Review- The Mountain King- Hitting Stellar Pipes
The Mountain King is a newer project
that invokes a few different feels and sounds, influenced by drone, stoner rock, and doom metal, to create a hybrid sound that definitely works with it's different elements.
Their new album, Hitting Stellar Pipes, is an album that features just 3 songs, but clocks in at over an hour.
As I'm not fully familiar with much of this (hybrid) genre, but do like some classic Doom and Stoner bands such as
Cathedral or Sleep (or some of the classic Death Doom Bands like Anathema) it was a challenge to come up with superlatives to
describe such an act. I also have not heard much of bands like SunnO))) or Isis (the band that is). However, it is always a welcome change of pace
with the atmosphere and dreamlike haze invoked by such projects and
musicians. As snobby as it seems, I would rather review 1000 projects
like this rather than 10 mainstream metalcore, post-grunge, or nu- metal ones.
The album starts with Hitting Stellar
Pipes, a 34 minute deluge that begins with minutes of droning carnage that is almost binaural
in its attempts.
The ambience and the suffocating feeling
increase but some melodies from a cleaner guitar entwines itself
around ten minutes in. 16 minutes in the drums start and the song is
a bit more back in the Doom or Stoner camp, with a cool odd timed
riff and vocals that hazily come into the mix. And the vocal lines
are among the great things about this project, being totally
congruent and in tune with the music.
They have a more somber, melodic feel that feels more in line with classic Doom Metal than a lot of the harsher, or more dry sounds emanating from similar projects. Very refreshing, I find the sprinklings of melody subtle, but very effective.
Through the haze of sounds is a very acute sense of melody and dynamics, despite the sometimes overwhelming presentation. This is definitely their ace in the deck as far as letting the listener into their universe.
It resolves itself with a mystical
atmosphere of pure doom metal that is crushingly heavy replete with
sitar sounds (!)
The next song, Call Of Mothra, follows and is much the same in it's template.
A droning long intro, crushingly heavy doomy continuation, and melodic tinges hidden in the cavernous soundscape that envelops the song. It features something new in the mix with string sounds adding to the mix. Definitely cool subject matter (or title), as well, and even though the template is similar, it does its best to distinguish itself as a seperate song to get a sense of variety along with the continuity.
Mothra's Legacy (Egg) is an outro featuring a documentary type voice with clean guitars, relegating the story of Mothra and it's effect on the humans. By this time, you've realized this is a concept album, and a cool concept about the classic tales of Mothra is a very welcome thing indeed! I myself have fond members of playing the game Godzilla: King of Monsters (which featured Mothra heavily) on the old Nintendo Entertainment System back in the day!
The Mountain King play a style of metal that takes full
absorption, preferably under black light in a gaze of ganja smoke (or
perhaps more). It's landscapes and terrain take you on a journey
through different dimensions and moods and towards an enlightened
feel that is almost like musical pranayama.
The production is clear, warm, and well
balanced. The drums especially have some incredible dynamics that
help with the overall sound. Needless to say, I was a big fan of the production and mix, it definitely helps having such a wide dynamic range while also keeping the immense heaviness.
I would definitely recommend this band, and it makes me want to check out more of the bands that influenced them as well more for sure.
You can check out The Mountain King (as well as purchase their albums) at the following links:
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