A trip into the woods goes horribly, horribly wrong for some heavy metal bros in the entertaining video for High On Fire/Sleep man Matt Pike’s debut solo single Alien Slut Mum.
The single is the first taste of Pike’s forthcoming debut solo album, Pike vs The Automaton, which is scheduled for release on February 18 via MNRK Heavy. The album was written by Pike with drummer Jon Reid and features contributions from Mastodon’s Brent Hinds, Tragedy’s Todd Burdette and Pike’s High on Fire bandmate Jeff Matz, among others.
“I made a psychedelic rock record that Sleep and High on Fire fans would like,” says Pike. “And maybe if you’re not a Sleep or High on Fire fan, you might like it too. I definitely think it’s interesting; it has D-Beat punk, two-step. It’s got everything and it still works together, it doesn’t sound odd. It’s just an off-the-wall psychedelic rock record.”
Of the album’s origins, Pike says: “I was just going bonkers during the pandemic. It was like really, truly miserable. And then all the riots here in Portland and all the political shit. I was trapped in my garage, which was the only place I could go and jam and do anything. I was trapped in there ‘cause I couldn’t go jam with High on Fire, I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t do that, no one could fly. I was going crazy. My friend Jon Reid, who was the original drummer for Lord Dying, had moved to Portland and was babysitting my dog, Crom, and he was drumming for my wife’s band, so he had his drums already set up at my place. I finally said, “Dude, do you want to come over and just start jamming? So, I just started this thing with my friend Jon. I was like, ‘Dude, fuck it. Let’s start a side band and we’ll just demo this and act like we’re starting it as teenagers, you know?”
"The album title, Pike vs The Automaton, wasn’t an ego thing for me,” he insists. “Billy [Anderson, producer] and Jon said, ‘Dude, you should use your name in this. This is your solo project.’ I said, I don’t want to do that. The Automaton, in Greek mythology, is the big robot that’s the guardian of the Gods, basically. It’s a soulless, big machine named Talos. The big machine that’s working against mankind at this moment. In Jason and the Argonauts, Jason and the Argonauts have to battle this big machine guy that protects the island. Basically, what the album title is saying, metaphorically, is Pike against the World.”
The track listing for Pike vs The Automaton is:
1. Abusive
2. Throat Cobra
3. Trapped In A Midcave
4. Epoxia
5. Land
6. Alien Slut Mum
7. Apollyon
8. Acid Test Zone
9. Latin American Geological Formation
10. Leaving The Wars Of Woe
The album is available to pre-order now.
