Album Review: Witch Mountain

[DIRGE METAL] Witch Mountain's Mobile of Angels starts with slow, bluesy riffage, which is exactly what fans have come to expect from the band after nearly 20 years together. But around the three-minute mark of album opener "Psycho Animundi," something strange happens. The band stops. Five seconds of silence pass before the song's groove returns. Though it's a short moment of an almost nine-minute track, it sets the tone for the rest of the album, where arresting dynamics provide more weight than a wall of distortion ever could.

That's not to say Mobile of Angels is a quiet or particularly gentle album, but it finds the Portland doom-metal mainstay (whose drummer, Nathan Carson, is a WW contributor) exploring volume and tone while also staying true to its Sabbath-y roots. "Your Corrupt Ways (Sour the Hymn)" begins with soft, Low-like chimes before erupting into a dirty wah-pedal solo courtesy of guitarist Rob Wrong, while the drumless, largely spoken-word title track provides the band with more room to experiment with texture. 

In the past, Witch Mountain has largely been defined by Wrong's grinding guitar. Here, singer Uta Plotkin's voice is the defining feature. Plotkin gives a master class, composing elegant, multitrack arrangements and showing off her bluesy wail from a comfortable position at the front of the mix. Nowhere does her musicianship shine more than on closing track "The Shape Truth Takes." "I don't feel your heat anymore," she declares in a delicate, two-part harmony. Sadly, this is the last we'll hear from her in Witch Mountain, as she's leaving the band following its current tour. Fortunately, it's a great song to cry to. 

SEE IT: Witch Mountain plays Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., with Nik Turner's Hawkwind and Hedersleben, on Sunday, Sept. 28. 9 pm. $12. 21+.

WWeek 2015