Black Mountain - The resurrection of psych-rock

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In the new millennium Canada has musically established itself as one of the key hubs, a generator of exciting new sounds that has produced some of the most hyped names on the indie circuit - just think of Arcade Fire, Decemberists, New Pornographers or Broken Social Scene, acts that brought a breath of fresh air. Black Mountain, from Vancouver, are the Canadians who, more than anyone else, have shown they can capture a certain Sixties/Seventies-derived mood and catapult it into the present day. An imposing band, born from the ashes of Jerk With A Bomb, who released three albums straddling the turn of the millennium, with Stephen McBean (vocals and guitar) and Joshua Wells (drums) in the line-up.

When Jerk With A Bomb ran their course, the two formed a new outfit, recruiting singer Amber Webber, bassist Matthew Camirand (already of Black Halos) and keyboardist Jeremy Schmidt. Over time Black Mountain would prove to be a genuine collective (militarily dubbed the Black Mountain Army), with its members involved in a maze of side projects of considerable merit. The very first release actually bears the name Pink Mountaintops, Stephen McBean's solo project orbited by other Black Mountain members and numerous friends, a kind of open crew that stamped its debut in 2004.

Black Mountain

A few months later, after testing the waters with the EP "Druganaut", Black Mountain made their grand entrance onto the record market with the album bearing their name, immediately greeted with great enthusiasm by international critics. Black Mountain, rock-solid from the cover art onward, is an extraordinary hard-psychedelia record packed with riffs as indebted to Sabbath/Zeppelin as to stoner rock, folky touches ("Heart Of Snow") and hilarious Zappa-esque digressions (the sax on opener "Modern Music").

The key that won over listeners' ears is "Dont Run Our Hearts Around", the album's most representative track, which, with its triumphant Gibsons and a clever interplay of空間 between fullness and emptiness, would become one of the band's live highlights. "Set Us Free" doesn't skimp on Pink Floyd references, "No Hits" and "Faulty Times" stand as invaluable lysergic mantras, and "No Satisfaction" is a playful tribute to the Stones. Black Mountain (the album) would be regarded by many industry insiders as one of the year's biggest surprises, and Black Mountain (the band) as a dazzling new star in Canada's ever more remarkable firmament - and it was only the beginning of a thoroughly virtuous journey.

Pink Mountaintops

On the back of this convincing showing, Stephen McBean (the band's undisputed leader) released the second Pink Mountaintops record, Axis Of Evol, still the side project's finest hour to date. Despite clear similarities, Pink Mountaintops set themselves apart from Black Mountain through a far more experimental approach.

Suspended between psychedelia, lo-fi pop and splashes of kraut-rock, Axis Of Evol contains the astonishing "Slaves", arguably the finest song the band has ever written. Two more albums followed, in 2009 and 2014, Outside Love and Get Back, again warmly received by critics though without offering any particularly notable surprises.

In The Future

But let's take a step back to 2008, when Black Mountain released the fateful second chapter of their discography. In The Future (never was a title more at odds with the content of an album) represents a new, ambitious chapter that proves Black Mountain's debut was no fluke, but rather the best vehicle for passing on a little piece of musical antiquity, suitably brought up to date. In the minefield of rampant namedropping, Black Mountain come out as resounding winners, packing in ten tracks that do justice to classic hard rock while blending in psych-prog and acoustic folk touches, all delivered with startling modernity. The band convinces both in its most granite-solid moments (the opening assault of "Stormy High", the massive "Tyrants", as well as an "Evil Ways" instrumentally worthy of the best Deep Purple), and in those where they prefer to slow the pace (the acoustic crystal shards under the falsetto of "Stay Free", written for the "Spider-Man 3" soundtrack, the Zeppelin-esque rises and falls of "Angels", the epic sweep of "Queens Will Play").

But the real standing ovations come with "Wucan" (excellent at giving the record a less classic-rock edge) and the Bowie-pop marvel represented by "Wild Wind", so tightly wound and so essential. The only yawn-inducing moment comes with the needlessly long "Bright Light", where the Canadians get a bit too carried away with hard-prog indulgence, dragging on somewhat longer than necessary. For the rest, they move along the same lines as the debut, adding a consistency previously unknown to the band, and slipping a folky touch into the closing "Night Walks", where Amber Webber's angelic voice emerges, never closer to the style of peak Sinead O'Connor. Tension is kept constant through a skillful interplay of rises and falls, light and shadow, epic moments calibrated just right, all within an underlying cohesion that makes this a thoroughly superb work.

Overall, Black Mountain show that they're not chasing originality, but rather letting a sincere emulation of '70s rock sound and attitude shine through, turning it into tracks that have no intention of marrying contemporary music, but of generating it instead, as if wanting to forge a new musical path to follow. Far from the gloss of Battles or Pinback, they manage to emotionally engage Led Zeppelin fans just as much as Queens Of The Stone Age fans, ideally bringing together four decades of rock music evolution. For the completist fanatics, we should note that a limited edition with three bonus tracks was also released.

Wilderness Heart

In 2010 the Canadian quintet released the album of their great confirmation, Wilderness Heart, with which they consolidated all the good work done up to that point, further widening their fanbase, leaning more into song format (this time they never go much beyond five minutes) and often relying on more immediately accessible sounds. The result is another extraordinary record that definitively certifies Black Mountain's place among the best bands of the new millennium. Wilderness Heart is a dichotomous record, partly because it's the result of two different recording sessions, held in Seattle and Los Angeles, which lent different atmospheres to the songwriting process, as well as the different musical moods that emerge from the very first listen. Alongside the usual commanding riffs ("Rollercoaster" proves just as much a child of Zeppelin as "Let Spirits Ride" reeks of Black Sabbath to the bone, while the title track sums up at least ten years of great rock in exemplary fashion), we find ballads of great intensity ("Radiant Hearts", "The Way To Gone"), and even a handful of acoustic compositions ("Buried By The Blues", "The Space Of Your Mind", the closing "Sadie").

This time around, more elements of American folk tradition are brought in, and the sounds overall come out more restrained and cleaner. Some tracks stand out as potential hits (the roaring keyboards of "Old Fangs" are irresistible), elsewhere folk aromas resurface, especially on the opening "Hair Song", a true hymn of joy and peace that ends with the line "Let the love in your heart take control", almost a return to hippie imagery. Having reached their third album and confirmed, while improving on, the promise of their first two works, the Canadian band is now firmly settled among the elite of artists writing the history of rock music in the new millennium. Their psychedelic hard rock, with strong folk roots, keeps widening its circle of devotees, and not only among nostalgics for certain seventies atmospheres.

They may be derivative, but no one today is able to pay homage to these sounds as well as they do, giving a fine demonstration to everyone who claims rock has nothing left to say today. Black Mountain have no intention of plundering, or slavishly reproducing the atmospheres of the past, but rather of laying the groundwork for a new discourse that, from that attitude, intends to reclaim only the primal approach. Superb champions of the resurrection of psychedelic-tinged hard rock, Black Mountain have made their reference points so personal that they now sound like no other band on the planet, becoming themselves the new benchmark for anyone from now on who intends to emulate these sounds.

Year Zero

In April 2012 Black Mountain released the soundtrack for the post-apocalyptic film Year Zero, featuring five previously unreleased tracks and four that had already appeared on earlier works. "Modern Music" was the Zappa-esque opening track from their debut album, the neo-psychedelic masterpiece "Tyrants" and the long "Bright Lights" (slightly shortened here) were part of "In The Future", "Wilderness Heart" is the burst of energy that gave its title to the self-titled full length. Of the new compositions, the one that is unmistakably most Black Mountain is certainly "Mary Lou" (the only one sung by McBean), a superior-quality electric ride that confirms them a cut above all the other protagonists of the contemporary neo psych-rock scene. A track steeped in the now well-established late-Sixties/early-Seventies sounds the band offers, revised and refined through the modern, visionary approach that has always been the unmistakable trademark of the Vancouver quintet. Having satisfied their longtime fans, the Canadians can indulge in the search for new expressive avenues: they pull all the dusty old alembics down from the shelves and venture into designing scenarios new to them, taking advantage of having to conceive sonic commentary functional to the film.

A unique opportunity to enrich their range of adventures with a strategic plus.

The listener is thus surprised (and the surprise is decidedly welcome) by the icy, clearly new-wave-derived constructions (though in the second half important intersections with Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" emerge) that characterize the opening "Phosphorescent Waves", built entirely around synths and Amber Webber's engaging voice. Synthesizers also take center stage in the atmospheric landscapes of "Embrace Euphoria" (a spoken word piece that casts further hypotheses on the future) and in "In Sequence". "Breathe" closes out the sequence, marrying the band's typically sixties attitudes with a kind of shoegaze/noise ante litteram. In fact, the Year Zero soundtrack represents an excellent transitional work that could serve as an ideal bridge between the Black Mountain of the past and the one yet to come.

IV

Six years after Wilderness Heart, on April 1st, 2016 Black Mountain released IV, an album that returns to less sun-drenched sounds compared to its predecessor. The towering riffs become instrumental to a new spacey attitude, taking shape in long, structured tracks: the opening "Mothers Of The Sun", an immediate statement of intent, "(Over And Over) The Chain" and the closing "Space To Bakersfield". The voices of Amber Smith and Stephen McBean intertwine beautifully over vintage sonic fabrics that blend hulking Zeppelin/Sabbath-derived guitars with psychedelic atmospheres and kosmische dilutions.

The Canadian band, however, is at its best when it manages to distill its approach, drawing on the hippie imagery of the single "Florian Saucer Attack", on the folky echoes of "Line Them All Up" and "Crucify Me", on the rounded perfection of alt-rock in "Defector" and "Cemetery Breeding", and even pressing firmly on the distortion pedal, as in the case of "Constellation". Part flower children, part tireless hard rockers, Black Mountain once again confirm themselves among the finest representatives of North American classic rock in the new millennium.

Destroyer

May 25, 2019 marks the release of the Canadian band's fifth album, Destroyer, which brought some lineup changes, a few of them quite significant: Amber Webber, long the group's female voice and a decisive presence on so many compositions, and Joshua Wells both left the fold, replaced by Arjan Miranda, Rachel Fannan (Sleepy Sun) and Adam Bulgasem (Dommengang, Soft Kill). Meanwhile, lending a hand on a one-off basis were Kliph Scurlock (Flaming Lips), Kid Millions (Oneida) and John Congleton (St. Vincent, Swans). Preceded by the two singles "Future Shade" and "Boogie Lover" - the former arguably the band's new signature anthem - with Destroyer Stephen McBean's crew on one hand plays it safe, often settling into comfortable territory already well trodden in the past, as on "Horns Arising", which blends hulking guitars, vocoder and bucolic interludes bordering on prog, the heavier "Licensed To Drive", and the space-tinged interlude "Closer To The Edge".

At other times, Black Mountain instead try to surprise: not so much through the whirling glam of "High Rise", but rather in the remarkable synthesis achieved on "Pretty Little Lazies", which spins together sonic approaches drawn from Doors, Jeff Buckley, Sabbath and Barrett, and above all in the closing "FD 72", wrapped in proto-wave spirals that call to mind Berlin-era Bowie. These turning points inject Destroyer with renewed vitality, marking it out as a transitional step toward a promising future that shows no signs of skimping on new ideas.

Other Projects

In May 2022, after eight years away (if we discount a collection of early demos), Pink Mountaintops made their return with the successful Peacock Pools. Setting aside any psychedelic sprawl, the band veers toward an accessible, radio-friendly song format, as well signaled by the single "Lights Of The City". But the real strength of Peacock Pools lies in its variety. Take the first five tracks and you'll find as many wildly different worlds: from the Eels-like "Nervous Breakdown" (actually a Black Flag cover) to the lighter version of Nine Inch Nails on "Blazing Eye", from hints of Jeff Tweedy's songwriting on "Nikki Go Sudden" to Seventies-style, Syd Barrett-indebted singer-songwriter fare on "You Still Around?". Synthetic touches make "Shake The Dust" and "Muscle" stand out, while "All This Death Is Killing Me" is the most wildly proto-hard episode of the bunch, and the closing "The Walk - Song For Amy" wouldn't be out of place in Paul Weller's catalogue.

Born during the pandemic days, amid rekindled contacts with friends stuck at home and suddenly cancelled tours, Peacock Pools (the collective's first album released by Dave Matthews' ATO label) brings together old and new companions: regulars Joshua Wells and Jeremy Schmidt, the alluring female voice of Emily Rose Epstein, Ryan Jewell's drumming and Laena Myers-Ionita's violin, plus, on a couple of tracks, appearances by Steven McDonald of Redd Kross and Dale Crover of Melvins.

Alongside Black Mountain's activity, other projects have also sprung up. Joshua Wells and Amber Webber formed Lightning Dust, responsible for four albums of beguiling cosmic pop: Lightning Dust (2007), Infinite Light (2009), Fantasy (2013) and Spectre (2019). The following Nostalgia Killer (2023), wavering between formulaic dream-pop and overblown sonic grandeur and arriving in the wake of Joshua and Amber's break-up, is skippable.

More oriented toward a less conventional strain of country folk are Blood Meridian (their name borrowed from the Cormac McCarthy novel), led by Wells and Matthew Camirand, who released three albums and an EP between 2004 and 2007.

In 2002, Jeremy Schmidt instead released a limited-edition, entirely instrumental album (the originally self-released The Enchanter Persuaded) under the alias Sinoia Caves, later reissued by Jagjaguwar four years on. This was followed in 2014 by the soundtrack Beyond The Black Rainbow.

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