Our Polaris Music Prize shortlist series kicks off with the sweet riffage of Black Mountain’s IV. 

By the time Sunday of last weekend’s excellent Wayhome Music & Arts festival rolled around, my sun-assaulted brain begged me to flee the scene. But I’m glad I stayed, because I finally got to experience Black Mountain live. I’m a sucker for psychedelic (stoner) rock bands, particularly ones with ‘black’ in their monikers (see Black Angels, Black Label Society, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club). The Vancouver band have been touring IV since April of this year, and after seeing a few cuts live, it’s no wonder why they’ve been shortlisted for this year’s Polaris Music Prize.

IV is a great an entry point into not just the band’s catalogue, but their entire subgenre. Since their formation in 2004, the band has consistently nailed the psych/fuzz sound, without falling into throwback-band tropes.  They’ve done that through their previous 3 albums by mixing their classic sound with synths and pop song structures and finally agglomerating all of it on IV .

What helps Black Mountain stand out among their contemporaries is the pitch-perfect chemistry between Stephen McBean’s tempered drawl and and Amber Webber’s wailing war cries. While IV does ebb and flow through aggro and mellow psychedelia, their chemistry holds throughout. And as if they know this is your first time hearing them, IV‘s first track “Mothers of the Sun” wastes no time drawing you in with a spacey organ intro that explodes into all-out Sabbath.

Then there’s the full-tilt assault of “Florian Space Attack”, a freight liner of a of a track with the menacing vigor of MC5 and the dreaminess of Cream. In an album full  of them, this is a hell of a standout track.

IV isn’t all bluster and burnt rubber, either. The band knows how to cool down, and they know how to do mellow – without droning on. Tracks like “Deflector” and “Line Them All Up” keep the psychedelia coming, but tone down the riffage (only slightly) in favour of melody and composition. We’re not talking power ballads here, and by being thrown into the mix, they also prove how good Black Mountain have gotten at going outside their comfort zone.

If you grew up with Zeppelin or Pink Floyd, or have heard the Black Keys and can handle that sound – but a bit weirder – then this album is for you.