They say you only get one chance at making a good first impression
so make it count. I'm sure Mountain Witch set out to make a great
impression with their debut LP Cold River. Holy shit did they ever. This
Charming Man Records have found what I'm going to claim now, the next
big thing.
Mountain Witch play 70's inspired hard rock mixed with doom metal,
some psychedelics, and at times, a little occult-ish. By now that
formula is a little clichéd but it's not so much how it's made, it's
what you do with it. Mountain Witch make the proverbial lemonade out of
lemons but they somehow manage to add strawberries, some sugar and a
hint of lime.
Clichés aside, this is some
seriously great rock and roll. There is only a handful of albums that
have come out this year that I haven't been able to put down. Cold River
has joined those ranks. I was hooked from the instrumental opening song
"Snake Wand." It seems that track was built upon some of the best jam
and instrumentals that Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath composed. My
favorite song from the album hands down has to be the title track. "Cold
River" is a slower and a bit more somber song than the rest of the
album but it flows nice and steady like a nice shot of expresso in the
morning. The band ends the album in grand style with a killer cover of
"Black Night."
If you like Kadavar, Witchcraft, Graveyard, Black Sabbath and Deep
Purple, you are going to want to perk your ears for this one. This is
album of the year material here! The album is released in October
through This Charming Man Records.
-Soda Bill
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