Black Mountain
Issue #34
In the Future (Jagjaguwar)
By Jeremy Ohmes
Published: December 1st, 2007 | 3:34pm
A lot of folks are quick to file Black Mountain under stoner rock. And sure, the Vancouver–based quintet revels in a haze of heavy riffs and psychedelic mojo, but its sound is not as zoned out and aimlessly repetitive as the stoner-rock label often implies. Yes, there are stoner trademarks — the 16-minute song, the references to demons and witchcraft, the mind-bending, Pink Floyd–style cover art — but Stephen McBean and company are the types of druggies that get up and inspired, instead of down and dumb. And their music, a complex and dynamic mix of damaged blues and heady metal, reflects this.
On its second full-length, In the Future, Black Mountain sands the metal edges down some, and the album’s ominous electronic flourishes point toward prog, post-punk, and even a little Krautrock. On “Wucan,” a reedy organ arpeggiates over a sparse, hypnotic groove, while McBean and second vocalist Amber Webber toss come-ons at each other. The bewitching rhythm and icy pornographic interplay slowly surrender to organs, mellotrons, and a shimmering, trance-like synth that would leave Kraftwerk crying on the autobahn. The epic “Tyrants” opens with an over-the-top, tom-pounding, fist-pumping riff that disappears into a swirl of soft, King Crimson keyboards and moonlight machinations. Webber conjures up her best Stevie Nicks, wailing and unwinding words ’til their bleary-eyed end, and then the song builds back up to monolithic, Iron Maiden proportions, only to topple over into an acoustic guitar-laced elegy.
OK, on second thought, maybe that sounds like some serious stoner rock, but for the sake of argument, let’s just call it something else. Post-stoned, anyone?
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