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Heartless Bastards - The Mountain
garage rockers soars |
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Review by Tony Bonyata On their third full-length release entitled, The Mountain, the Ohio-based rock band Heartless Bastards may have tempered their bluesy garage-rock bombast with a decidedly slicker production, but with an album that pulls in a broader range of emotions and sounds they've also created their most engaging effort to date.The group was originally signed to the Oxford, MS record label Fat Possum after The Black Keys' drummer Patrick Carney (also on the label) caught their live show and gave the label owner a five-song demo. Since then the band has been receiving a wealth of praise for their riff heavy blues-rock that some liken to The Black Keys' own style of primal Delta blues-meets-garage rock. What they manage to do on The Mountain, however, is to expand their sound even further, giving them more of a voice of their own. Produced by Mike McCarthy (Spoon, ...Trail of Dead) The Mountain still has some of the band's bluesy swagger from the past, as witnessed on "Nothing Seems The Same," "Hold Your Head High" and "Witchy Poo," but they also incorporate their own brand of backwoods folk on "Be So Happy" and "Had To Go," as well as the pounding rock on "Early In The Morning" and scrappy pre-punk on "Out At Sea." What makes their sound so unique, however, is the voice of singer, songwriter and guitarist Erika Wennerstrom. While her delivery is often dry and deadpan, when necessary she can still belt out a warbling howl like Janis Joplin in her Southern Comfort-fueled prime. And it's this intoxicating voice, along with some down-and-dirty garage rock and rough-hewn folk numbers that makes The Mountain soar so high. |