Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart

Show

Morning Magazine,

Author

Marisa Wikramanayake

Published

Friday 27th August

Inertia

The best things to come out of Canadian progressive/psychedelic rock group Black Mountain’s hugely anticipated third album Wilderness Heart will be the guitar playing of Matthew Camirand and Stephen McBean and the haunting but husky voice of Amber Webber. That does not mean that the album is a disappointment – far from it.

It’s just that the ballads really stand out on this album. Whether that’s due to the polished production or Amber Webber’s voice or both, ‘Radiant Heart’, ‘Buried By The Blues’ and ‘The Space of Your Mind’ are worth listening to. There are more ‘rock’ like tracks on the album, never fear.

The first track ‘The Hair Song’ is more what you’d expect: an odd song structure with what you feel should be the chorus at the start, and a great riff. ‘Wilderness Heart’ is another fast paced song – the best non-ballad track on the album.

The band claims it is their most metal and folk sounding record so far and they would be right. Listening to ‘Let Spirits Ride’ could easily fool you into thinking that you were listening to 90s Metallica. ‘Sadie’ sounds like a folk ballad. ‘Old Fangs’ and ‘Rollercoaster’ are the psychedelic rock tracks but are more toned down than you would expect.

The calmer darker tone suits the tight, cohesive album. Given the bands’ inclination to experiment, when this album comes out on the 17th of September, you should buy a copy—whatever Black Mountain releases from now on will be vastly different to what they have done before. More importantly, that’s what makes them an interesting band.