darker Fleece, with Matz again showing off his silky skills on the twin neck during the ten-minute epic.

There’s no Electric Messiah or Frosthammer or Bastard Samurai or Devilution but that doesn’t matter one damn bit, as High On Fire once again put on a show where their music does the talking, and they are simply brilliant at what they do. What a treat it is to see them live and performing so majestically on stage.

High On Fire

Silverburn

Scribed by: Matthew Williams
Photos by: Lee Edwards