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| Wilderness Heart |
Black Mountain is a five piece band, drums, bass, keys and guitars. The guitar player (Stephen McBean) serves as one half of a singing team along with a female vocalist, and is the sole credited writer. Musically, the band wears their influences on their sleeves, giving a familiar yet new feel to most of their music. Vocally, the two singers often blend in beautiful and haunting harmonies, at other times take turns on solo lead. Amber Webber's voice is used quite movingly as a back up instrument, too.
This album just drips with late sixties, seveties, and early eighties rock. Echos of Deep Purple appear throughout, with hints of Dylan and Jefferson Airplane, although that last is an easy comparison due to the nature of Webber's voice. (That is not a bad thing!) Black Mountain also makes great use of Led Zeppelin's juxtaposing heavy and light sections. While much of it may sound derivative, to my ears they are taking up the mantle of music long past its popularity. Like Wolfmother, they are leaders in reviving the Rock form, and deserve to be much better known.
The opening track is one of the highlights. “The Hair Song” features a nice acoustic and electric guitar riff that falls into a groove and never climbs back out. In many ways, it feels like a Zep out take, or the best song that the Black Crows could ever record, if only they made good songs. It would make a great single, especially in 1974.
“Old Fangs” on the other hand is their first single. With a heavy bottom and rough edged organ riff, it sounds good, but doesn't quite feel right. Perhaps it's a little too simple and uninspired, especially in the verse sections. It feels like they are trying too hard to make a “Rock” song. With its early 80's, pre-hair band vibe, it's easy to picture it as the offspring of Deep Purple and Jefferson Starship. I haven't yet decided if that's a good thing or not, but it is my least favorite part of the record.
Acoustic guitars and wonderful harmonies dominate “Radiant Hearts”. A little Dylanesqe phrasing compliments the lyrics that don't quite want to fit in with more traditional rock styles. In some perverse way, it actually reminds me of some early Genesis songs, like “Carpet Crawlers” or even “Ripples”. It's mellow, but in a very intense way.
“Rollercoaster” opens up dramatically with a welcome heavy organ/synth riff, calming down into a quiet first verse. The second verse builds a basic rhythm, to just flat out rocking there after. This very solid song ends well, but ends too soon.
In fact, if I have any major complaints about Wilderness Heart, it's that none of the songs really stretch. Each song has a tight arraignment, quite well done and mostly tasteful. Black Mountain's last album had a good mix of shorter songs and some longer pieces, such as the epic 8 minutes of “Tyrants” and the spacey, moody “Bright Lights” at double that time. Here, the longest of the ten songs is 5:14, the shortest 3:52.
Wilderness Heart shows Black Mountain are growing as song writers and arrangers, but maybe a little less adventurous. Some of the songs even feel like they are trying to be more popular, instead of playing from the heart.
Case in point: “Let the Spirit Ride”. The first thought I had at the opening of the song was Judas Priest circa 1982, back when heavy metal was a sped up version of Deep Purple. The steady 4/4 thump snare on the drums, the guitar and bass playing 8th note power chords with occasional whole notes tossed in. The guitar solo is like the rest of the song, high energy if a bit cliched. For just a moment during the organ solo, I thought I was listening to “Highway Star”.
On the vinyl version, “Buried By The Blues” opens up side two. This laid back song features wonderful harmonies, giving it a great moody atmosphere. Strumming acoustic chords are backed by long electric guitar notes and what I swore was a mellotron! I had assumed that the strings were a modern day synth recreating the mellotron sound until I checked the album sleeve. Nope, they actually use the damn thing, bless them! (The mellotron was a favorite of King Crimson, and used by the Beatles and the Moody Blues, too. It is a keyboard that triggers actual pieces of tape, usually with voices, strings, or flutes recorded on them. By all accounts, it was a pain to keep in tune, or even working properly when out on tour.)
Looking at my notes for “The Way To Gone”, I see I wrote the following: “I wish my band had wrote this – accessible rock, but w/ integrity!” It starts out with upbeat acoustic strumming and a shaker. It builds into a tight arraignment, with simple parts layered on top of each other, becoming quite dense. The guitar solo is short and sweet. Is it a perfect number? Maybe not, but it's close enough for Rock n' Roll.
The title track starts with a quick drum intro, followed by heavy riffs from the organ and guitar. Very Machine Head era Deep Purple again, but no complaints here. The shuffle rhythm feels like the shark swimming on the cover. “Wilderness Heart” features a nice little break with noodling guitar and heavy toms, followed by more mellotron, using the voices this time. This song is a microcosm of the album as a whole. It feels like a dangerous animal, but one that is caged and ultimately safe.
“The Space Of Your Mind” features more acoustic guitar, the vocals having a slight “Eve of Destruction” feel to them. Over all, it is a very sonically pleasing track.
The final track is “Sadie”. More acoustic guitar, picking this time, underscored by long deep bass notes. Amber's voice augments the lead vocals very nicely. This song is moody, not a rocker, but it does build up, almost forming a groove before fading out. It's a way to end the record, almost as if they knew someone would put the headphones on to listen to the album as they went to bed.
Overall Wilderness Heart is a very solid album. It features a sonic landscape much broader and brighter than In The Future. The song structures may not be pushing the envelope as much, the songs may be a bit more comfortable, but Black Mountain works that to their advantage.
