FEATURE ALBUM: Black Mountain's In The Future
Tuesday January 22, 2008 @ 05:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

BLACK MOUNTAIN In The Future (Jagjaguwar/Sonic Unyon)

Before 2005, Vancouver's music scene wasn't very happening. Sure there was Sarah McLachlan, Matthew Good and Nickelback, but the most famous member of its coolest band (The New Pornographers) was an American (Neko Case) and its second biggest star, nobody was sure he was from this planet (Destroyer's Dan Bejar).

Here's how low things were for the city: Tiny Victoria was getting the bulk of B.C.'s provincial attention for outputting the likes of Hot Hot Heat, Frog Eyes and The Organ.

Two years later, HHH are terrible, The Organ have broken up, Frog Eyes have made the same (albeit interesting) record four times and Vancouver is the third city in a Canadian holy trinity — with Montreal and Toronto — that's pumping out bands who are famous on every continent.

Black Mountain might have been a latecomer to the "Canadian Music Is Great" party, but that's pretty much how they roll. The quintet's self-titled debut was one of the most evil rock records ever produced. It was drenched in Stephen McBean and Amber Webber's lost soul vocals and punctuated by the former's deadly guitar assault. Throw in the fact that its sparse effects and atmosphere made Colin Stewart one of the most sought-after producers in the country and you have all the makings of a modern classic.

Now, after all of those bands have had successful runs on their own, the pieces have reassembled for Black Mountain's second effort, In The Future. If it wasn't clear before why they waited three years to release their next opus, it's certainly obvious now. They were preparing a beast of epic proportions.

The are massive differences between the band's debut and its follow-up. The first record sounded like it was from the future. The rock was dotted with synthetic beats and hollow production that made it sound like Mad Max's Thunderdome. In The Future could soundtrack another Heavy Metal sequel.

"Stormy High" kicks in with a heavy guitar riff and thumping beat and later leads into a singalong of its title. The opener is the perfect reintroduction to Black Mountain. It's bold, but more importantly, new. Sheldon Zaharko's production on the first three tracks is powerfully loud, and Stewart follows suit on the record's second half.

In The Future seems aware of its own cadence. Most of the rawk is tempered by a softer piece, such as "Angels," a melodic think-piece that takes on Christianity, with McBean telling one angel to stop "keeping faith down in the underground" and asking that it "lay your halo down."

Then "Tyrants" blows through the door. It's an anti-war/Bush tome that features Webber's first powerful vocal lead and a mid-song guitar solo so thick it could knock down a wall.

There will never be a weirder song to grace a Spider-Man soundtrack than "Stay Free." The only track on the album not produced by Zaharko or Stewart (it was done with Dave Sardy at Sunset Sound), its acoustic melodies are paired with lyrics such as, "Beautiful ponies/So beautiful/They'll kill us all" that are intoned by freaky falsettos. If it's not an ode to acid, I don't know what is, but it's pretty nonetheless.

"Evil Ways" is a darker version of the band's classic "Satisfaction," while "Wild Wind" emulates Destroyer's Streethawk with its hollow beat and piano-inflected sound.

The magnum opus is "Bright Lights," a three-part colossus that starts with an acoustic jam, breaks into a space thrash and finishes with a trademark Black Mountain slow climb. I don't think there's another band on Earth who could pull this off with such heroic vision. Finally, Webber's "Night Walks" is a sublime palette-cleansing closer. It's atmospherically in line with the rest of the record, but so quiet and intense in execution that you could start the record at the beginning right after and feel as though it was something completely different.

Black Mountain have shed their stoner rock label with vengeance and they've gotten a head start on Canadian music in a year that promises to be memorable. With In The Future coming out of the gate strong, it already is.