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Album Details

• Artist: Black Mountain
• Album: Black Mountain
• Label: Jagjaguwar
• Year of Release: 2005
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2005-02-08

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Seems that Vancouver is turning out some pretty decent bands these days. Next up on the plate is Black Mountain, Steve McBean's post Jerk With A Bomb project. Fortunately Steve has smartened up through his trial and error days with his previous project and moved up a notch. This self-titled album is ideally what he has been working towards. Black Mountain is a little bit psych rock, a little bit stoner rock, a little bit of pop and a lot of guitars. The best thing about Black Mountain is that there is a groove element to pretty much ever song on the album. McBean's voice is a natural for this type of music, kind of similar to that of his other project Pink Mountaintops. You might hear reference to some classic rock bands when Black Mountain is discussed and that is with just reason. Tracks like "Set Us Free" could have easily sat beside a Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin session back in the 70s. But then they pull out of the nostalgia easy with "No Hits" that has some sampler type rhythms going on. There are a few tracks on Black Mountain that do make me think of Ontario's By Divine Right, not near as messy though. One of the advantages of Black Mountain over McBean's previous projects is that this is a band in all senses even if Stephen is still the principle songwriter. Listening to "Heart Of Snow" I can't but compare it with Jefferson Airplane or Pink Floyd. It's crazy but I think this band would have hit it big if it had only come a few decades earlier. There is a video contained for "Drugonaut", a trippy video that looks like it was filmed in one of the costal rainforests.

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