Thanks to the folks at No Depression Magazine for the great review of our new album Mountain.<\/p>\n
“You don\u2019t need a lot of crazy, overindulgent solos to make a good guitar record in 2018, and The Cold Stares\u2019 Chris Tapp proves as much in the band\u2019s new album Mountain. The record\u2019s opening set includes the stop-start alternative rocker \u201cThe Great Unknown,\u201d the swinging blues tune \u201cFriend of Mine\u201d and the organic \u201cUnder His Command,\u201d which together set the table for what we can expect in the dozen tracks that follow by showing off the three pillars of The Cold Stares\u2019 guitar-oriented sound. \u201cThe Great Unknown\u201d represents the trudging power chord rock that we were introduced to in their last record Head Bent; \u201cFriend of Mine\u201d offers us a taste of their more relaxed, radio-friendly side in the form of a patient guitar lick; and \u201cUnder His Command\u201d serves as a sampling of their uniquely contrasting acoustic songs that leave a trail of hostile energy in their wake.<\/p>\n
Mountain is structured in three song suites that steamroll over our senses without a second thought; \u201cStickemup,\u201d rises from the ashes of \u201cUnder His Command\u201d and bleeds right into \u201cGone Not Dead\u201d and the bulging \u201cWade In The Darkness,\u201d which pristinely reverberates like a lonely voice bouncing off of huge canyon walls. Drummer Brian Mullins doesn\u2019t command every song with his calculated arrangements, but the songs that he does make a big impact on (\u201cSleeping With Lions\u201d and \u201cCold Black Water\u201d particularly) are the best of the album. Tapp\u2019s lyrics are a constant presence and tend to overshadow some of the more plaintive musical bits in tracks like \u201cChild of God\u201d or the correspondingly muted \u201cThe River,\u201d and I actually think that his style of prose goes out of its way to be more creative and freewheeling than it has to be exclusively with this result in mind.<\/p>\n
The Cold Stares are very good at taking a simple song and transforming it into a roots rocking firestorm, which is demonstrated perfectly in \u201cThe Plan.\u201d The mix of this track is what takes it out of the pastureland and drops it into a crowded concert hall \u2013 every gilded nuance of Tapp\u2019s heart-pumping blues guitar is highlighted with great detail, and Mullins\u2019 drumming occasionally gets so overwhelming that it feels like his cymbals are going to come crashing through the invisible barrier between recorded music and tangible reality itself. The same can be said of the familiar melody we find in \u201cWay Gets Dark,\u201d which borrows heavily from the folk\/blues of yesteryear but comes across as authentic and original thanks to The Cold Stares\u2019 tailor-made equalization.<\/p>\n
For a record that feels like it\u2019s actually two LPs crammed into a single disc, there isn\u2019t a spot of filler in Mountain to be skipped over, and if anything the more streamlined tracks make the progressive flow even more lucid and relatable to the listener. Obviously our attention is, more often than not, drawn to Tapp\u2019s vicious guitar play on this record, which flirts with classic rock tonality but remains relatively contemporary courtesy of this sublimely textured mix. But to be frank, what probably affected me more than anything else here was the relationship between his verses and the riffs; the way they seem to reflect each other\u2019s pain and longing for calm amidst all this musical chaos. In that sense Mountain isn\u2019t just more sonically mature than what The Cold Stares have produced in the past, it\u2019s also more aesthetically evocative and creatively diverse.”<\/p>\n
No Depression Review of Mountain<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thanks to the folks at No Depression Magazine for the great review of our new album Mountain. “You don\u2019t need a lot of crazy, overindulgent solos to make a good guitar record in 2018, and The Cold Stares\u2019 Chris Tapp … Continue reading