Article By: David ‘Sunshine’ LaMay ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
It’s a pleasant Sunday morning and the impulse is striking me for some musical blathering. With one interview waiting on a response, another in formative stages, and a retro review in need of more digging, depth, and history…
Still, I have the urge, but… I need something straightforward to satiate it. I have it… Mountaineer!
Other than being from Welland, Ontario, Canada, this brandy-new heavy metal outfit has nothing, and I mean nothing, out there for information. That really fits the scenario though, as to talk about the band’s simultaneously released offerings is a no-bullshit affair. Yep, the meat falls right off the bone.
There’s no need to candy-coat anything or be clever when talking about these two Mountaineer self-releases, ‘As Righteous As Flawed – Volume I‘, and ‘Marbled Victory – Volume II‘ – which, along with same-day issuing on July 24th, 2017, sound to have actually come from the same sessions. What you have here is pure Metallica ‘…Puppets‘ and ‘…Justice‘ worship (the latter being the more prominent influence), with a couple of twists.
What the band has done is cut away all the fat and missteps. No non-existent bass or rubbery drums, no fine ideas are drawn out to monotony, and most obviously, no vocals. Razor riffs and harmonies fly all over the damned place. The drums punch and propel and the bass, while not intensely defined, throbs and makes its presence well enough known.
If I was to nitpick, I might say there could be a wee bit more solo wankery going on, but I’m not at all inclined to go there. Every tune presented just flat-out rocks!
If you miss the days when James and Lars actually had their balls attached, and not safely stored in some corporate rock entity’s purse, grabbing up these two gems is just a given. Seeing as they’re both offered for free or with a ‘Name Your Price’ option for those of us who like to support such endeavors, there’s simply no excuse not to own these. Peace out.
Both releases are available on Bandcamp as a digital stream or NYP (name your price) download. You can listen to the streams within the review here, as well as drop a few bucks on them to get the download or stream free. Do give them a couple of bucks for their efforts.
Find them at the following Mountaineer release links:
As Righteous As Flawed – Volume I
‘As Righteous As Flawed – Volume I’ Tracklist:
01. A Year of Sand
02. Heraldry Mistaken
03. Rendered
04. As Righteous, As Flawed
05. The Dust Within Duty
06. From Parts Unknown
07. He That Will Be Spared
‘Marbled Victory – Volume II‘ Tracklist:
01. Marbled Victory
02. Prognosis Negative
03. Hercules
04. Ekby Hensvik
