We have not featured a South Korean band on Desert Psychlist's pages prior to today's review so this is a first for us and what a beauty we have picked to break our duck. The album we are reviewing today is the debut release from Seoul based outfit The Holy Mountain titled "The Holy Mountain 2024" a collection of seven riffcentric tunes that reside in the canons of doom, sludge and stoner metal. Given their name and the sound they make together it is fairly obvious that the band, Hyung Jin Seo (bass/vocals); Suyong Cho (guitars) and Joseph Kim (drums), are heavily influenced by Sleep but listen hard and you will find that there is a little more going on here than just some Matt Pike worship.
Things start off with the H. P. Lovecraft inspired "...at the Mountains of Madness" its synthesised bass intro is soon joined by guitars and drums in a thrumming and crunchy circular groove embellished with an array of effects over and around which a throaty vocal tells of "hopeless hope" and "blasphemous black serpents" in tones that borders on the edges of manic. Next up is "Promised Land", a song that sees the sludge and doom that prevailed previously being jettisoned for a groove that leans close to heavy stoner rock and boasts some really impressive blues flavoured lead work. "Make My Day" follows and carries in its armoury a to die for riff and vocal melody that will stay with you days after its last note has faded into silence. "Sweet Nothings", an ode to indulgence, is an irresistible foot-tapping stonerized rocker with suitably lived in vocals while "Show You My Way" is what you might have got if the late Dave Sherman (The Obsessed/Earthride/Spirit Caravan) had ever thrown his lot in with Monster Magnet. There is a rolling down the highway feel to next song "Maximum Overdrive" which is very apt given its muscle car lyrical content and hard driven dynamics. Raucous is the only way to describe last track "No Compromise" a song that lives up to its title by being a no frills, no fucks given mix of sludge riffage and hardcore rhythms decorated in throat shredding vocal vitriol.
Sleep might be the band that inspired The Holy Mountain's name and the title of their debut album but in truth what you will be hearing when spinning this excellent collection of tunes is more connected to the fuzz'n'roll of the early stoner scene than the post Sabbath proto doom of Sleep, yes there is plenty of dankness to be found on "The Holy Mountain 2024" but there are also elements of the blues and hard rock to be found here also, albeit with a touch of delicious sludginess in the engine room.
Check it out ...
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