### High On Fire: Blessed black wings

#### 15/10/07 || The Duff

I gave this album a shot when it was first released due to the amazing press it was receiving at the time. I think that because I was promised a band like Mastodon yet felt as though I got nothing of the sort made me acknowledge the potential “Blessed Black Wings” had as well as harbor some disappointment that I couldn’t share the appreciation for High on Fire with everybody else. Fast forward two years, “Death is This Communion” knocks my nutsack up into the roof of my mouth, and being the impressionable little shit that I am, I decide to give the album another try.

The name of the game here is simplicity; High on Fire realize that in order for an album to be metal, all you need are mid-paced riffs so heavy that they make a woman orgasm on the spot, and well, the band delivers on such a front. To say that they sound unlike Mastodon would be wrong, as they take a lot of the doomy-riff mentality (so Sabbath, folks) and combine it with the not-so-heavy, yet unlike Mastodon, the band’s sound seems rooted in dirt – there is absolutely nothing polished about this album. There is also, along with the metal influence, quite the Motörhead vibe, which can never be a bad thing.

Any metalhead worth his salt will know of the opening riff to the title track; I can picture the band rehearsing in a circle, stoned out of their minds, coming up with the riff and grinning at each other like demented monkeys in the process. It’s a great riff, and one of metal’s finest moments, yet it’s remarkable how much the rest of the album, although not quite so striking, manages to draw up level to its greatness – a sign of a real classic.

Matt Pike doesn’t seem to have spared a second of his life from alcohol abuse, as his vocal chords appear strained to tearing point – a good thing, I think you’ll agree. Finally, the music isn’t exceptionally tight, but rather played as if by a well rehearsed garage band doing this for kicks before returning home to scoff down eight pounds of uncooked animal hide, guzzle a six pack and plough the missus with a mighty timber until she cums like a volcano.

9 great things out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2005
- Label: Relapse Records
- Website: www.highonfire.net
- Band
- Joe Preston: bass
- Des Kensel: drums
- Matt Pike: vocals, guitar

- Tracklist
- 01. Devilution
- 02. The Face of Oblivion
- 03. Brother in the Wind
- 04. Cometh Down Hessian
- 05. Blessed Black Wings
- 06. Anointing of Seer
- 07. To Cross the Bridge
- 08. Silver Back
- 09. Sons of Thunder