IN THE FUTURE

Black Mountain's "In the Future" is the place to go if you are looking for a more recent brand of 70's stoner rock. This is a combination of Jefferson Airplane and Deep Purple with shades of Led Zeppelin and grungy style rock that sticks to it's bluesy roots. This is music along the same lines as White Stripes/Jack White and Band of Skulls, but with more progressive leanings similar to Bigelf. Yet, it is not a copy of any of those bands, it is original enough to be it's own style. The feel is a little dark for the most part, and like I said, it remains true to it's blues roots, so it is mostly a slower paced rock. The guitar hooks are authentic and believable, the vocals are in the stoner style. This is great stuff.

This album really develops the sound that Black Mountain was striving for in their debut album, and the band really hits their mark on this album. There is the singable track "Angels", the dark sounds of "Wuccan", the amazing epic-ness of "Bright Lights" which contains a lot of progressive sound and a gigantic organ and guitar combination of soloing that will convince you that you are listening to a real rock band of the 70's, but with an alternative edge. There is the beautiful album closer which features Amber's lovely vocals almost acapella with minimalistic droning organ sounds which is later joined by beautiful harmonics. This is music that will satisfy your hunger for the stoner sound of the early 70s.

It's pretty basic progressive music, it's nothing really fancy or groundbreaking. The most progressive track is the 16 minute "Bright Lights", which actually drags for the first 4 minutes but erupts into retro bliss after that point, and even has a nice space rock sound in the middle instrumental bridge, before the organ and guitar interplay on the last part of the track. The entire album is quite enjoyable however and all of the track contain some very convincing sounds. Also, since there are 3 lead singers in the band, you definitely get a nice variation in the music from one track to the other.

The deluxe edition of this album contains 3 more additional tracks that follow the same trend, and each track could have easily fit comfortably on the regular album. "Thirteen Walls" has a folky sound with guitar that sounds almost like a sitar. This is a definite winner of a track with Amber's voice wailing spookily behind Stephen's main vocals before she joins him in harmony. After that, it breaks into an amazing guitar solo that will leave you breathless. This song alone is worth searching for the deluxe version.

Even though there is nothing groundbreaking on the album, it is still excellent enough to warrant 4 stars. This is definitely a band that was born too late, and I believe they would have been legends if they were around when this music was the popular sound of the day. This is also an album I return to many times when I'm in the mood for something "new" with that "old" sound. These guys should be as famous as the White siblings, but they have been passed over by the public for some reason. Maybe it is a little too retro for some tastes, but I love it. Highly recommended for those looking for new music with the sound of the classics from the 70s. Great stuff.