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I don’t go along with all this rock revisionism that’s been restoring the reputation of 70s noise monsters. Heavy rock has always been the domain of snakebite-drinking spods who subsume what little personality they have in waves of over-amplified noise, in my humble opinion. I’d probably be happier having my testes sanded in Guantanamo Bay than get my ears around Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow but here I am, deep into ‘Tyrants’ on Black Mountain’s new album, hearing what sounds like the wild guitars and swirling keyboards of Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin. And I’m loving it. And I don’t even flinch at the 16 minute heavy psychfest that is ‘Bright Lights’. It’s because this is focused power, not the mindless volume merchants or the indulgent prog-rockers of the 1970s, and also because Black Mountain can change tack at will. Right after the epic song comes three minutes of Amber Webber’s honey-groan of a voice on the filmic ‘Night Walks’, backed by Velvets-like drowsy, droney keyboards. And then there’s ‘Wucan’, hook-filled psych-rock with a spectacularly menacing keyboard riff that’s the best track on the record.
Although I really liked the self-titled first album, with its heaviness, humour and classic ‘Druganaut’ single, I have to confess that it took a couple of listens before In The Future really hit me. Curiously, what got me first was the bonus CD that includes the psych-folk ‘Bastards of Light’ and what is probably Black Mountain’s party tune, ‘Black Cat’. And then the main album seemed to make sense too. It’s a huge rush of power and noise, but with variation and a bit of subtext too. I don’t like Metal because it stops you thinking and feeling; I love Black Mountain because it encourages you to do exactly that, even as it hits you with a blast of white noise.
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