Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway

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A fantastic release that has somehow flown under my radar until now, Mountain‘s debut, ‘Dust In The Glare‘.

The U.K. is on quite a roll recently. One amazing band after another hailing from there is dropping some truly fantastic music lately. Ones like last Friday’s offerings from Steak (No God To Save) and Morass Of Molasses (These Paths We Tread) are fine and great, of course.

Released back in March, Mountains’ album somehow got improperly shuffled and subsequently misplaced in submissions. That’s neither here nor there, though. We are here to talk about this amazing release now.

Let me tell you this too, David Jupp (guitar, vocals), Chris Randall (bass), and Josh Hussey (drums), pulled out all the stops on this record. With a bent toward progressive rock that would make Tool jealous, the trio disperses with conventional expectations. Instead, they blend an intoxicating elixir of gargantuan stoner rock riffs with hazy, airy desert rock-ish flare and let the chips fall where they may.

With ample ways of restraining any loss of direction, the guys unfurl one powerful cut after another. Knowing when to let the music carry the momentum itself, songs like “Everglades“, “Ten Paces” and “Fortress” are some of the denser, heaviest cuts. They get offset by the intricate, progressive textures of standouts like “Lonely Cities” and the upbeat “Keep Watch“.

Perhaps the point I’m trying to make is made best by the two instrumental tracks on the album, “Toward The Woods” and “Ithaca“. The former is a thickly riff-driven number that ripples with patterns of massive rhythmic significance. That is, until the more tampered-down moments give you pause, if only briefly, before ratcheting up the intensity again. The latter instrumental, “Ithaca“, is a desert-fueled number of irresistible grooves. It allows the trio to let down their hair a little so to speak but before you know it, it’s over.

I dare say you will not want Mountains’ ‘Dust In The Glare‘ to be over too soon yourself. It provides a vibrant cross-section of tightly knit textures with far beyond-the-normal bounds of musicality. Together, the approach delivers us one hell of a killer début, structured well upon a sound quite all its own.

2017, Album Review, Bandcamp, Desert Rock, Heavy Rock, Mountains, Progressive, United Kingdom