What strikes you first about this album from heavy psych travellers Holy Mountain is the pure vintage sound that seems to emanate from the speakers. The next thing is that Ancient Astronauts seems to be severely lacking in anything resembling a song. What you get instead is a sort of extended jam feeling, which sounds like some long lost Blue Cheer/Sabbath album.
With that in mind, and being fully prepared to explore this strange new world, you suddenly realise that there are numerous treats in store for you here. From the off, the swirling and chaotic 'LV-42666' casts you into some whirlwind of blues psych where structure is thrown to the wind and random riffs knock into each other. It's disconcerting and confusing but eventually works well.
This is par for course over this album and you never quite know what to expect next. Holy Mountain are more about creating a feeling (along with a hell of a racket) as songs like 'Luftwizard', the foreboding title track and the rollicking 'Gift Giver' explode out of the speakers and into your soul.
The musicianship is immaculate on this album and you can tell Holy Mountain have done their homework into all the classic heavy psych bands of the past. It could so easily have gone so very wrong and just turned into yet another turgid retread of the past but with stunning aplomb they manage to give it a strangely contemporary feel. It's as if they took the basics and turned it completely into their own.
It's an album to sink into and enjoy over a period of time. Each listen throws up new nuances which you never noticed before. Its basic approach is mixed in with space rock tropes and doom sequences which give added depth and an invigorating feel to it. In fact, it's difficult to sit still to this album and you find yourself sucked into Holy Mountain's cavernous sound. Holy Mountain must be a hell of a prospect live too as the songs on here seem perfect for such an arena.
