A combination of Earth inspired drone and Om flavored doom with lots of other elements thrown in resulting in a very interesting and enjoyable ride. Rating:
Horseback – The Invisible Mountain
Relapse Records
Horseback is a project by a man named Jenks Miller who plays nearly every instrument known to man sans-horns to create these lavish soundscapes that incorporate a lot of different musical styles into something that defies description. The Invisible Mountain in the second full-length by Horseback and it’s quite an impressive piece of work.
Miller crafts these long soundscapes that are a blending of doom and drone metal. At times it sounds like Om mixed with Earth but much more organic and varied. The song structures feature a lot of repetition that builds with moody subdued droning guitars. The music is also heavy on the low-end which gives it a nice groove. The vocals sound like a muffled black metal meets industrial processed sound that is rather low-key and instead of driving the songs work more like an additional layer of sound. The songs are really catchy and almost soundtrack like in their execution. It is equal parts familiar and unique and the sum of its parts is a record that is unlike most anything you’ve heard currently, yet somewhat familiar and welcoming.
The album contains only four tracks but clocks in at nearly the length of a full album. The songs are a minimum of 7 minutes long and they fit together nicely making this album one that is much more enjoyable listening to as a whole instead of just picking a song or two. Hopefully we’ll be hearing more from Mr. Miller and his Horseback in the near future as this is easily one of the best and more unique records of 2010.