High on Fire – Blessed Black Wings
Genres: Doom, Sludge, Stoner Metal
Label: Relapse Records
Opening with a monster of a song in “Devilution”, High on Fire’s Blessed Black Wings seems hellbent to destroy all preconceptions of stoner metal.
Quite frankly, I think it succeeds. It’s got the speeds of death metal with the riffs of doom and the lyrical subject matter that would make J.RR. Tolkien, Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft smile. In fact, two of my favorite tracks from the album, “Face of Oblivion” and “Cometh Down Hessian”, are based on H.P. Lovecraft stories.
The solos are fast and long, the riffs crushing, and for anyone who’s heard High on Fire before or seen them live, it’s all done fucking LOUD.
In all though, I still think Blessed should have been a longer album. It’s only eight songs, clocking in at like 54 minutes. Another song or two would have been great. It’s still satisfying, but it would be more if it were longer. Apparently the Japanese vinyl version has a cover of Judas Priest’s “Rapid Fire” on it as well, which I would love to hear.
8 out of 10.
High on Fire on MySpace.