Jagjaguwar

The first half of Black Mountain’s latest, recorded in LA and Seattle, is all sludge and crunch, resplendent with Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd allusions and culminating with the heavy riffage organ of “Rollercoaster.” The arrangements open up on the second half, starting with the washy, spacious “Buried by the Blues,” with licks of Britpop violin and pedal steel followed by The Airplane-ish “The Way to Gone,” with Stephen McBean’s nasally, tube-driven guitar tone and simple melody. The Vancouver quintet’s strength is the vocal interplay between singer/guitarist McBean and singer Amber Weber – tonally punk or new wave – juxtaposed against metal and Brit psych heaviness. The heavy sound is satisfying, but Black Mountain is most interesting when it has room to breathe.