· KING MOUNTAIN - TEMPEST AT THE GATE (GYR210) ·
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::T R A C K S::
01. SOUL SACRIFICE
FORMAT: Audio CD / 4 PANEL DIGIPACK |
Awesome 5th studio disc by this killer heavy rock riff:machine from Greece
featuring Stavros Papadopoulos on guitar & vocals that lands down hard and
shakes the walls with bad-ass, hard-hitting, powerful, electrified riff heaviness.
Riding high with a retro-fied stoner meets classic heavy rock vibe complete with
brain-damaging, rippin' lead guitar; "Tempest At The Gate" is an essential heavy
guitar rocker that is Highly recommended to fans of the previous King Mountain
discs and to people worldwide who dig & appreciate true heavy rock excellence.
MP3 Sample Clips 
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01. SOUL SACRIFICE |
PHYSICAL DISCS RULE IN THE GUITAR ROCK WORLD. WE TAKE PRIDE
AS TRUE "OLD-SCHOOL" MUSIC COLLECTORS WITH PHYSICAL CD'S
LANDING AS THE ULTIMATE FORM OF "MUSICAL DOCUMENT".
SCORE YOUR CD COPY @ THE "ADD TO CART" BUTTON ABOVE.
THE GROOVEYARD THANKS YOU FOR KEEPING THE ROCK ALIVE.
FOR OUR GOOD CUSTOMERS WORLDWIDE WHO PREFER DIGITAL DOWNLOADS,
THIS KILLER GROOVEYARD DISC WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON AS MP3 DOWNLOAD
THROUGH THE FOLLOWING EXCELLENT DIGITAL DOWNLOAD PARTNERS.
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· reviews ·
I've been stumbling upon all sorts of quality rock and metal coming out of Greece lately, even if it doesn't seem to be the product of any single coherent scene. Naxatras and Halocraft are only the latest to seriously impress me, with Acid Death and Soundtruck getting 8/10s from me in the past, along with Firewind, who I already knew about, of course. And so, always greedy for more, here's another Greek album, courtesy of another project of Stavros Papadopoulos, who I've encountered before in Universal Hippies.
If I'm counting properly, this is a fourth album for King Mountain with vocals and a fifth overall, as 2020's Beleaguered was entirely instrumental. Papadopoulos provides the guitar and vocals, with Chris Lagios, the drummer in Universal Hippies, behind the kit and John Christopoulos on bass. It's well within possibility that he's played with Papadopolous before in one of his myriad bands, but I couldn't tell you which. I just assume that the man is a scene all on his own.
Like Universal Hippies, King Mountain play stoner rock, as is patently obvious from the amount of fuzz on the guitar. However, this is a vocal album and Papadopoulos's voice underlines just much of Clutch there is in this band's sound. He delivers clean vocals that are deep, confident and powerful without overtly trying to be. Like Clutch, King Mountain builds its songs out of slow, solid riffs that are effortlessly heavy without ever really pushing towards doom. If it crosses boundaries, it's into grunge and southern rock, which I'd never seen as a sliding scale before. There are also hints at an influence in NWOBHM, both in riffs and solos.
For a while, it's pure stoner rock. Soul Sacrifice is a strong opener, a patient stormer of a track. The title track continues that, overloading the fuzz on its intro to worship the distortion, and it's only late in Burning Walls that it leaps into a gallop for some clear Iron Maiden guitarwork. That's neat energy to add into the sound of a band that tend to be heavy without being urgent. The same goes for the psychedelic opening to Break Away and for the way that it then grows into something not a million miles away from southern rock. There's grunge in songs like King of the Mountain and lots of blues too, which is crucial bedrock for King Mountain.
It's notable that the less expected sounds the band trawls in tend to be in the middle of the album. A few of these songs sound like Eddie Vedder singing for Clutch but thinking he's in Lynyrd Skynyrd and I'm not going to argue with that, especially when the guitar plays along. That Break Away solo is a real peach, even if there aren't any other guitars to interweave with. The resulting sound ends up as much akin to Black Country Communion as Clutch, albeit with a very different vocal style.
However, the openers are firmly in Clutch territory and so are the closers, which tend to turn out to be my favourites here. If Soul Sacrifice isn't my pick for the album's standout track, then Under the Blackened Sky is. This is the penultimate song on offer, with the similarly excellent Naked Souls on duty to close out the album, and I adore the guitarwork, which alternates between delicate almost spaghetti western soundtrack picking and a neatly heavy riff, not to forget another excellent solo. The drums are fascinating too, even if they're heavied up to the point of dissonance.
So, how many bands is Stavros Papadopoulos actually in nowadays and which one of them will issue an album next week? Inquiring minds want to know.
Hal C. F. Astell / Apocalypse Later (March 2022)
Stavros Papadopoulos, guitar player and composer rock extraordinaire, new work with one of his many bands / projects is here. KING MOUNTAIN is a modern rock band with classic rock, heavy rock and stoner rock influences in common view. His tendency to love and work with power trios and being influenced by them is more than obvious. CREAM, HENDRIX, MOUNTAIN, BLACK SABBATH, CACTUS, VANILLA FUDGE, PEARL JAM are all present and infiltrated through Papadopulos personal guitar sound. His tone is easily recognizable after listening to some of his works. He has a very earthly, down to the ground sound, reminiscent of a lighter Zakk Wylde with some Meniketti overtones, bluesy, yet heavy, the American way.
What I like in this album is how he puts some melodic lines that are reminiscent of the IRON MAIDEN guitar dwells in songs like "Soul Sacrifice", while keeping the sound personal. "Tempest At The gate" is a straight, in your face, heavy metal song, with modern influences, ALTERBRIGE, TREMONTI etc. "Burning Walls" is a groovy monster, in the same vein. "King Of The Mountain '' has ST. VITUS-BLACK SABBATH etc sign all over the place, with some RJD inspired vocals, a song merging two worlds = Doom and Stoner in one, perfectly, with some astonishing guitar as always. "Break Away" is a Seattle influenced song with a twist of South to make it more catchy and Groovy, a song suited like a glove to Eddie Veder or Andrew Wood of MOTHER LOVE BONE. A riff based, modern heavy rock album, with solid production that will let every rock fan eager for more. High octane songs, where 70s meets the 00s without being retro but being prolific.
Stelios Basbayiannis / Basbayiannis Music & Book Tales (2022)
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