The mysterious Big Like Mountain, whose only known provenance is basically British, offer this boulder-based funeral drone sludge that, despite the apparent reluctance of the authors, deserves to be brought into proper prominence. Vol. I is a predictable fifty-minute monolith that leaves little room for pseudo-melodic openings, found substantially only in Obscured We Slept In Ashes, favoring instead the impact of impossibly elongated riffs and appropriately dosed broadsides. Unlike many other works with such characteristics, Big Like Mountain‘s is enveloping, disturbing but, fortunately, not tedious, because in the slow and relentless flow of the four long instrumental tracks (plus a brief outro) the listener has a clear sense that something capable of attracting attention may happen at any moment, whether it be a heavy riff, a vocal sampler, a drum hit, or any effect produced by some hellish machinery. Not a mere jumble of haphazardly placed noises and an end in themselves, then, but organically constructed tracks in which the funeral component provides that imprint that makes listening to Vol. I a decidedly satisfying experience, albeit not for any kind of ear.

2014 – Independent