 |
Des Kensel
(November 2005 Issue)
Stripped Down And
Raw High On Fire drummer Des Kensel remembers the moment
he and his
bandmates first hooked up with radical engineer Steve Albini. "He asked
us if there were any weird ideas or
experimental things we wanted to
work with. We told him, 'Not really. We just want it to be raw and have
it sound like
us.'"
You certainly can't blame them. On the Bay Area trio's third album,
Blessed Black Wings
(Relapse), mammoth riffs and gargantuan grooves reign supreme,
while
Kensel wages a furiously heavy and constantly catchy assault with his
Pearl maple kit. "I used to play a five-piece with
a double kick
pedal," the drummer says, "but now I play a four-piece with a single
pedal. My style has
progressed."
During the trio's latest studio sessions, Albini
didn't mess too
much with Kensel's approach. But he did capture what's
best about it - with carefully chosen and placed
microphones. The band
would play live in the studio, and after Albini determined what
frequencies needed to stand out, he
picked mic's accordingly. "He's a
scientist in that way," Kensel notes. Albini, however, did inspire
Kensel to get
somewhat experimental on the album's final track, "Sons
Of Thunder." According to Kensel, "Those huge fills were inspired
by a
big hippie drum circle."
Jeff Perlah
 Go to Artist Index
|
|
|
|
