On the night of October 10th, Tipitina’s was packed with eager fans lining up for a performance by legendary sludge metal band High on Fire, with North Carolina’s Weedeater opening the show. Formed in 1998, the prolific sludge metal act was formed shortly after guitarist and frontman Matt Pike’s former band with Al Cisneros called Sleep, disbanded. 
 

With Cisneros covering vocals & bass and Pike on guitar, they were a force to be reckoned with. The group delivered sounds that were heavily influenced by doom metal of Black Sabbath, yet had more imposing melodies that conjured up desert imagery to create the quintessential style of the extreme metal subgenre of stoner metal. While High on Fire’s legacy isn’t quite as pronounced as Sleep’s, it’s definitely the more ferocious of the two, as well as the longer-lasting project. Since 1998, the band has put out albums of consistent quality that deliver nasty riffs turned to sludge, speedy solos, a dark fantasy aesthetic, and unique instrumentation.

They first became popular with releases such as Death Is This Communion and Blessed Black Wings in the 2000s’, but their material in the 2010s’ has also proven to be as rip-roaringly excellent as their earlier works. This latest tour is in support of their newest release, Cometh the Storm, which is the group’s first project in five years, and one of my personal favorite albums of 2024. With such an amazing track record and some of the most recognizable sludge metal songs under their belt, is it any wonder expectations from fans were so high for their performance? That’s before taking into account the other noteworthy group accompanying them.
 

North Carolina sludge band Weedeater similarly started in 1998 after the disbandment of vocalist & bassist Dave “Dixie” Collins’ former group, Buzzoven. They’ve been praised for their grimy aesthetic, distorted bluesy riffs (courtesy of guitarist Dave “Shep” Shepherd) and outrageous live performances. Their unique sound even caught the attention of legendary producer Steve Albini, who assisted with producing their albums God Luck and Good Speed and Jason… the Dragon. 
 

Their appearances are deceptive, for Dixie and Shep (as well as their new drummer since 2019, Ramzi Ateyeh) are surprisingly animated and lively in their performances despite the slow and trudging nature of many of their songs. Though they haven’t released any new material since 2015’s Goliathan, the band has managed to carry themselves from the strength of their live shows as well as their tongue-in-cheek sense of humor.
 

With these two heavy-hitters of sludge metal performing in one night, fans were ready for an ear-deafening night of heavy riffs and chaotic bouts of moshing. Once Weedeater first took to the stage, they wasted no time in giving the audience exactly what they came for. With two swigs from a huge jug of bourbon, Dixie took to the stage with Shep and Ramzi and made a number of goofy, exaggerated facial expressions while playing monstrously distorted melodies. Some of the songs played that night were “Wizard Fight”, “Hammerhandle”, “God Luck and Good Speed”, “Jason… the Dragon”, “Monkey Junction”, and “$20 Peanut” among many others, all of them being nothing short of explosive. 
 

Much of their material performed comes from God Luck and Good Speed and Jason… the Dragon, but that didn’t stop the band from playing their hearts out, or Dixie from screaming his brains out. While there was no mosh pit until their closer “Weed Monkey”, the intensity of their performance had most people in the audience headbanging their necks off  by the end of their showing. A performance so crushing in its sound that I expected it to be the highlight of the night, and was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong. 
 

As Pike, bassist since 2006 Jeff Matz, and drummer since 2021 Coady Willis took their places on the stage, audience members couldn’t help from clamoring in excitement, preparing for pandemonium to soon be unleashed in the venue. The band started their show with “Burning Down”, the second track off of Cometh the Storm, but certainly not the last. Other songs played that night both on and off the album included but were not limited to: “Rumours of War”, “Snakes for the Divine”, “Fury Whip”, “Cometh the Storm”, “Electric Messiah” and “Sol’s Golden Curse”. Unlike with Weedeater, the mosh pits started as soon as the band’s first song kicked into first gear with its pummeling percussion and lightning fast riffs. These moshes did not relent even in the slower tracks, and they only grew in intensity as the night went on. 
 

Pike’s vocal capabilities combined with his riffing is admirable, along with the drumming from Willis and basswork from Matz that complimented his energy to sludgy perfection. Many times during the show, Pike and Matz stood face to face with their instruments as their thunderous choruses reverberated through the venue. Fans were either lost in the moshing or tearing their voices to the lyrics, but all were undoubtedly getting a thrill out of what High on Fire had to offer that night. The band closed the night with “Darker Fleece”, a ten minute monster of a track and the closer to Cometh the Storm. Despite the slow progression of the track and its looming guitar work standing on its own without percussion, the band managed to pull out all the stops and save one of their best for last in a cacophonous wall of distortion that left my ears in a sorry state. If that isn’t an indicator for how above and beyond their performance was, then the roars of the audience as the song concluded most definitely would have been.
 

Despite being the less complex of the two from a songwriting perspective, Weedeater managed to deliver a crowd-pleasingly fun time with bluesy metal that fit right at home in the city said to be the birthplace of sludge metal. Even without moshers running amok, their zany energy kept audience members hooked and thrilled for what would be an even more earth-moving performance. High on Fire’s rapid, technically impressive capabilities coupled with their penchant for delivering plodding, powerful hooks and intense vocals more than satiated their fans that night. As someone who has only recently taken a deeper dive into this extreme metal subgenre, I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to see two of the most exciting and destructive bands in sludge metal. Audiences can only hope that a return to the south for these two bands is not far off in the distant future.