Lesbian
Power Hor (Holy Mountain)
by Brian Varney
Arising from a desire to fit seemingly every genre of heavy underground music into a single recording, the four tracks that comprise Power Hor veer in a seemingly careless fashion from black metal screeching to dreamy Isis/Pelican-style post-rockery to downtuned stoner thudding, sometimes in just a few minutes. Such schizo tendencies could mean several things: A real identity crisis, a crushing lack of decisiveness, or maybe some kinda crazy ambition to blow everyone’s head.
Clearly, they’ve at least fooled the person writing their promo copy, who describes the band as a hybrid of Neurosis, Emperor, Skullflower, Boris, Pelican, Sleep, and Isis, which is as ridiculous a bit of hyperbole as I’ve seen in quite awhile. Having said that, though, there’s something to be admired in a band that can throw such a large amount of seemingly disparate ingredients into the kettle without sounding like four guys playing different songs, different styles even, at the same time. Such trickery is, as the clichĂ© goes, more difficult than it looks, especially when it’s so artfully employed.
Of course, none of this matters if the finished product isn’t compelling, and while I can’t say this is something I’ll play every day or even every month, I can certainly imagine wasting a few afternoons listening to this album and trying to make sense of Stephen O’Malley’s insane artwork.
(www.holymountain.com)
