to make the high on fire set complete i was eager to get my hands on the last missing two. there is 'snakes for the divine' and then there is 'blessed black wings'. 'bbw' was after 'death is this communion' the second album i downloaded and listened to and still this is my second to favourite release by this stoner doom monster.
it has this groundshaking energy and those dreamy harmonies which made me love high on fire in the first place. the stuff which 'the art of self defense' and especially 'surrounded by thieves' were lacking of. with this record the unique hof mix is back. or better it appeared for the first time fully developed. maybe they needed the first two records to evolve that sound.
actually i wanted to order this record directly from relapse but as shipping rates from the states are a pain in the ass and i didn't want two records on the same colour way ('surrounded by thieves' and 'blessed black wings' were re-pressed on the same more limited colour pattern), i was looking for a domestic solution. thankfully i found a copy in hamburg's burnout store.
i must admit i am not the biggest fan of the choice of colour for this vinyl release. i mean, nothing wrong with an opaque purple but together with the colour scheme of the cover art it seems to be an odd choice. doesn't really work well together. ah nevermind, it sounds awesome though! 918 copies made on purple and still available. relapse records. 2005/2013.
