Before this writeup takes a turn for a bad Jethro Tull Grammy jokes, we’ll let Matt Bashford, Iron Mountain‘s multi-instrumentalist, explain the creation process behind “Powow,” which is track four on Prophecy Productions’ upcoming re-release of the band’s debut Unum:
“Powow” is a culmination of a few ideas. We wanted to incorporate the Native American Flute (hence the track name) that our piper played on a number of rehearsal projects. It gave us an eerie sounding track with a sort of instrumental story line that also incorporates the Celtic sound. It starts with the intro of Native Flute and reverts back to it on the ending while the center story line has a much heavier Guitar/Celtic riffing theme. All in all, the resulting sound is a strong Celtic thematic musical story that we very much enjoyed producing.
Aside from Native American and Celtic influences, Limerick-based Iron Mountain combine post rock, Krautrock, psychedelic, and Irish folk to create an unusual blend of folk metal/rock that would be at home in a stone-age natural cave — in which, not-so-coincidentally, they will be playing at the end of July. We imagine that gives a strong indication of the sort of approach the band takes. Said event, Prophecy Fest 2016, takes place in Balver Höhle in Germany and features labelmates Alcest, Secrets of the Moon, Les Discrets, Sol Invictus, and others.
Unum was initially self-released by the band last year. Prophecy Productions’ re-release, which is available today, puts the album to vinyl for the first time (what other medium would be appropriate?) and features updated artwork.
