Mountaineer Giving Up The Ghost

There is both – a before and an after. Looking at Mountaineer’s line-up and modus operandi, it’s important to distinguish between the first two albums, “Sirens and Slumber” (2017) and “Passages” (2018), and the Californian band’s recent output. Today operates a sextet whose first release was 2020’s “Bloodletting” and which now presents itself on the fourth long player “Giving Up The Ghost” even more attuned and self-evident. The Oakland-based group has been described as dark doom, post metal, shoegaze and heavy rock. All of the aforementioned flows into the musicality of Mountaineer, but none of the terms alone does justice to the overall picture. There is far more, because the Californians do not dwell on questions of heritage or genre limitations. It’s about musical expression. The focus is on the transmission of feelings – open, relentless and intuitive, but also with circumspection and clear intentions. “Giving Up The Ghost” is such an album, whose seven tracks you inevitably listen to in one piece and, at first, you don’t even realize how much you are drawn into the spell of the music. This expresses the excellent songwriting of Mountaineer. The fourth album of the sextet is developed rich in contrast and tension, but also balanced and connecting. In addition, it offers distinctive, recognizable hooklines and vocals, as well as a mood that extends over the full playing time, which ultimately distinguishes “Giving Up The Ghost”