Customer Reviews

Blessed Black Wings

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Coming off the back-to-back triumphs of The Art of Self-Defense and Surrounded by Thieves, High on Fire have returned with a landmark of heavy music, one that may end up going down as their definitive work. On Blessed Black Wings, High On Fire remain as ruthlessly heavy and unapologetically gloomy as ever, but their sound has somehow managed to become even bigger and better than before. This power trio (emphasis on the word "power") plays rampaging, roiling metal at its most primal and visceral, drawing influence from all the right places: Black Sabbath, Motorhead, and of course frontman Matt Pike's old band Sleep. For this, their third album, High On Fire have teamed with indie uber-producer Steve Albini, and the move has paid off and then some, resulting in a sound that's finally full enough to do justice to the band's epic, apocalyptic vision.

Behind the hell-hound vocals of Matt Pike, the band once again delivers a full-scale aural assault that's as vast as it is ferocious. Pike's strangulated guitar solos are pure freakin' insanity, Des Kensel's drum fills very neatly replicate the feeling of being hit upside the head, and Joe Preston's bass riffs are downright atomic. More importantly though, Blessed Black Wings sees a further refinement of High On Fire's already formidable songwriting abilities. While Pike & Co. most certainly haven't abandoned the pummeling sonic stomp that characterized their previous two albums, Blessed Black Wings is probably their least monolithic, most fully-developed effort to date. Rampaging tracks like the opening Devilution and Cometh Down Messiah see the band veering closer to thrash-metal territory than ever before, with Pike cranking out distorted speed riffs and sounding eerily similar to Lemmy Kilmister on vocals. The title track segues from an ominous, martial-sounding intro into a few moments of relative quiet, then launches into a groove heavy enough to level a mid-sized city. Similarly, To Cross the Bridge starts with a tense, acoustic-tinged passage before descending into a hellish vortex of tortured shouts and twisted guitar work. Its title notwithstanding, the closing instrumental Sons of Thunder is almost ambient (for these guys anyway), driven mainly by the hypnotic, repetitive thump of the rhythm section.

With this CD you also get a DVD feauring live renditions of five songs: Devilution, Speedwolf, Cometh Down Hessian, Brother in the Wind, and Nemesis. While the sound quality isn't that great, it is nice to see these guys replicating the intense fury of their studio sound in a live setting. If (like me) you can't see them live for whatever reason, this DVD treatment is probably the next best thing. In any case, Blessed Black Wings is the finest thing High On Fire have released so far, and all their albums are classics. And if you like these guys, be sure to pick up Sleep's Dopesmoker as well.

Take Motorhead, "Reign in Blood" era Slayer, early Black Sabbath, and Sleep. Imagine all of them having sex, and try to conceive of what their offspring would sound like. High on Fire's "Blessed Black Wings" is what you should come up with as an answer.

This is Metal the way it was always meant to be played. Loud, heavy, and pissed off. You will find no modern clichés, stereotypes, or even influences... because these guys know that most of the stuff passing as "Metal" these days is simply false. High on Fire function as a reminder to all who have lost the faith that Metal can still be as good as it was back in its glory days.

Since their previous album "Surrounded by Thieves", High on Fire have progressed slightly and they've taken a more metal-less stoner approach. They're heavier, they're louder, and I'd say they're just simply better than ever before. They've certainly outdone themselves again, but I don't think they've reached their peak quite yet.

Some noteable tracks are Cometh Down Hessian, Blessed Black Wings, To Cross the Bridge, and Devilution.

Pick this one up immediately.

Album number three from this excellent stoner/doom/thrash outfit, building on their previous powerhouse outings of 2000's 'The Art of Self Defense' and 2002's 'Surrounded by Thieves' respectively. For the uninitiated, HOF play a noisy mix of Black Sabbath and Clutch, full of incredible riffs and thunderous drumming. Never one to refine their recordings, HOF has an almost punk-like quality to their approach to music if not the sound alone.

Formed by ex-Sleep guitarist Matt Pike, HOF is one of those rare bands that nearly everyone of most metal genre can appreciate - no mean feat either. Yet, it's easy to see why; 'Blessed Black Wings' literally destroys, folks. Plain and simply, it's as heavy as a pregnant elephant wearing steel-toe construction boots.

Opting for famed producer Steve Albini this time round (the band used Billy Anderson for both long-plays) the sound of BBW is just massive - opener 'Devilution' builds from a tribal call-to-arms thumping courtesy of drummer Des Kensel, with cymbals and snares being literally whacked out of it - does anyone hit the drums harder than this guy? The title track sounds as if it belongs on something from the 70's, whilst album highlight 'Anointing of Seer' is the best track of its like it's been my pleasure to hear. Guitar solos are riotous, distorted affairs, the bass playing of Joe Preston chugging in the background, giving you the impression that this album was recorded live and in one take.

Already selling by the bucket-load (and rightly so too) you are going to hear a lot from High on Fire. Highly recommended.

To J.J. Kilroy, who wrote:

"I think this album would rival "Master of Puppets" if Matt would just be disciplined enough to learn proper thrash guitar technique (read "All downstrokes at speeds less than 200 bpm). Because of their lacadazical, stoner approach to metal, they will never rival Slayer or Entombed, early Metallica etc."

Why would you want to RIVAL Slayer, Entombed, or early Metallica, when you could TOTALLY DESTROY THEM?

High on Fire doesn't play ridiculous thrash metal; they don't need retarded displays of empty technique; they play with FEELING. And I don't mean flowers and butterflies and pretty green fields, I mean HATRED and RAGE and HOPE and DESPAIR... things Slayer and Entombed and early Metallica only pretended at. Don't get me wrong, I listen to Ride the Lightning every chance I get, but High on Fire is in no way a lesser beast. IN NO WAY. This is THE REAL THING, my friend... it doesn't come along often.

Hmmm, where to start. As the first reviewer of the CD, I just want to say this album SLAYS. I don't know how they do it, but this band really keeps getting better and better. They seem to build on themselves, evolve, progress, yet still manage to have this unmistakable sound that is High On Fire.
I'm not the hugest metalhead in anyways whatsoever. My metal collection is pretty poor, but I am a rabid music fan in general, and definte fan of good heavy music.
High on Fire somehow takes the elements of metal and rock and make the best of them without sounding cliched and old. What initally sparked me on this band was their HUGE groove that their songs have. It's so hard to just sit there listening without banging your head with this massive groove they have.

That said, this new album of theirs is a must buy for any fans of metal, and an eyeopener for all rock fans.
The opening track starts off heavy and fast. A new side of this band. Good song, but for me, it all starts once song # 2 comes in, 'Face of Oblivion'. Holy @#$@. When I first heard this song, my jaw dropped. Starts off sludgy, then ends up as an epic metal rock song. From there, the whole rest of the album is pretty much instant classic material.
I believe that 2005 is gonna be a breakthrough yr for this band in the metal world. They deserve every praise they get and I'd love to see this band get the respect they deserve.
As for the production of this album, it's perfect. This time they got Steve Albini to record it, and he nails them down perfect. Compared to their last album 'Surrounded By Thieves', the sound is clearer, crisper, yet still retains a thick as hell sound that is so deadly. I think that this sound is perfect for this album, just as I think that the muddy and dusty sound on SBT was perfect for that album. You can really hear the intricate guitar work on this album that wouldn't work as well with SBT production.
If you are new to this band, I'd say this album is a great intro to this band. Keep in mind though, as one-sided as this band may be (their sole intent is to crush), each album is different from the next, and I can only wonder what their next album will sound like.

People compare High on Fire to Mastodon, Slayer, and Motorhead, all apt comparisons. None of these bands have much of anything on the metal fury that High on Fire releases. Yet High on Fire have more indie production values along with other values from those in that realm, certainly making their albums less slick than Mastodon's _Leviathan_ and anything by Slayer after _Reign in Blood_. I would also compare High on Fire to more "underground" bands like Big Black, Bad Brains, and, obviously, the Melvins. Like Big Black--whose leader, Steve Albini, produces and masters this album--excessive studio volume contributes heavily to the vibe of the recording. This is true to such an extent that the amp repair guy gets listed right under the names of the band members and Albini with the same size font; I'm sure he got a lot of work in on this unbelievably loud recording session.

Like Bad Brains's Dr. Know, Matt Pike uses all sorts of chromatic riffs and soloes, eschewing conventional modes to a great extent. Unlike lesser guitarists who use all the notes on the fretboard because they don't know the right ones to hit, Matt Pike strategically adds the appropriately tortured tone by going outside of conventional scales. Also like Dr. Know, his soloes are very dynamic, largely staying away from metal cliches.

Of course, the big indie band to compare High on Fire to is the Melvins, not least because the Melvins's Joe Preston holds down the bottom end for High on Fire. Every song on this album is slathered thick with a grimy layer of sludge, giving the listener the effect of being lost in a sea of it early on in the album. "Devilution" starts you off in the lyrical realm of many other Satan-obsessed metal singers of the past, but with the added dimension that this band is playing well past the volume level that any band ever should and also that it sounds live in the studio, giving an even more frantic feel and rough edge to this already dark music.

Each song tends to stay in the same satanic lyrical pocket, tho' Matt Pike's disconnected poetry is a little more evocative than your typical doom metal dude. What varies is the music. Each song is a bona fide extreme metal slab of sound in its own right. The only part of the formula that stays the same is the loudness, rawness, and sludginess. Otherwise, each song has a different structure, moving from tempo to tempo, time signature to time signature, and chord configuration to chord configuration. As far as music that makes you want to commit antisocial acts goes, it doesn't get much better than this outside of the influences I mention above.

After a number of false alarms, heavy metal may be poised to rule once again over all other styles of "popular music". High on Fire is just what metal has needed for some time: a music H-Bomb to blow away the pretenders. HIGH ON FIRE took a huge mis-step last time, with a stoner album. The 1990's ended 5 years earlier, but apparently no one told the producers and execs at Relapse Records. So "Surrounded By Thieves" bombed commercially.

There are dozens of heavy-metal, thrash-metal, black-metal, death-metal, and {insert-genre}-metal bands around with OK product, but nothing tht lasts beyond some initial hype. They've toured for a few years, and have 1 or more CD's available. But each new release follows the same pattern: fanfare at first, a little fan enthusiasm, and then 6 months later only the hardcore fanatics even remember it.

Like KREATOR over in Europe, HIGH ON FIRE is the real thing however. Start with the cover art -- in rich oils, it evokes the same sense of menace and tensions that Conan illustrator, Frank Frazetta's best work does. It looks really menacing, because it's not done with digital-fake-art sofware packages or 'Adobe Photoshop', with all of the flat, lifeless digital color & shading effects.

The analog realism approach is reproduced in the music too. WHile the CD is a digital recording, the tracks have very few 'digital studio effects' thrown into the mix. The result is a much more intense heavy rock sound. It's not done oftne because most bands don't really have the equipment (or the talent) to cut songs in one take, with only a few extra overdubs as filler.

The music itself is dark, heavy and powerful. Like Black Sabbath (and Ludwig van Beethoven, for that matter), HIGH ON FIRE built their songs on a core rhythm with simple note structures. Lyrics, riffs, and other 'flash' were added to polish the songs. The music structure was probably inevitable, since drummer Des Kensel and bassist Joe Preston had the greatest input into the song-writing. Unlike most early 21st-century metal bands, they didn't try to make the special effects, vocal histrionics, or added guitar solos the mainstay of their songs. This CD is an excellent case study in the "less (input) is more (output)" approach to production.

Like SLAYER, HIGH ON FIRE can also reproduce their sound live (since the albusm HIGH ON FIRE and SLAYER turn out are cut almost live to begin with, this is probably not too surprising). And in concert, freed from the constraints of recorded music which has to play well on everything from mini-headphones and laptop speakers to huge megawatt theater-style systems, they sound terrific.

Blessed Black Wings never lapses into self-conscious attemtps to make grand statements, and contains the kind of musically primal, but modern-sounding heavy metal that few bands are gutsy enough (and not really capable) of attempting. So, unlike most metal CD's, which never make it very far into major distribution channels or major retailers (and have to be sought out in obscure corners), I expect that this CD will be widely available and popular with heavy rockers. Unlike a lot of one-shot wonders who burn out soon, it seems HIGH ON FIRE may have staying power too.

Best Cuts:
'Devilution'
'Face of Oblivion'
'Blessed Black Wings' (title cut)
'Anointing of Seer' (back to stoner sound, but better than ever)

Matt Pike and co have created a great doom record with dark guitars, pounding bass, tribal drumming and fu..ing brutal vocal... The production is raw, Matt uses Laney Klipp and Soldano amps, there are no digital stompboxes in sight... My personal favs are the title track, Devilution, The Face Of Oblivion, Brother In The Wind and Cometh Down Hessian

You should buy everything by this band!!

No way, there's not nearly enough bottom end in that description, and believe it or not that combo is too polished and radio friendly to capture this album. High on Fire are the bastard offspring of Sleep, the band that released an hour long song about how Jesus wants you to smoke weed, and I'd say the best way to describe this album is not Slayer meets Motorhead but St Vitus meets Carnal Forge. I'm not exactly an expert on the genre, but this is the first raw up-tempo doom I've ever heard or heard of. And it kicks some serious ass! The tone is as monsterously heavy as any I've ever heard. Commeth Down Hessian in particular is a crushing irresistable headbanger/mosher. The production on this album is awesome, the bass tone is impossibly heavy, the soloing is raw, fast and furious. Best of all, mine came with a free concert DVD. This was worth seeing because Matt Pike can do everything you hear on this album live! Plus you the drummer's kit is less than half the size I was picturing (believe it or not he doesn't even have 2 bass pedals), these guys are not just heavy and uncompromising, they are tight as hell. This is the most exciting band I've been introduced to in some time. Whether your first love in metal is thrash, doom, death, or even black metal I highly reccomend High on Fire and this particular album. I don't know if I've ever heard a single band that can capture the essence of all that is metal, with all the subgenres its splintered into until I heard this album. Matt Pike & Co are heavy metal's anti-posers. This band is all that is metal.

This band has power. _Blessed Black Wings_ is like some kind of great burning effigy streaking across the sky. High on Fire have an organic sound that seems very alive where many other bands are overproduced to a high polish. You'll find this sort of raw energy with the likes of Motorhead or Early Venom, with haggard vocals, snarling guitars and a drums that sound like they're live. In fact, the songs seem tailor-made to be played live and bring down any roof. Indeed, I'm sure there are mushroom clouds hanging in space above their performances. A highlight for me was the track "To Cross The Bridge", with its relentless wall of sound and smouldering guitar solo at the end. When that song got going, I wanted to run to the window and scream incoherently up at the June sky. I wanted to shake my fist at passersby. I wanted to light my desk on fire. Which is to say, it's not the safest thing to listen to on your iPod while at the office.

Also not reccommended car music for those hightly susceptible to road rage.