See, the trick when paying homage to influences of
yesteryear — be it British Invasion, rockabilly or, in Black Mountain’s case, a
hybrid of heavy metal (Led Zeppelin/Black Sabbath) and prog rock (Emerson, Lake
and Palmer) — is not just to try to sound like it but, in the most abstract
sense, become the thunderous guitar chords, hammering drums, foreboding
keyboard ambience, shrieking wails and mellow vocal shakes that seduce crowds
and summon Beelzebub for another night of damnation. Labeled as indie rockers,
satanic plots in mind, but as sophomore album In the Future kicks off with
power driven “Stormy High,” you’re waiting for Ozzy to show up. When vocalists
Stephen McBean and Amber Webber start harmonizing, you’ll think you were sucked
into a dark basement in 1974, right before your then-teenage uncle had his “big
epiphany.”
From then on, it’s a wild ride; bluesy rocker “Angel” swings
through with the right amount of sultry guitar and synth accompanying McBean’s
low-down, almost Tom Petty swagger, “Tyrants” pounds and subverts with epic
awesomeness, and “Stay Free” sounds the most modern without sounding out of
place.
If this finely crafted album falls anywhere, it’s with
near-17-minute “Bright Lights,” an old-fashioned stab at extended prog, with
long minutes of empty organ and punctuations of guitar. Broken down, it
might’ve worked, but we’re handed almost a sitcom’s length worth of indulgence.
In fact, it’s really their only obstacle — the tunes work well, and perhaps a
tighter production next time will yield something even more cataclysmic.
Criticisms aside,
cavernous speaker presence holds onto influences while carving an individual
niche. Like their idols, they know that anything but music is blasphemy. It is
in their blood, and they were born to jam.
will be performing at the Casbah, on Thursday, Feb. 7.
