Black Mountain Go For Heavier, Driving Rock Sound on ‘Destroyer’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

Over the past decade, Vancouver-based Black Mountain have never been afraid to experiment with their sound. While each of their past albums holds a nostalgic sound of the 70’s, each also has its own distinct personalities. Where their self-titled debut album referenced the music of early Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane, Black Mountain’s newest album Destroyer is more akin to KISS and Black Sabbath.

Since the release of their last album, IV, front man Stephen McBean has finally learned to drive a car and like the 1985 Dodge Destroyer muscle car that is the album’s namesake, Black Mountain has also found itself shifting, in both members and sound. After 2016’s release of IV, founding drummer Joshua Wells and singer Amber Webber left the band. However, being the collective that Black Mountain is, new members Rachel Fannan (Sleepy Sun), Adam Bulgasem (Dommengang), Kliph Scurlock (Flaming Lips) and Kid Millions (Oneida) joined in for the making of Destroyer. From the opening track, “Future Shade”, it becomes obvious that Destroyer is going to be a much heavier sounding album than previous releases. “Future Shade” is a hard rocker that instantly makes the listener imagine driving in their car with the window down head-banging along. The album takes a slightly slower tempo while still maintaining the albums hard edge on “Horns Arising” before picking up the pace again on “High Rise”. The mellow meandering guitars on “Pretty Little Lazies” is the closest that Black Mountain get to the sounds of previous records with its psych-tinged synths over a heavy handed strum of an acoustic guitar. The appropriately titled “Boogie Lover” treats the listener to a funky synth filled proto-metal track heavy with psychedelic hard rock.

Though Destroyer is not explicitly an album about driving and cars, it is hard not to think of it in that context once you know the inspiration that fueled McBean while writing it. Destroyer becomes the perfect album to play in your car while you speed (safely) down the highway. Though not as trippy or psych heavy as its predecessors, Destroyer still manages to fit perfectly into the Black Mountain catalogue.

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