When Led Zeppelin reached album number two, they already had a great album on
their hands. It’s not happened for Black Mountain. Inevitably with a loud/quiet
philosophy, comparisons with Zep and Deep Purple are obvious.
When needed, Black Mountain can pack a real punch. If not they can do quieter
soft rock too. Power riffs are a speciality with these four guys and a gal from
Vancouver. There aren’t (thankfully) the obligatory or gratuitous undisciplined solos either.
Things seem well in order here on their second full studio album. Giving a strong
nod to 70s classic rock, Led Zep, Deep Purple et al, with a touch of psychedelia,
Black Mountain are more than a band constantly compared to the likes of Black
Sabbath. Okay, they can thrust a monster riff, but they’re far more sophisticated
than Ozzie’s former outfit.
In The Future is far from a classic, and for a second album (and this may
be the long-suffering problem of the dreaded Number 2), it’s short on the wow
factor, nevertheless it’s quite promising. They blast off with a Purple-esque
riff, Lord-like keys and wailing vocals courtesy of Amber Webber, with guitarist
and singer Stephen McBean matching Ritchie Blackmore any day on the stratospheric
solos.
BM come into their own with the ominous sounding Tyrants, though it does ramble
at the mid-point, but are soon back in the groove with some scintillating solos
prefixing the mellow outro. A steady beat and dirty solo carries Wucan. It wafts
by with little direction, whereas Stay Free (featured on Spider-Man 3)
has more an alt-country flavour a la Devendra Banhart, dripping in honeyed
vocals and harmonies.
Queens Will Play is a disappointment because to takes to long to reach
a peak around the 5 minute mark, and not helped by Amber’s warbling. Evil Ways
(not to be confused with Santana’s Evil Ways) is a cocksure audio
assault, not too dissimilar to a Deep Purple groove, though Bright Lights
is nothing more than a shambolic and laboured rocker. A Bjork-like delivery by
Amber ghosts the album to a close.
Lyrically they scale issues such as God, the Devil and extremes, almost the normal
fodder for Rock’nRoll then.
White Stripes’ Jack White made rock cool again, Black Mountain are treading an
old path.
File under: Interesting 21st century take on Prog-Rock, nothing more.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008.
