ALBUM REVIEW: Mountain of Sugar – Heavy Feather

Picture the blazing sun high across the vast American sky, beating down upon the barren desert and illuminating the dust particles that plague the air between cacti and cow skulls. A roaring disturbance in the form of a well-worn motorcycle squeals to a halt and a clunky, statement piece of a knee-high boot asserts its presence as it plants itself firmly into the dust riddled ground. Root rockers HEAVY FEATHER pen the soundtrack that plays across those south western scenes with their sophomore record Mountain of Sugar, infusing the free spirit of the 60s with the grit and bite that the 70s brought to the party. 

Blues guitar riffs inject a stream of warmth into opening track 30 Days, as Lisa Lystam’s vocals channel the peak of preachiness in the same vein as HEART with the swagger and soul of Stevie Nicks. Matte Gustafsson’s spirited guitar solo toys with the playfulness of CREAM that justifies true guitar-based rock, as the lyrics “I wanna breathe, I wanna run forever/ with a strong and immortal heart” daydreams on the idea of the freedom of youth. 

Intimidating palm mutes and confrontational drums and bass from Ola Göransson and Morgan Korsmoe in Bright in My Mind draws from that moment in the 70s where hippie free-loving Woodstockers and the attitude of rock n’ roller’s started to have a more symbiotic, power-couple relationship, hammer-ons and guitar trills proving the point. The influence of LYNYRD SKYNYRD isn’t remotely disguised across this record, as the opening guitar lick on Love Will Come Easy begins with an awkward effect that conjures flashbacks to children’s toy recorders in primary school music lessons, redeemed instantly by the Simple Man inspired melody. 

Title track Mountain of Sugar is drizzled in a sticky sweet residue with a lively harmonica lick and chorus hook that are so gooey, you could pour it upon your stack of high-cholesterol inducing pancakes in the morning. If you listen carefully, you can hear every drummer and percussionist across the globe shout the question, ‘more cowbell?!,’ which is true for the tunes Too Many Times, Come We Can Go, and Lovely Lovely Lovely; and if you can fine-tune your ears, you may also hear the fuzz laden guitars that punctuates Too Many Times.

Softer, more melancholic emotions weave their patterns throughout Let it Shine, demonstrated and emphasised by slide guitars. A male voice assumes control over the direction of Sometimes I Feel, magnifying the country western aura that floats about this track.  Leaving where it left off, Mountain of Sugar comes to a soft and poignant close with Asking in Need, the sombre notes still ringing within your head as the tune fades out and rides off into the orange glow of the desert sunset beyond the horizon. 

HEAVY FEATHER have cast a fishing hook down to the deep depths of the oceans, in a location only discoverable by reading the charred-edge map thought to have been cast into legend, but have reeled back in the once lost characteristics of soul, blues, and roots nonetheless.

Rating: 7/10

Mountain of Sugar is set for release April 9th via The Sign Records. 

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