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Horseback, "The Invisible Mountain"
Retaining the sense of minimalism and drone that the label has put itself at the forefront of, Horseback forgoes the dark creaky sounds and quiet moments to instead crank up the amps into full on stoner rock mode. Sticking to repeated mantras of Sabbath inspired grind, there is a sort of kinship to the likes of Loop and Spacemen 3 in approach, even if the sound is much different.
The solo project of Jenks Miller, he is aided here by drummer John Crouch on three of the tracks, and second guitarist Scott Endres on two. The initial three songs follow a similar formula of repetitive drums, distorted bass, and fuzzed out riffing. While that sounds somewhat mundane, the execution is anything but.
Opener "Invokation" fades in the taut drums and fuzzed out bass that are expected from the previous description, but off in the distance there is some really varied melodic guitar playing that normally would clash with the rhythm section. Vocals appear too, with a definite bend to the black metal/grindcore sound akin to Cookie Monster. Normally, this is a turnoff for me, but in this odd amalgamation, it works rather well. The melodic elements pull ahead towards the end, and the whole track has that minimalist repetitive sound that Loop did so well, but less psych and more metal.
"Tyrant Symmetry" is cut from the same cloth but stripped down a bit more and focused more on the melodic guitar work and the growled vocals. There is a definite dynamic shift to the piece, with the change to melodic playing becoming even more pronounced in the middle section. Otherwise it follows the similar path of repetition and intentional simplicity.
The title track leans more on melodic lead guitar work with an even more '70s rock tinge to it, especially when bolstered by the overdriven bass and repetitive drums. The intentional minimalism carried over from the first two tracks does make it feel like a bit like La Monte Young arranging his own version of "Paranoid," which is a good thing.
The biggest departure comes with the album closer, "Hatecloud Dissolving into Nothing," which drops the drums and the bass to instead make it a 16 minute study of chiming guitar textures. There does remain some dark elements in the cloud, namely the guttural vocals that arise here and there like an angry troll poking his head out, but the focus is squarely on the delicate guitar sound. As the track nears its end, the chiming guitar shifts via processing to be sweeping symphonic layers that push the track into soaring ambience that is completely unexpected given the rest of the disc, but entirely wonderful.
The Invisible Mountain is a prime example of an artist pursuing the drone/minimalist route without focusing too heavily on massive detuned guitar riffs or reverb shrouded electronic passages. Horseback takes the idea of drone to the composition level, rather than just the sonic one, and gives new life to a stagnating genre.
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