The Smashing Skull Sessions

The Smashing Skull Sessions is a podcast, interview and review website, set up to showcase and support the underground rock and metal scenes. Our goal is to promote artists and bands from right across the globe, giving them another voice and another forum in which to get their music out to a greater audience. We also have a new review series, The Review Room, which is another unique way of getting bands and artists some extra coverage and promotion

Still Mountains – Into The Reach (Single)

Thursday, June 8th, 2023 at 4:00 AM by Pat O' #shoegaze #rock #review #psychedelic #post-rock #post-metal #post rock #podcast #musicreviews #musicreview #music #experimental #blackmetal #blackgaze #alternativemetal

If there was ever a genre of music to soothe the soul and elevate the spirits to a greater place, post-rock must be the soundtrack. Expansive, emotive, and internally fulfilling, these soundscapes wash over us and guide us through tough times and rapturous times. Granted, this genre can often become flooded with so many bands that you feel you’re only chipping away at an iceberg that seems to be continually growing in both size and stature, but sometimes, patience pays off.

Last week, I was lucky enough to bury my pickaxe into a diamond in the rough, an absolute gem of a track by a band that go by the name of Still Mountains. The four-piece from Baltimore, Maryland have already released two albums, and the track I’m plugging today is the first single to be released from their forthcoming album. Into The Reach encompasses everything that’s beautiful about post music. Patient, perfectly balanced and soaked in rich, warm atmospherics. This is music for the soul and the perfect tonic to hard times.

Opening with reverbed guitars and deliciously plucked cords, the track immediately radiates warmth and positivity. The drums are soft and subtle and marry perfectly with the meandering synths and guitars that seem to glide effortlessly on a warm summer breeze. I mentioned patience earlier, and Into The Reach captures the majesty and deftness required to make that mid-tempo pace just perfect. Without ever reaching that big ground-breaking crescendo that most post rock tracks tend to do, this musical journey meanders through the rich green and bronzed mountain ranges and nestles itself quietly on the highest plateau to watch that shimmering ball of fire descend calmly below the horizon, ending a track that lights a fire deep inside, without ever scorching or charring the moment.

Released through the brilliant Eternal Colossus Records, this track is now available to download on Bandcamp, and to add to that, be sure to keep an eye on the Eternal Colossus social pages for the album release date, which is only weeks away. Still Mountains are on my radar now, and I’m all the richer for it.

https://bandcamp.com/eternalcolossus
https://stillmountains.bandcamp.com/album/still-mountains-2