Songs such as album opener Stormy High and the behemoth Bright Lights essay the kind of guitar riff that Ritchie Blackmore used to pepper songs with. Unfortunately the latter of those tracks also reminds me of the kind of nonsense that Spinal Tap parodied in Stonehenge.
Black Mountain – In the Future
http://www.konkurrent.nl/ www.blackmountainarmy.com http://www.myspace.com/blackmountain
Christ, its like punk never happened. In the last few years a plethora of bands have been reclaiming the music that their dads were listening to before it was apparently drowned out in a flood of spit. On the second album from these lads (and lass) from Vancouver you can find a lot of the kind of music that used to be done by Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath.
Songs such as album opener Stormy High and the behemoth Bright Lights essay the kind of guitar riff that Ritchie Blackmore used to pepper songs with. Unfortunately the latter of those tracks also reminds me of the kind of nonsense that Spinal Tap parodied in Stonehenge. The dizzying musical changes do show off the skill of the musicians, but the thing just ends up feeling rather silly. Especially the ridiculous section whose lyrics are just a succession of words beginning with the letter h. So we can apparently add Sesame Street to the list of their influences. Elsewhere, the album moves off in several directions, but these mostly feel like stuff we’ve heard before.
The most interesting moments on the album are where Amber Webber’s vocals are given greater exposure, providing a nice contrast with the yelping of chief mountaineer Stephen McBain. This is particularly noticeable on Queens Will Play, where her stretched out vibrato lends a genuine air of slow-burning menace (which in typical style is somewhat undermined by an unnecessary bit of noodly synth playing towards the end). She is unfortunately too limited a vocalist to carry many of the tracks – the finale Night Walks is possibly the one moment on the album where I wished they would start adding more layers of instrumentation as it just doesn’t go anywhere.
The album has some good moments, but after listening to the whole thing I can understand why Johnny Rotten et al got so pissed off with the excesses of prog. To plagiarise Samuel Johnson, this album is both good and original. However the parts that are good are not original, and the parts that are original are not good.
Words: Stuart Crosse (Rover)