keepers-2
keeper avg .200
Wilderness Heart kicks off with "The Hair Song"****, a lost cut from Physical Graffiti, complete with synth violins taken from "Kashmir". "Old Fangs"**** (and also the title song) return to the typical Black Mountain stoner/goth/ren faire aesthetic, but also swing rather menacingly. The sludgy feel and angular guitar solos are much more Soundgarden than Zeppelin, while "Let Spirits Ride" approximates Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", satisfying my curiosity about what Sabbath would sound like with a chick singer. but the rest of the album more or less follows the Led Zeppelin III heavy-folk script. "The Way To Gone" brings in both acoustic and electric elements, but it's no "Gallows Pole". And sometimes the dual vocal approach works better than others. The harmonies are always on, but often McBean and Webber's tendency to always belt it out lacks dynamic, especially on "Radiant Hearts". At least there is little of Webber's yodel/cooing vibrato that made the one Black Mountain live performance I've heard completely unlistenable. A little goes a long way honey.
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