Smoke Mountain – Smoke Mountain – EP Review

These lo-fi adventurers from Tallahassee, Florida appear to have climbed the smoke mountain armed with just their proto-metal album collection, a grappling hook (probably), a shit tonne of weed and very little else! That’s how much they rely on the simplicity of hammering home a repetitive, fuzzy riff but we’ll be fucked if this shit doesn’t chill the bones while simultaneously flexing those neck muscles.

Smoke Mountain are proper heavy, the kind of heavy originally pioneered by Pentagram, Budgie (on their debut at least) and, as the years rolled by, the mighty Electric Wizard. They also draw apt comparisons with the UK’s own Massive Weed Wizard Bastard and not just because they both have female singers, but simply because both bands employ the awe-inspiring power of both a crushing doom riff and a fiendish vocal hook to enchant your darkened soul.

Smoke Mountain is a stoner/doom throwback to the occult obsessed late 60’s and early 70’s and “Demon,” in particular, is an exemplary example of how this siphoning of the original proto-metal sound can still be exciting in 2017! 7/10

Listen for yourselves at smokemountaindoom.bandcamp.com