HIGH ON FIRE - Blessed Black Wings
January 5, 2005, 19 years ago
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Matt Pike continues (obstinately) to carry forward the smoked salmon smokehouse sweat lodge spirit of his old band Sleep, offering a more atmospheric, panoramic album than Surrounded By Thieves. Blessed Black Wings is the epitome of that whole "in no hurry to change course" ethic first lulling us noise-weepy with Neurosis and Melvins (their bassist Joe Preston is now here!) and reaching an apex of avalanched nihilism with YOB. But it's cool that this very powerful power trio sound so underground and retro, reminding me somewhat of a pre-commercially aware Monster Magnet, with the label hype about Motorhead making sense as well - I mean, you can hear the glee High On Fire takes in killing yer lawn. Metal guitar sounds don't get much more massive than this and these are howling collages you just gotta admire for their sonic audacity, but repetitive, tom tom-battered, slow to resolve music like this is always going to have its battles with boredom. And I ain't too crazy about Pike's nondescript vocals, which aren't helped by having been sent to the back of the mix. Damned though if High On Fire don't strike the near perfect balance between the purity and integrity of the sludge underground, and a certain sense of structure and song.
