Black Mountain - In the Future
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Black MountainEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2008-01-22
Music Label: Jagjaguwar
Soundtracks:
- Stormy High
- Angels
- Tyrants
- Wucan
- Stay Free
- Queens Will Play
- Evil Ways
- Wild Wild
- Bright Lights
- Night Walks
Free Music Notes for In the Future
Free Music Review: Scaling into the future
Hit: 5 Stars
Black Mountain exists in a swirl of heavy, grimy, vaguely psychedelic hard-rock, redolent of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin (with maybe a touch of the Velvet Underground and Pink Floyd).
And the band is in fine shape in their sophomore album "In The Future" -- they introduce some new musical twists, while still keeping their signature sound. It's a powerful, intense collection of hard-rockers, but with a few softer songs sprinkled in to show their range.
It opens with a grimy riff, a dark stomping bassline, and some smashing drums -- and for a minute, the appropriately-named "Stormy High" whips itself into a barely-restrained frenzy. When Stephen McBean's wailing vocals join the mix, the song straightens out into a solid, intense rocker that blasts its way down, reeking of classic rock concerts and apocalyptic fury.
Having reeled you in, Black Mountain turns out the bluesy "Angels," with McBean lamenting, "Come on, lay your head on down/angels, lay your arms around/every city's singing saddened songs...." And that quieter song is echoed in some of the others -- mournful folkiness, haunting fuzzy songs, or the ethereal closing lament "Night Walks."
But they haven't abandoned the harder music, thankfully. This is where their real power erupts out -- simmering hard-rock, gritty psychedelica wound with synth, stormy twisting electro-metal, and the penultimate song -- a seventeen-minute epic journey through explosive hard-rock, solemn organ instrumentals, and an earsplitting finale.
Whoo. What a ride. It's been only three years since Black Mountain came out with their self-titled album and EP -- it was great music, but still raw and unformed. They've obviously done a lot of work in that time, because "In the Future" is a whole different beast -- they're more polished, focused and eclectic in their sounds.
Like any good hard-rock album, it's got loads of twisting, undulating riffs and heavy basslines, fused into strong, muscular melodies -- also mix in smashing drums, tambourine, some somnolent organ, and acoustic guitar. And the band can switch styles in an instant -- for instance, "Tyrants" effortlessly flips between wistful Renaissancey ballads, and epic, powerful sweeps of hard-rock.
Also take note: there's a lot more synth in this album than in their previous one. It's all very early 1970s -- colourful psychedelic ribbons wound through "Wucan," plenty of harmonium, and strangled keyboard notes.
McBean's voice hasn't changed, though -- he's still high and waily, and in the louder songs he sounds like he's leading an army ("The heart it waaaas/howling in the heavens... we will come together!"). He shares vocal time with Amber Webber, whose smooth wistful voice sounds at home whether she's dueting with him, or singing the softer songs by herself.
"In the Future" is the natural evolution of Black Mountain -- a powerful, polished, intense retro-rock collection. This is one mountain that's worth scaling all the way.
In the Future Poster
Favorite psych-and-prog-spiritual pioneers are back with their second full-length. It resonates with the same epic ring, beloved deep rock touchstones, and genuine folk fragility that made their self-titled debut an instant classic. "In The Future" possesses immense breadth, seamlessly showcasing short and classic folk-pop gems along with driving modern rock masterpieces, peaking with "Bright Lights", a 17-minute multi-dimensional opus that gives Pink Floyd's "Echoes" a run for its money. .With In the Future, the Vancouver, BC-based retro-rock act Black Mountain has really worked through its influences, delivering a classic slab of new stoner/headphone rock. The band's eponymous debut treaded through the catalog of many a classic rock and folk artist's greatest hits album, picking the best bits from Deep Purple and Black Sabbath here, Mountain and Thin Lizzy there, as if these kids' folks had good taste in Big Rock, but not much else. In the Future is far less afflicted with such big-mustache irony. It's tempting, for example, to call the sprawling, hypnotic "Bright Lights" an "epic jam," simply because it's almost 17 minutes long. But the song has great male and female vocals, bring to mind John Doe and Exene Cervenka knackered on laudanum, and is hugely massive in parts, quiet and moody in others. Besides which, it really is a great epic song, not quite up to par with the song suite from Rush's 2112, but surpassing anything similar by Uriah Heep. The rest of the record is eclectic without ever straying far from heavy, psyched-out prog-metal with touches of contrasting folk. Basically, this is the ideal soundtrack to a serious game of Dungeons & Dragons. --Mike McGonigal
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