Description
Label Review.
2019 album also available on Vinyl.
Our Overview.
Canadian, Vancouver based psychedelic rock band are releasing their new album ‘Destroyer’ - their first new material in three years - and the rock quintet’s fifth studio album to date. The album is structured around that first time behind the wheel of a hot rod. The fat, charging ‘Living After Midnight’ riffs of opener ‘Future Shade’ is, according to McBean, “Straight outta the gates. FM radio cranked.” He ain’t kidding. The song, and all of ‘Destroyer’ for that matter, seems to exist at that crucial nexus of the early-to-mid 80s Los Angeles when a war between punk and hair metal was waged. Black Flag’s ‘My War’ tried and failed to keep the peace. But in the trenches, some hybrid ghoul was beginning to form in bands like Jane’s Addiction and White Zombie. The heavy extended player ‘Horns Arising’, with its ‘Night Rider’ vocals and golden, climbing ‘Blade Runner’ synths, is a fill-up at a desert gas station just in time to see a UFO hovering near a mesa.
Other songs, like the serpentine ‘Boogie Lover’, are a cruise down the Sunset Strip. You pull into The Rainbow Bar & Grill to take the edge off - doesn’t matter what year it is, Lemmy’s there in flesh or spirit. To continue the teenage theme, there’s also a sense of youthful discovery to these cuts - ‘High Rise’ is a foray into Japanese psych, rounding the bend to a careening, while ‘Closer To The Edge’ feelslike falling in love with Yes. ‘Licensed To Drive’ would easily be the most exhilarating and dangerous ripper on a titular film’s soundtrack, a dose of heavy right before the muscle car’s wheels fly off going 100 mph on the freeway.
Shacked up in his rehearsal space, McBean found an old chair in an alley, spray painted ‘Producer’ on the back and pressed record. Friends from the endless rock’n’roll highway were invited over and 22songs were brought to life. While some were laid back into shallow graves to dig up once again at a later date, the remaining skeletons were left above ground - given organs, skin, eyes and theopportunity to grow their hair real long and greasy. Some of these zombie hesher jams were sent on a journey to Canada where longtime band member Jeremy Schmidt, slipping on the OfficialCollaborator satin jacket, had at them with his legendary synth arsenal. As he added long flowing robes, sunglasses, driving gloves and medallions, the undead songs began to transform into the newbreathing creatures that make up ‘Destroyer’. Schmidt’s work with these songs turned out to be the transformative glue for this new era of Black Mountain.