High on Fire Talk Aliens, Acid Trips and Why New Album ‘Doesn’t Suck’

“It’s a very important album for us,” says Matt Pike about Luminiferous, the seventh and latest full-length offering from his sludgy thrash trio High on Fire. “Before, I’d be all like, ‘How do we top the last one?’ But this ain’t about topping; this is about, ‘How do we express ourselves in a way that’s formidable, and can rival what we’ve done in the past?’ It’s not better – it’s just a different version of myself that I’ve been trying to express all along.”

Though Pike is too modest to say so himself, one could definitely make the case that Luminerous – which drops June 16th – is High on Fire’s finest album yet. Produced by Kurt Ballou of Converge, who also helmed 2012’s De Vermis Mysteriis, the record is a dark and dense affair powered by primal riffage and steeped in Pike’s obsession with the complex ancient (and possibly extraterrestrial) forces that he believes are putting the human race in great peril.

Pike has been through some heavy changes since De Vermis Mysteriis was released, including breaking up with the love of his life and getting sober after decades of hard partying. He recently spoke to Rolling Stone about how these challenges have affected his music, as well as the unsung contributions of High on Fire drummer Des Kensel and bassist Jeff Matz, the current state of Sleep – the legendary Nineties stoner-metal band that he still tours with – and, of course, the aliens in our midst.

Let’s talk about your new album, Luminiferous. . .
Do you like that thing?

The whole record is incredible. Are you happy with it?
Oh dude, I’m so not bummed. I am not bummed on that record at all. Because it doesn’t suck! [Laughs] As many times as I’ve tried to make it suck in my head, it doesn’t suck! At first, I felt like I didn’t get proper time with the guitar solos, but that’s a typical complaint from any musician who cares about what they do. Then I went back and gave the record a listen, and I was like, “Jesus Christ, dude – I’m shredding it!” [Laughs]

It’s also pretty intense, lyrically – there’s a lot of really dark stuff in there about the human race being controlled and manipulated by extraterrestrial forces. Do you believe that this is actually happening?
Yeah. Lyrically, I think this is the album that’s going to basically get secret people to shoot me. Dude, I say a lot of fucked-up shit! [Laughs] It’s not even like, wake up and smell the coffee; it’s like, dude, wake up and realize that it’s not a theory anymore – it’s a fucking conspiracy fact. We’re being manipulated on a daily basis. And yes, 9/11 was an inside job, but that’s like the least of my fucking worries. That was so that everybody could piss on the Constitution. Everybody’s gonna see when they have fucking FEMA camps and the military takes over the general populace. It’s gonna be fucked up. And it’s gonna be NATO; it’s not going to be American military. Because the minute a bunch of marines realize that they’re violating the constitution that they swore to defend, there’s going to be a problem – so NATO will come in and make that not a problem.