Mountaineer - Giving Up the Ghost

Angry Metal Guy 70

Welcome to my third Mountaineer review. Three reviews of doomy, shoegazey post-rock might seem cumbersome to many, but these albums come every other year, so I find myself primed to dive in. In fact, I was just listening to music of a similar style last month, the album The Shape of Everything by a band called SOM. It falls into many of the same categories as Mountaineer’s newest, Giving Up the Ghost, does, although Mountaineer have a heavier, more menacing edge to them courtesy of Miguel Meza’s harsh vocals. Now, two years ago when I looked at Bloodletting I enjoyed it, but not to the extent of 2018’s Passages. With an extra two years to coalesce as a unit, can this sextet bounce back?

As would be expected, this is a cathartic release, all about death and rebirth, shade and contrast. Beautiful and delicate moments lead into and come out of tumultuous, angry passages. “Blot Out the Sun” flows naturally out of opening instrumental tidbit “The Ghost” with the same musical themes occurring, but now with Miguel Meza’s vocals and Patrick Spain’s drums joining in. It’s beautifully done, with plenty of contrast, light and dark moments, and the heart-wrenching emotion we expect Mountaineer to deliver. “Bed of Flowers” opens gently but quickly gives way to an almost grunge-like melody that for some reason reminds me of a slower Soundgarden song until vocals come in.

The trio of guitarists (Clayton Bartholomew, Isaac Rigler, Forrest Harvey) are more readily separated on Giving Up the Ghost than they were on Bloodletting. The six-piece version of Mountaineer have made it through the awkward meet-and-greet phase and now have an easier chemistry about them which is most obvious in the quieter moments, when the drums and vocals pause. Case in point: “Twin Flame,” the slowest and most depressing of the set, featuring the lyric “With death comes rebirth, with birth comes death, on a trip to the end welcome your last breath.” Beneath it all the multiple guitars really shine. Picking out the individual parts is easy, yet they meld effortlessly.

What’s really cool about Giving Up the Ghost is the way the album is arranged, and the repetitive use of a certain melody throughout to tie the songs together. The album opens and closes with the title track – “The Ghost” is first, and “Giving Up” finishes things off. A tricky way to do it. In an attempt to see if there was something nefarious at play, I played the two tracks in succession but to no avail. So I flipped them around, playing the last first. Success! One can see how these two short instrumental breaks could have originally been merged together, with the same keyboard sounds and melodies flowing between the two. Cutting it in half and wrapping it around the album is actually a cool thing to do. Not to be outdone, penultimate track “Twin Flame” fades into “Giving Up” with the same melody.

Listening to the last three Mountaineer albums – the three I’ve reviewed now – these last couple of weeks allowed me to realize what it was about Bloodletting that made me knock it down a notch below Passages and, now, Giving Up the Ghost. It was just too damned long. Mountaineer are highly effective when minimizing bloat, and this album is a cool 32 minutes long. It’s just long enough for each song to stand out on its own, and the repetitiveness here is of the cool, unifying variety. It’s well worth those 32 minutes. Oh, and one last note, hopefully One_More_Thing from the Bloodletting comments is doing okay, and this album finds a home in his heart.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Label: Lifeforce Records
Websites: mountaineerlfr.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/mountaineerbayarea
Release Worldwide: February 25, 2022

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