High on Fire

Fans of music heavier than the cast of Celebrity Fit Club 3 have had much to rejoice about over the past couple of years, what with so many powerful, innovative sounds coming out of the art-metal underground (as so nicely documented in a recent New York Times piece), plus the rise of straightforward metal acts like Oakland's High on Fire, which takes its cues from the no-bullshit, take-no-prisoners fury of Motörhead, early Metallica, and Venom for its exhilarating assault. While it's a given that the trio will steamroll your senses -- a year of nonstop touring behind 2005's Blessed Black Wings has made the already tight HoF an unstoppable metal monster -- there are three more terrific reasons to check out this Saturday's show. The best of them is Big Business, the just-relocated-to-L.A.-from-Seattle, bass-and-drums duo of Jared Warren (ex-Karp) and Coady Willis (ex-Murder City Devils) that smashes the sounds of Sabbath, Slayer, and The Melvins (with whom the twosome toured and acted as rhythm section last fall) together to titanic ends. And SoCal metal-punks The Bronx (currently working on the follow-up to their excellent 2003 self-titled debut) and Canadian hardcore-metal heroes Buried Inside, who round out the evening's intestine-rattling lineup, ain't too shabby, either.