With the biggest Dutch fair in the backyard, 013 is hosting two heavy Doom bands called High on Fire and Conan. With the hot weather and speakers boasting numbers of low sonic waves in the venue you will be sweating, feeling hot and High on Fire. Lots of people are waiting in the entrance & bar area around 8 o’clock; the three piece of Conan is still sound checking. The temperature is rising and when the door is open a colder room is filled shortly.

During the hour set of Conan streams of thundering doom is heating up the small stage of 013. The three men are wearing hoodies so they must be sweating like maniacs under the stage lights. It’s not an easy job to play slow crushing doom and look evil too. Besides the heaviness they come up with a groove or a break before the songs are getting boring. In contrast with early shows they have incorporate faster songs such as ‘Gravity Chasm’. Like a wild boar in the forest they are raging through their set. The mix of slow and a bit faster Doom is easily to digest for the full hour. The vocals are kept in the background on purpose; it feels like cries on a ship in trouble before the coast. The heat in the venue is rising so some people leave early to gasp fresh air outside.
 

When High on Fire is starting the room still feels like a sauna. It doesn’t get any better when Matt Pike and his friends are starting off with ‘Fury Whip’. They played the 013 several times (the last time they did two main stage shows at Roadburn) so it’s no wonder they are welcomed as heroes and feel comfortable on stage. These guys love how to torture their instruments and our ears with stonerdoom hit songs. We hear ‘Devolution’, ‘Frost Hammer’ and much more beasts from a trio that love to play and rock out loud on stage.
 

What else can be said about High on Fire what not has been said? Not much except every bass string touch produces a stream of hot air in the venue, the pounding drums are marching forward as a Russian tank on a Ukraine battleground and the raw but majestic guitar play will terrorize average people who never been on a Stoner Doom show. Again, the trio fought and won with their glorious songs!