: Mountains of Madness – Kick It In The Guts

Mountains of Madness are a three piece stoner band from Tasmania. Their second EP is entitled Kick It In The Guts was released last month and contains six high quality, fuzz laden  tracks which will definitely appeal to fans of Sabbath, Kyuss and Soundgarden.

The EP gets down to business with “Demon Lady”.  It’s a gargantuan track which revolves around a particularly strong main riff.  Adrian Smith’s gravelly vocals are a highlight (as was the case on their debut EP) but Baz Leek’s fuzzed out guitar tones are more ferocious than ever and offer a real highlight too. This track has all of the elements of a stoner metal classic, but I find the end of track to be particularly satisfying – the band wind back the tempo of the main riff until it is a particularly crushing version of its former self. The massive tones translate particularly well at this slow tempo and all in all Demon Lady is just a great way to open the EP.  

“D.T.M” is a strong track and has a bluesy swagger to it which I find pretty catchy. Like it’s predecessor it contains a really cool section at the end of the song where the band wind the tempo right back for bowel rumbling results once again.

“One Big Tease” is a little more of a straight forward, up-tempo number which seems match made for speeding down highways (perhaps in a muscle car  similar to the one on the Ep’s cover). It’s a really enjoyable track,  and yet again I find myself drawn to the slower breakdown sort of section where the unison slides from the guitar and bass are  particularly satisfying to my ears.

“Down On Me” & “Fine Line” are both great tracks and have something a little different about them compared the first half of the release. I get a bit of a 90’s grunge flavour to these tracks –  Perhaps there are shades of Soundgarden or Alice In Chains in the instrumentation and vocals melodies? Whatever the case, they’re both really well constructed songs which keep the EP moving along nicely and bring something fresh to the release.

“Living Under A Rock” closes the EP in the typical low and slow fashion. It’s a concise little track (02:56) and has you reaching out for the repeat button when its all over.

Mountains of Madness have a massive sound for a 3 piece and this sound is captured particularly well on ‘Kick it in the Guts’.  As was the case on their debut, Joe Haley from Tasmanian Tech Death legends Psycroptic handled the mix/master on the release and has done a commendable job.

Mountains of Madness seem to identify as a Stoner/Doom band of sorts, and this is generally reflective in their sound too. But  on this EP, beyond the downtuned fuzz, I get a reasonably strong sense of influence from the 90’s Grunge scene too. The combination of Stoner and Grunge is a relatively unique in 2017 and I find it to be a enjoyable mix, well worth checking out.

Mountains Of Madness might not be as high profile as fellow Tasmanian bands Psycroptic, Tabarah or Departe, but they’re every bit as worthy of your listening time. Give their new disk a Kick In The Guts, and let us know what you think.

Band: Mountains of Madness
Album: Kick It In The Guts
Year: 2017
Genre: Rock / Stoner
Label:  Independent
Origin: Australia