Black Mountain

Any band with two bearded members and a handle like Black Mountain had better be ladling heavy on the metal or the psych gravy. But on this debut, the chameleonic Vancouver fivesome is lovin' the 1970s. Oh, we can't stand/Your modern music/We feel afflicted, singer Stephen McBean moans on the saxophone-and-drums swells of "Modern Music." Then things get retro on the bounding-down-the-boulevard "Druganaut," which sounds like Jimi Hendrix circa Band of Gypsys. Then there is the anxious metal thunder of "Don't Run Our Hearts Around"; the Dead-on anti-war "Set Us Free"; and "No Hits," which twists and pouts like disaffected music-business execs Kraftwerking it in a disco. But when it comes to the lyrics, McBean and co-vocalist Amber Webber focus their sights on bashing U.S. foreign policy. The war machine/ Keeps on rolling/Evil minds and hearts of stone, they sing wearily on "Set Us Free," later pleading: Lord, won't you let us be?