Blessed Black Wings

Blessed Black Wings is the third studio album by American heavy metal band High on Fire. It would be the only with Joe Preston on bass who would be replaced by Jeff Matz.

Blessed Black Wings
Studio album by
High on Fire
ReleasedFebruary 1, 2005
RecordedElectrical Audio (Chicago, Illinois)
GenreStoner metal, sludge metal
Length53:23
LabelRelapse Records
ProducerSteve Albini
High on Fire chronology
Surrounded by Thieves
(2002)		 Blessed Black Wings
(2005)		 Death Is This Communion
(2007)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Pitchfork Media(7.3/10)[2]
PopMatters[3]

The tracks "The Face of Oblivion" and "Cometh Down Hessian" are based on stories by horror fiction author H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness and The Hound, respectively. The vinyl version was released as a double LP and contains a bonus track, "Rapid Fire", originally by Judas Priest.

Blessed Black Wings was voted 48th in the '50 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century' by Kerrang! magazine.

Reception

Blessed Black Wings was released to positive reception. Critics in particular praised Steve Albini's production of the album, with criticism mainly being pointed towards Matt Pike's vocals. Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic acknowledged Pike's appreciation of Celtic Frost noting the influence of the band in the closing instrumental "Sons of Thunder".[1] Adrien Bergrand of PopMatters praised the album for being more listener-friendly akin to Neurosis's The Eye of Every Storm (also produced by Albini) while noting influence from Motörhead, Slayer, and Entombed.[3] Sam Ubl has stated that Blessed Black Wings and its sharper and more agile sound will appeal to fans of Mastodon's Leviathan.[2]

Accolades
Year Publication Country Accolade Rank
2011TerrorizerUnited States "The Top 21 Relapse Records"18[4]
2012StereogumUnited States "The Top 20 Steve Albini-Produced Albums"18[5]
2016LoudwireUnited States "The 100 Best Hard Rock + Metal Albums of the 21st Century"73[6]
2016Metal HammerUnited Kingdom "The 10 Essential Sludge Metal Albums"*[7]
2016TreblezineUnited States "10 Essential Sludge Metal Albums"*[8]
2017Rolling StoneUnited States "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time"84[9]
"*" denotes an unordered list.

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Devilution"4:46
2."The Face of Oblivion"6:36
3."Brother in the Wind"5:40
4."Cometh Down Hessian"5:14
5."Blessed Black Wings"7:43
6."Anointing of Seer"5:39
7."To Cross the Bridge"7:20
8."Silver Back"3:14
9."Sons of Thunder"7:12
Vinyl bonus track
No.TitleLength
10."Rapid Fire" (Judas Priest cover)4:18

Personnel
  • Matt Pike – guitar, vocals
  • Des Kensel – drums
  • Joe Preston – bass
  • Greg Norman – AMP repair
  • Produced by Steve Albini and High on Fire
  • Engineered by Steve Albini
  • Assistant engineers – Russ Arbuthnot, Rob Vester
  • Mastered by John Golden
  • Visuals by Arik Roper

References
  1. Rivadavia, Eduardo. "High on Fire - Blessed Black Wings". AllMusic. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  2. Ubl, Sam. "High on Fire - Blessed Black Wings". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  3. Begrand, Adrien (February 2005). "High on Fire: Blessed Black Wings". PopMatters. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  4. Yardley, Miranda. "The top 21 Relapse Records". Terrorizer. Archived from the original on November 18, 2018. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  5. Breihan, Tom (January 26, 2012). "The Top 20 Steve Albini-Recorded Albums". Stereogum. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  6. "THE 100 BEST HARD ROCK + METAL ALBUMS OF THE 21ST CENTURY". Loudwire. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  7. Chantler, Chris (October 12, 2016). "The 10 essential sludge metal albums". Metal Hammer. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  8. Terich, Jeff (September 15, 2016). "10 Essential Sludge Metal Albums". Treblezine. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  9. Epstein, Dan (June 21, 2017). "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
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