None But My Own blog's Tom Trakas caught up with HIGH ON FIRE drummer Des Kensel before the band's recent sold out show at Chicago's Lincoln Hall. An excerpt is available below.

Q: What’s the initial spark that gets the band to start writing?

Kensel: "You know, it seems like every record that comes out, it gets harder to write. I think it’s because we have such high expectations and because of that we can’t always agree on stuff, but it gets done. But on ‘Snakes for the Divine’, I can definitely think back on it and it was a fucking headache. But I think we’re all like the happiest and most proud of this one.

I think our songwriting has evolved, our personal musicianship has evolved so at the end of the day when it’s finally done and we can agree on what part goes where and for how many times…it’s definitely something we’re proud of. It took a while though, we had so many parts and so many riffs, we put all of them down on a disc once and it was close to two hours! We also, for the first time did some pre-production and we happened to finish a few songs during that time too. Another first was having a producer with actual input in some of the songwriting and that really helped out.

For this album we had some charts where we would write the parts and their timing and their key and BPM (beats per minute) and at one point it felt like our heads were about to explode so it was great to have an outside opinion."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

As previously reported, High On Fire will tour Europe this May with METALLICA. They were hand-picked by the legendary group to support it on a number of just announced live dates set to launch on May 11 in Belfast, Ireland.

High On Fire and Metallica will pair up for a slew of concerts over an almost two week span including live performances in Hungary, Croatia, Portugal, Israel and France.

“High on Fire is ecstatic to join Metallica on its upcoming tour,” said the band in a statement. “We are honored to be chosen by James, Lars, Kirk and Robert and look forward to introducing their loyal crowds to our brand of heaviness.”

May

11 - Belfast, Ireland - Odyssey Arena
12 - Belfast, Ireland - Odyssey Arena
14 - Budapest, Hungary - Puskas Ferenc Stadium
16 - Zagreb, Croatia - Hippodrome
18 - Lisbon, Portugal - Pavilhao Atlantico
19 - Lisbon, Portugal - Pavilhao Atlantico
22 - Tel Aviv, Israel - Ramat Gan Stadium
23 - Lyon, France - Halle Tony Garnier