Blessed Black Wings

Blessed Black Wings is the third studio album by heavy metal band High on Fire. This album also 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
Released	February 1, 2005
Recorded	Electrical Audio Chicago, IL
Genre	Stoner metal, sludge metal
Length	53:23
Label	Relapse Records
Producer	Steve Albini
High on Fire chronology
Surrounded by Thieves (2002) Blessed Black Wings (2005) Death Is This Communion (2007)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
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 in 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 it's sharper and more agile sound will appeal to fans of Mastodon's Leviathan.[2]

Accolades

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

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
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

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 2018-11-18.
2. Ubl, Sam. "High on Fire - Blessed Black Wings". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
3. Begrand, Adrien. "High on Fire: Blessed Black Wings". PopMatters. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
4. Yardley, Miranda. "The top 21 Relapse Records". Terrorizer. Archived from the original on 2018-11-18. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
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 2018-11-18.
7. Chantler, Chris. "The 10 essential sludge metal albums". Metal Hammer. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
8. Terich, Jeff. "10 Essential Sludge Metal Albums". Treblezine. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
9. Epstein, Dan. "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2018-11-18.