Snak Mountain
July 5, 2024
With the pure volume of Skeletor memes getting around on the old interwebs, it’s not surprising that the name Snake Mountain is one that’s on top of everyone’s minds. Well, at least until that Hawk Tuah girl who apparently likes to spit on the odd pork sausage. However, unlike the pure lack of talent behind that particular individual, Snake Mountain the band, not the cartoon castle, have abundantly more talent than her or any of Tik Tok’s latest bunch of seven seconds of famers. And for that very reason alone, I’m super excited to have the opportunity to review their new EP titled Villainous 1: Reverence.
The EP kicks off with a tune called Extinction Through Fire, and as I get ready to pull my best brutal stank face, I’m beaten to the punchline with brutal intensity. There are no holds barred as my ear holes are ferociously assaulted. The drumming and riffs are relentless, and the vocals by frontman and Everblack Media icon Nev Pearce are, for lack of a better word, brutal!
The Hunted (Apex Predator Edition), featuring Matt G Walters, the shredder from Freedom of Fear, is up next, and it’s another absolute ball tearer. Now, I don’t know how much you know about Snake Mountain, but they already have two shredders by the name of Jaymes Jackson and Jackson Price. When questioned about the guest spot and the need for a third shredder, I was met with the response “Matt is one of our favourite guitarists … and a mate … and we just wanted to hear him on one of ours”. And that’s fucking good enough for me, and it’s even better for the song, which is an absolute riff and shred fest.
Next up is The Fall Of Eternia, which initially doesn’t start that brutally, it’s just dark and heavy with some big-sustained power chords, brutally fragile even. That lasts all of about 19 seconds though as all the brutals kick back in at full pelt. As the chorus vocals launch, I’m surprised to learn that Nev seems to recently have had some kind of gender reassignment. But I digress, and I discover that there was a full presser sent to me with this EP that quite clearly mentions some guest appearances. And the guest responsible for those super sharp and mesmerising vocals is the one and only Sam Wolstenholme from Aeon Nexus, who seems to have every guest spot everywhere at the moment.
It turns out there is another handful of guest appearances in that last track too, who are all shouting Hail in the song’s bridge. And that list of Aussie metal legends includes Geoffro O’Leary from Pistonfist, Oliver Fogwell and Wade Norris from Our Last Enemy, and Ben Weber from Deprivation. That’s a bit of a name drop isn’t it, you can blame the band and all their friends for that, I’m just telling the story.
Last up after a handful of syncopated chugs is Everliving (Plague of Third Earth). It’s another heavy banger with a rocking riff supported by some serious blast beats and double kick from South-East Queensland busiest drummer, and all-round nice guy, Kristian Rousell. And let’s not forget the man on the big strings, Jared Day, who through the EP has bridged the gap between the shredding guitars and pulsating drum rhythms. And my god do the band pulsate through this song’s bridge with a grooving breakdown. As the song appears to be coming to an end following another verse, the guitars take off on a solo mission before pulling the song back to a melodic breakdown for the outro.
That was a fucking adventure, a brutal one, and I can’t wait to hear the follow-up being Villainous II which is apparently no secret. I do wish it was, though, so that I could have dropped some “breaking news”. It’s not to be this time around though, so maybe I’ll just go and spit on something and see how that works out for me.
Get it into ya, it’s brutal and heavy, just the way we like it around these parts!
