8:10am Thursday 9th September 2010
By Tom Goodwyn
Given that Canadian outfit Black Mountain bring to mind the excesses and flamboyance of 1970s rock n‘roll, it seems odd that three of the five members retain full-time jobs as carers for some of their hometown Vancouver’s worst off citizens.
Starting the band in 2004, their moonlighting has spilled over into an adventure that has produced, so far, two albums and damn near fills the upstairs room of the O2 Academy promoting their third.
Onstage, the band are business-like in what they do, playing a tightly-crafted 90-minute set with no drum solos or jazzy improv, most of it taken from new album Wilderness Heart. Big and blustery, each track is like a compilation of the cream of 70s rock.
Beginning gently, with just a John Bonham drum pattern, they then add a monstrous Sabbath-style guitar riff. After this, a mystical keyboard or mellotron comes in, like something from Pink Floyd’s later work, before the track is completed by a boot-stomping melody straight from Led Zeppelin at the peak of their powers. Although this makes them sound like they’ve stayed in rehearsal rooms, copying their idols, it’s less cynical than that. Black Mountain’s sound is more a homage, it’s a cut above the likes of Wolfmother, and what they do is a million miles away from the way the Darkness operated. With no spandex or cringe-worthy lyrics, Black Mountain are much better than that with some really brilliant rock n’roll songs. Stormy High is the kind of dust in throat, call to arms that any band would be proud of, Wucan allows the singer to show off her Joplinesque vocal power and new single Old Fangs is a haunting bit of pop, with a great fist pumping chorus.
Homages to bygone eras are usually pale imitations of what they honour, but Black Mountain are every bit as good as those who paved the way for them in the 70s.
Tom Goodwyn
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