Black Mountain
In The Future (2lp)
If this is the future, start growing out your facial hair now, because it looks like the blood-crazed Canadian hippies will inherit the Earth. Black Mountain are four men and a maiden from Vancouver, reveling in psychedelic prog metal with all the Seventies flourishes. In stoner-detention epics like "Wucan" and "Queens Will Play," they bring metal guitars, multipart song structures, temples-of-Syrinx poetry and vintage synths that sound like they were beamed in from some lost Argent or ELP session. Black Mountain's 2005 debut made them a hit with budding viking warriors everywhere, but In the Future has an even bigger kick, with a surprising blues edge and Amber Webber's vocals adding a touch of Sandy Denny to the battle-of-Evermore vibe. It definitely says something for Black Mountain's achievements that the two best moments here are also the weightiest - the eight-minute "Tyrants" and the sixteen-minute "Bright Lights."