[Photo Credit: Jimmy Hubbard]

From rewriting the hard rock rulebook with his Grammy award-winning trio, High On Fire, to reverse engineering doom metal with his genre-defining trio Sleep, Matt Pike has channeled his natural talents and chiseled a steely path straight to the heart of modern-day metal’s molten core. Today, Pike releases his debut solo LP, Pike Vs. The Automaton, via MNRK Heavy. Music, merch and more is available at THIS LOCATION

Born out of the challenges brought on by a worldwide pandemic, Pike Vs. The Automaton is both a musical and emotional release. The record was written by Pike with drummer Jon Reid, features contributions from a slew of family and friends, and was recorded with longtime conspirator Billy Anderson, the producer who brought the best out of Pike previously on touchstone titles such as Surrounded By Thieves and Sleep’s Holy Mountain.

Pike Vs. The Automaton has met to a landslide of fan and critical acclaim in the weeks leading up to its release, being called “a psych-rock blowout” by the Chicago Reader, and “thrilling” by Revolver. Blabbermouth stated, “It is a certified Heavy Metal Fact that Matt Pike is a badass,” Decibel called Pike “a trailblazing visionary,” Glide named Pike “one of the most badass rockers on this planet”, Guitar World deemed Pike “a modern-day equivalent to Tony Iommi”, and Pitchfork opined, “Pike is biologically driven to write and play bodacious heavy metal riffs.”

The album title, Pike Vs. The Automaton, wasn’t an ego thing for me,” says Pike. “Billy 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.'”

Amongst the album’s slat of skyscraping songs, Pike Vs. The Automaton features videos for the bizarrely-titled ‘Alien Slut Mum’ (featuring Pike, Anderson, and the PVTA crew on an eye-opening wilderness adventure) and ‘Land’ featuring Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds, which Pike describes as, “totally different, like an old blues song”. View ‘Alien Slut Mum’ HERE and watch ‘Land’ at THIS LOCATION

“I made a psychedelic rock record that Sleep and High On Fire fans would like,” Pike continues when asked for a Cliff’s Notes description of Pike Vs. The Automaton. “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.”

Guest musicians on Pike Vs. The Automaton include Alyssa Maucere-Pike (Lord Dying, Grigax), Chad “Chief” Hartgrave, Brent Hinds (Mastodon), Steve McPeeks (West End Motel), Josh Greene (El Cerdo), Todd Burdette (Tragedy, His Hero is Gone), and High On Fire bassist Jeff Matz, who lays down Turkish electric saz on the album’s towering closing track ‘Leaving The Wars Of Woe’.

Pike Vs. The Automaton Tracklisting:

  1. Abusive
  2. Throat Cobra
  3. Trapped In A Midcave
  4. Epoxia
  5. Land (feat. Brent Hinds)
  6. Alien Slut Mum
  7. Apollyon
  8. Acid Test Zone
  9. Latin American Geological Formation
  10. Leaving The Wars Of Woe

PIKE VS. THE AUTOMATON Online:
Official Site
Facebook