By: Richard Maw
Album
Type: Full Length
Date
Released: 28/03/2020
Label:
Independent
“Mountain Pass”
DD//LP track listing:
1).
The Northern Face
2).
Thunder Am I
3).
Irons in the Fire
4).
You Don’t Know Death
5).
Grace of an Angel
6).
Mountain Pass
7).
Devil Blues
8).
The Southern Face
The
Review:
American
trio Phantom Hound present a sound some way
between Soundgarden and stoner/doom bands like Sixty-Watt Shaman and Roadsaw. You get eight
tracks of blues inflected grooving rock.
Opener
“The Northern Face” sums up the
band's sound pretty well, while “Thunder
I Am” is a solid slab with some time changes and extensive solo passages.
The solo sections favour the strict trio format- no rhythm guitar under it. The
guitar sound is a treat- thick and fuzzed out, although the drums are a little
lacking in power. The sound is raw and live, but the drums are a little thin
sounding.
No
matter, there is nothing wrong with the playing at all and the material is
uniformly strong throughout. “You Don't
Know Death” is a fine track and then “Grace
Of An Angel” brings acoustic guitars and bridges the first half of the
album with the second. The epic title track is eight minutes plus of downbeat Soundgarden-esque rock but it is bettered, in my view, by “Devil Blues” which is a wonderfully
dynamic track with excellent guitar work.
“The Southern Face”
closes the album out with close to eight minutes of very dark rock, the driving
main section is effective and very strong. Overall, this is a solid release of
stoner rock that is as American as apple pie. If you like any of the bands
mentioned above, give this a try. I assume you've got some time on your hands
currently to do just that!
“Mountain
Pass” is available HERE
