In general, progressive rock is about the least sexy genre of music out there. You can point to several factors: the richly complex themes that reside in a lot of progressive rock albums isn\u2019t the stuff of back seat makeout sessions; the odd timing shifts of a lot of progressive rock also doesn\u2019t bode well for boot knockin\u2019; and finally, many progressive rock vocalists are grating enough to kill any romantic vibes. This may be a reason why progressive rock is more the soundtrack of long night role-playing sessions than music to get you to \u201chome plate.\u201d <\/p>\n
There are exceptions to every rule, however. And Vancouver\u2019s Black Mountain does their best to make progressive rock actually sound sexy on In The Future<\/i>. The band, led by Stephen McBean, do this by seriously blurring the lines of progressive rock, \u201870s era straightforward stoner rock and even a bit of falsetto soul. In fact, only about a third of this album sounds anything like progressive rock. <\/p>\n
For neophytes to progressive rock, In The Future<\/i> is a great starter disc. The kickoff track \u201cStormy High\u201d is pure butt rock, and that is by no means a criticism. McBean\u2019s guitar lays down a riff deep enough to rattle your speakers and drummer Joshua Wells adds another layer of heaviness. The track, like most of the album, shows Black Mountain\u2019s care of rhythm, something many progressive rock bands have little to no interest in developing. <\/p>\n
So what\u2019s progressive about In The Future<\/i>, aside from a cover so bitchin\u2019 that it makes you nostalgic for albums? First off, there are plenty of allusions to epic battles, witches and mythology on this disc. Secondly, there are plenty of shifting time signatures. But mainly, it\u2019s because of Black Mountain\u2019s affinity for \u201cepic\u201d tracks, specifically in the eight minute \u201cTyrants\u201d and the way overboard sixteen minute-plus \u201cBright Lights.\u201d \u201cTyrant\u201d represents the band\u2019s best progressive rock traits: a large, full sound assault that sounds like three songs compacted into one, but it never loses momentum. Unfortunately, the same can\u2019t be said with \u201cBright Lights.\u201d Even a quarter way through, the song runs out of ideas and the almost comedic moaning of \u201cLight Bright\u201d by McBean will most likely bring about memories of the glowing lights Hasbro toy than of the \u201ctotal nightmares,\u201d \u201cdarkness\u201d and \u201cdestruction\u201d the song tries to convey in its lyrics and sound. <\/p>\n Fortunately, \u201cNight Walks\u201d redeems that sixteen minute monstrosity with a beautiful, almost country-esque ballad. It\u2019s a great ending to an album that, while paying some major respects to progressive rock, is accessible enough to be in any rock lover\u2019s collection. Hardly a \u201cdumbed down\u201d version of progressive rock, In The Future<\/i> is an album that\u2019s brainy enough to accompany a marathon session of World Of Warcraft<\/i> and rambunctious enough for a Saturday night kegger. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8368],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41421","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-black-mountain","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41421"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}