Blessed Black Wings

Strong album by this band. Great metal riffs.

SURROUNDED BY THIEVES (2002) may still be the best HoF album, but they followed it up with another great one in 2005 with BLESSED BLACK WINGS. Steve Albini engineered and produced, and the sound is cleaner than on SBT, but no less powerful. The album opens and closes with tribal drums from Des Kensel. The closer is a long instrumental -- "Sons of Thunder." If it has not been used in lots of film soundtracks, I don't know why. It has an epic, heroic quality that would be perfect in many, many scenes. As it is, those scenes are evoked in the listener's mind. Matt Pike created an archetypal metal band with High on Fire. Adjectives are always strung together to describe the HoF sound like stoner/doom/thrash, but another way to get the picture is "Motorhead slowed down and more serious." Less party music and more the soundtrack for a mental quest with Conan the Barbarian. I'm looking forward to the new one later in 2015!

I don't see where anyone else has said this, after all the years this album has been released, so I guess I'm the one that has to do this... If you call yourself a Metalhead, you need to own this album! It personifies everything that is right with Metal. Everything High on Fire represents personifies all that is right with heavy music. This album is a modern masterpiece, and the same can be said about they're entire catalog. If you truly appreciate where this genre came from, you owe it to yourself to look into what this band is doing with an open mind. They pull from the best of what the forefathers did, and put it in a completely new light that is needed to push the boundaries of this genre into uncharted territories; all with keeping the traditions that made it so damn cool in the first place alive... Or in other words... If you call yourself a Metalhead, you NEED to own this album. Thank you and Goodnight.

High on Fire may very well be the best metal band since the Big 4. Blessed Black Wings oozes metal. Although I do like the current line up with Jeff Matz on bass, this album musically kills. From start to finish you can hear the booze, the sweat and the filth that makes these guys great. In the current metal scene, which kind of sucks ( and yes I have given some of those bands five star reviews-that is about to change) High on Fire are steadily showing why they are the best. If I didn't know this album came out in '05, I would have put it in the early eighties. Chock full of thick meaty riffs and hard and heavy drumming, these guys are THAT deal. This is definitely worth owning

Matt Pike is defintely a Brother In The Wind. I love that tune. Self Defense was great, Surrounded By Thieves an instant classic, and Black Wings here has got to be one the greatest metal albums ever made. Stoner metal, rock, doom, whatever tag you wish to place on this, these songs will live on forever ... at least in my heart. I can't name one song on this that I don't think is killer beyond belief. Devilution will open the set and prepare you for what's to come. Brother In The Wind will send chills down your spine, and by the time you get to the monster sound on Sons of Thunder, you will be a believer. Hail High On Fire. Bring on the next one Matt!!!!!!!

I took a chance on this CD even though I wasn't that impressed after sampling some of their older material. I know this is a band that prides itself on being raw, but the older stuff just sounded too cruddy. Not so with this album. When I found out that Steve Albini produced this, I figured I could take a chance on this CD and it turned out to be a worthwhile purchase. Don't get me wrong, the production is still very raw, but Albini leaves his mark with his usual quality production, which involves tape and vintage equipment as oppposed to using the hard disk recordng technology of today. And the sound fits the type of music very well. Musically, these guys are definitely metal...closer to Motorhead and early Slayer than to modern metal bands. They definitely have the "stoner metal" sound going for them, to a certain extent. While they aren't as tight or complex as a band like Mastodon, for example, the music is fairly accomplished and the songs are laid out tastefully. The vocals are gruff, but they fit. They're kind of a throwback band, so I recommend this to anyone looking for quality older school metal who likes a raw sound. One thing about this CD: it really grows on you. Since I got it a couple months ago, I've thrown it on almost every time I sit down to chill and have a couple of beers.

Raw and awesome!

I love this CD. I;m a big HP Lovecraft and so is Matt Pike. There are a couple of HPL inspired tunes on Blessed Black Wings.

the record was brand new and it contains what i expected, solid rock and roll for a french punk veteran !

Nella descrizione è proposto un vinile in edizione limitata e colorato invece è arrivato nero e non numerato. Ho fatto un reso.

Great album, would recommend buying if you are into cds

いい意味で前作とは異なる音を叩き出してる。これを、ライブで出せれば完璧なのだが、、、（三人編成のため、、、）しかし、２００５年早々と素晴らしいアルバムの登場である。sleepの残党のバンド om もアルバムが出てるので そちらも要注目！

good