Release
date: September 1st
2017.
Label: All Good Clean Records. Format: DD/Vinyl
Blight
– Tracklisting
Home
Rat King
Oak
Endless Queen
Stone
Fog
Cellar Door
Acid Wedding
Returning
Members
Simen Mathiassen -
Drums
Sverre Dalen - Bass
Jostein Wigenstad -
Guitar
Magnus Riise -
Guitar / Vocal
Review
You ever wondered what Pink Floyd
would sound like if they decided to include Desert/Stoner Rock vibes
into their legendary Progressive Rock sound. Well I think Red
Mountain's excellent new album - Slow Wander - would be the wonderful
result. As Red Mountains take a more Psychedelic/Prog Rock approach
on their new album. Not a million miles away from Pink Floyd
themselves.
Slow Wander sees the band play
strands of classic sounding Prog Rock and merges it with elements of
modern sounding Desert/Stoner Rock vibes.
Opening track - Home - opens the
album with supreme confidence as Red Mountains play a loud bombastic
style of Desert/Stoner Rock with a prog rock style influence being
heard within the vocals. The one thing that stands out on this album
compared to their debut album is the production. Whilst Red
Mountain's debut album was a great album, its production was slightly
muffled and let down in places.
They have no issues with Slow
Wander, as the album sounds loud and fresh from the start. When the
band start playing heavy psychedelic noises on the opening track -
Home, you feel every note and vocal coming at you from all corners.
Home sets the scene for the rest of the album. As heavy psychedelic
desert/stoner riffs give way to the more adventurous progressive rock
rhythms.
Second track - Rat King - is one of
the best songs on the album with its ample delivery of Progressive
Stoner based moments. The vocals and lyrics compliment the music
superbly well. Rat King has a grunge feel to it as the song moves to
its natural conclusion.
Third track - Oak - is where the
Stoner sound is gone and replaced with a more direct seventies
sounding psych/prog approach. A very cool and mellow tune to show how
expertly Red Mountains can change the mood of the album for the
better.
Fourth track - Endless Queen - is
the longest song on the album running for around eleven minutes. Red
Mountains strip the Desert/Stoner Rock sounds yet again and to focus
more on the laidback prog rock vibe. The vocals are quite laid-back
and the song has moments of dream-like post-rock appearing here and
there.
The next song - Stone - sees Red
Mountains return to their Desert/Stoner Rock roots. It's a heavier
and upbeat song with a lot more groove compared to the other songs on
the album. The final four songs on the album - Fog, Cellar Door, Acid
Wedding and Returning - manage to merge both the main primary sounds
of the album especially on Fog and Acid Wedding.
Slow Wander is an outstanding album
from Red Mountains and it's one that has the potential to surprise a
lot of people within the Stoner Rock and Progressive Rock
communities.
Words by Steve
Howe
Thanks
to Red Mountains for the promo. Slow Wander will be released on
DD/Vinyl via All Good Clean Records from September 1st
2017.
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