Destroyer

Album review

Lousy with stadium concert excess, rock star foppery and the profuse heresies of disco, 70s music was once an easy target for defamers. But that much-maligned era has become a ubiquitous influence in today's fractured musical soundscape. Young guitar bands routinely gulp down Zep licks and Iommi chords, digest the relevant lessons and chunder up fresh manifestos, which in the case of heavy stoner/psych rock lords Black Mountain's fifth full length means hard, fast knots of guitar riffage, Hawkwind-esque lyrics and a devotion to the twin lyrical icons of 70's rock: cars and sex.

Black Mountain founder/leader Stephen McBean recently added high octane fuel to his awe for 70's-influenced rock by learning to drive at the tender age of 48. Getting behind the wheel for the first time led to "Licensed to Drive," where he echoes Deep Purple's immortal "Highway Star," by exclaiming, "Live now / Speed thrills / Hunted by the radar / The Thunder of the Steel" while synthesizers wail with abandon. Rather than a KISS allusion, the album's title is supposedly named for a short-lived Dodge muscle car that was discontinued in 1985. With his road jones satiated he moves toward pleasures of the flesh in "High Rise": "Thrusting cement into heaven / Penetrating the clouds / Staring us down / Thinking you're all that the world spins around / The loneliest cock in the sky." Mixed by John Congelton, Destroyer is sonically compressed, in-your-face and meant to be played loud.

A blunt-edged continuation of Black Mountain's evolution into intricate layering, inventive, hooky arrangements and odd touches like acoustic guitar openings and vocoder choruses, Destroyer, dedicated to "all the warriors who have left the stadium," finds new driver McBean mastering the musical wile of looking in the rearview while simultaneously keeping an artistic eye on what's ahead. © Robert Baird / Qobuz