Album Reviews

When you hear the title phrase Mountain Meadows, you may think of pastoral fields growing high in the sky with peaceful ease, not so for this Canadian trio.  Elliott Brood has constructed an aggressive electric folk period piece that deliberates on, or at was least inspired by, the Mountain Meadow Massacre of 1857.  Things kick off hot and mean with the best track on the album “Fingers and Tongues”; guitars ring with confidence over a feedback drone and ghost-like backing vocals.

So much stoner and doom rock tends to be an exercise in heaviness alone. While that certainly has its place, few people can take the steady bludgeoning that it offers even as it fills that need in all who really love heavy metal for the mind-numbing weight of slow, trudging riffs that take Tony Iommi to the extreme. Sometimes, however, a band offers such crushing power in a more dynamic form that respects the song as well as pushing the limits of the heavy in metal.

Girls debut Album is getting some internet hype, and a lot of it focuses on Christopher Owens upbringing and escape from the Children of God cult.  While certainly unusual and worthy of telling, if you just take a look at the music, you probably wouldn’t think twice about religion because the focus here is on…well, girls. 

They're okay as a short term fix, but, like their older peers, they won't take long to wear thin.