Release Date: February 12th 2022. Record Label: Self Released. Format: DD
Fear The Heart - Tracklisting
1.Blue Madonna 04:18
2.New Fire 05:43
3.The River I 03:36
4.The River II 04:31
5.Fear The Heart 06:15
6.Semper Virens 06:51
7.The Wail 06:38
Members including Guest Appearances
Scott Weiser - guitar/vox/bass/percussion
Jordan Norton - drums/percussion/spoken word
Additional musicians on The River I:
Mei Lin Heirendt - fiddle
Robert Heirendt - mbira
Review
Fear The Heart is the debut album from Californian Desert Rock/Post-Rock/Stoner Metal outfit Mount Desert as they offer a bleak landscape in scorched dusty soundscapes with a progressive outlook on things. Shades of ELDER, All Them Witches, Weedpecker and Pink Floyd combine with the sludgy heaviness of Neurosis and Pelican for a spirited and aggressive listen.
Taking their lyrical inspiration from All Them Witches romanticism with a Pink Floyd narrative. Mount Desert do sound and feel like a truly original band branching out on their own terms. Psychedelic grooves are interlaced with heartfelt vocals for songs that stay very true to the genres they encompass on the entire record.
The opening two songs Blue Madonna and New Fire allows Mount Desert to set the rules for this album and what to expect with the band playing bleak sonic desert sounds and progressive Stoner Metal and stripped back Post-Rock/Post-Metal passages. These two songs do have a bleak and desolate Californian Desert atmosphere to them with the lyrics adding extra emotional weight to proceedings.
The rest of the album continues with this spiritual sound with the stunning two part opus that is The River I and The River II that ultimately becoming one of the best parts of the album before Mount Desert unleash more therapeutic heaviness with the fantastic final three songs of: Fear The Heart, Semper Virens and The Wall.
Fear The Heart is a highly accomplished album with stunning production values behind it all. For a duo these guys sound like they have more members in the band and that’s down to this being a very multi-layered album with different styles of music from start to finish.
Overall, this is a wonderful and dark take on the standard take of Desert Rock/Stoner Metal and allows this album to be a must have record and an early contender for one of the year’s best albums.
Excellent and Highly Recommended.
Words by Steve Howe
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