Black Mountain: In the Future

Label: Jagjaguwar

The cover of the psychedelic Canadian quintet Black Mountain’s second LP looks like it was designed by English artist Roger Dean (of Yes and Uriah Heep fame) with its organic yet precise rows of magma cubes. The music is not half bad too… In the Future is a more mature, less chaotic album than the band’s debut release, with a mixture of apocalyptic classic rock epics and medieval progressive folk-rock hymns. The best track on the record “Queens Will Play” sports gloriously morbid lyrics “blood crawls through the night holes, blood sprawls across the walls”, keyboard licks Keith Emerson would be proud of, and the obligatory fuzz guitar solo. Oh yes, there’s also a bit of Blue Cheer influence thrown in for good measure in the driving blues of “Evil Ways”. If you like big echoing drums sounds and 1970s stadium-rock feel good choruses, go and buy this LP already! (Morgane)