SLEEPING MOUNTAIN ~ SLEEPING MOUNTAIN ...... review

North London, UK is not known for its mountains, hills it has in abundance such as Muswell Hill. Primrose Hill and Highgate Hill, mountains however there is a distinct lack of. Well not entirely, there is a mountain to be found in London's northern reaches only this mountain is not a geographical one but a musical one and consists of four guys, Aitor Mendez (guitar/keyboards), Nando Thommessen (guitar), Dhairya Anand (vocals), David Saunders (bass) and Alexis Humanes (drums), who make music together under the collective umbrella of Sleeping Mountain.

Sleeping Mountain make music heavily influenced by the psych and prog of the early to mid 70's but with a modern twist, the band jam a unique groove that melds the complexities and intricacies of 70's prog with the some of the more melodic and heavier aspects of todays heavy rock, metal and psych scene to create a sound that is totally their own, a sound informed by the past but not defined by it, as you will discover when listening to their brand new self-tiled debut release "Sleeping Mountain".

The opening piece to this review mentioned prog, psych, metal and rock, what we never mentioned was the blues and the Sleeping Mountain's opening song, "Break Me Down", is most definitely a song with its roots in that particular genre. This is not however the type of generic twelve bar blues played by men in suits in clubs and bars all over the world, this is a heavily mutated version of the form infused with lysergic colourations and proggish complexities. Zeppelin-esque in places but also containing elements of the genre that have since been explored by bands like The Parlour Mob and Rival Sons the song is a powerful opening statement. "Weigh" follows and finds the band twinning crunching chord progressions with searing solos, growling bass and thunderous percussion beneath an impassioned vocal that tells of being "caught inside a loop of endless misery" and "throwing gas on fire", over a groove that draws from the wells of both swaggering hard rock and prog tinted modern metal. Sleeping Mountain finish things up with "Evermore" a slow building atmospheric lament/torch song packed to the rafters with swirling keyboard textures and soaring lead guitar. Lyrically mournful and despondent the song might seem a strange choice to bring things to a close with but any misgivings the listener may have are soon blown away when those keyboards, guitars, bass and drums combine to climb towards the songs majestic finale.

Sleeping Mountain's debut has the feel of a demo, not in its production or its execution, all of which are top notch, but in the way it shows three completely different facets of the bands sound. One could imagine that had the band released a longer album then it would include more songs that were similar in style and feel to one another but with this three song format they seem to be attempting to highlight not only their skill as musicians but also the diversity of their arrangements and their song writing, showing us that they are not just one trick ponies but a band with many strings to their collective bow, it's a tactic we think they have successfully pulled off.

Check 'em out .... 

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