Tuesday, November 11, 2014

We Own These Mountains

Slow Season ~ Mountains (2014)


Slow Season are a four piece Hard Rock band from California, and if you're a fan of Rock music that came out between 1960 and 1980, then you're pretty much guaranteed to like these guys. With shredding guitar riffs, thundering drums, and a melodic vocal performance that soars from the very beginning, the guys set about recording everything on tape, opting for the warm, nostalgic undertone it provides. Aside from taking obvious cues from bands like Led Zeppelin, I noticed some even more subtle influences in the album like The Doors, Mountain, and even some Cream. Playing off the retro sound is the cool thing to do nowadays, but doing it and doing it well are two different animals. Lucky for us, Slow Season sound like they have the chops to of headlined their own world tour back in '73 . With a full album of ten tracks, it wasn't easy to pick a favorite, and I still haven't really. On my first listen I was pretty captivated by the second track "Synanon", about a mountain cult that lived not far from the band at one time. It opens up with a mellow, acoustic guitar part, with the haunting, reverb saturated vocals dropping in, and a distorted guitar part that only lasts a few seconds before going back to the acoustic part, just to roaring back after that. Around the halfway mark a fuzzy riff drops in and you start to see the sort of heaviness the band can put forth, with the vocals taking on a harsher tone than at the beginning. Amazingly, the album seems to only pick up speed form here, with none of the tracks after it lacking in the soul or groove departments. While the album is officially released today through Riding Easy Records, the vinyl version will be on preorder for another week or two so you still have some time to get those in, or you can pick it up on CD here. If you're just wanting a digital version, iTunes has you covered.
~Skip

For Fans Of; Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Who


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