Second album in two years for this Nashville doom quintet, and although their eponymous debut was a strong effort, … Mountains more convincingly hones a signature sound and style, raising standards of songwriting and performance.
Season Of Arrows make good use of their twin-guitar setup to add a subtle harmonic undertow to their heaving riffs, windswept melodies and rugged, heavy metal heroism. On fantastic curtain-raiser Farewell To The Horseman, versatile vocalist Stormie Wakefield lets loose a fantastic wail resembling Ozzy Osbourne reincarnated as a furious witch, sinister atmospheres are counterpointed against cheeky guitar flourishes on Autumn Wings and the whole album resembles a sluggish sludge caravan traversing a mystical dark folk realm, trailing atavistic rhythms, hallucinatory chords and faraway ululations in its wake. But for all the weight churning around the compulsive New Sorcery and mountainous closer From The Wilderness We Return, the most powerful track might be moonlit campfire strum Bellow with its Hammond organ drones, which will creep you out and mellow you out at the same time.
