With an album title like The Invisible Mountain, it's possible to guess Horseback (the one-man project of Jenks Miller) have psychedelic tendencies before even pressing play. What unfolds once you do is a thick fog of noise; heavy, lumbering doom and stoner riffs complete with washes of frequent cymbal abuse and searching basslines. Songs build and burn slowly, but so thick is the effect of the music that it's still claustrophobic. The vocals are a big let-down; a rasping, incoherent growling that makes you wonder if this music is played so thick it's the only thing holding back the snarling demon you can hear in the background. We say background because often these 'vocals' feel a little subdued behind the wall of instrumental noise. This is probably for the best, as the musicianship is impressive. Tight whilst often seeming exploratory, this could quite easily have drifted off for a ramble in The Woods Of Self-Indulgence, but instead helps this record keep your interest by laying down four dynamic tracks that engulf you like a duvet made of chainmail.

Rating: 3/5 by Phill May

Tracklisting

1. Invokation
2. Tyrant Symmetry
3. The Invisible Mountain
4. Hatecloud Dissolving Into Nothing

Further links

Horseback on Myspace

Myspace and homepage of one-man psychedelic drone machine Horseback