I've always been a Silver Mt. Zion proponent, applauding their willingness to encapsulate modern, societal dysfunctions into evocative tone poems. Their lyrics and themes alternate between joyous and overwrought, two extremes tackled with flare, but often with a stark lack of humor. It's always a risk to be simultaneously dead serious and poetically histrionic, but when the method succeeds, it packs quite a punch. For my money's worth, Silver Mt. Zion's back catalogue holds more hits than misses, and 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons doesn't shake their formula up too much. For the most part, it picks up where their previous album, Horses in the Sky, left off, exploring long form, cyclical song structures with a decidedly ‘rockier’ vibe.
We can thank new drummer Eric Craven for the sense of propulsion. His playing is steady handed, but next to an emphasized guitar presence, it forsakes some of the band's past tendencies toward chamber music. When things get going in the opening track, for example, there's a bit of a Patti Smith vibe. The distorted guitars strum unapologetically, while a simple, effective vocal melody repeats with building intensity. Mirrored in other songs on the album, the foundation of drums, vocals, and guitar is certainly the record's newest feature, and trapping: some will connect to the music more viscerally because of it, while others might find the band simply normalized. I tend to associate with the latter assessment, just because the format change, though slight, is so familiar. Looking back, it's easy to see Silver Mt. Zion building up to 13 Blues, and just as it took an album to fully slide into vocal-driven songs, it might take another to master a more aggressive edge.
On a purely composition level, only the closer "BlindBlindBlind" approaches the dynamic impact of "God Bless Our Dead Marines" from Horse in the Sky, which revealed the band's capable range and was pretty catchy to boot. 13 Blues rarely strives for blatant catchiness. Instead, the title track is infectious through its monotone, charged vocals. "I just want some action!" is chanted over a plodding, shotgun rhythm, and it's one of several moments on the album where the band's looser, guttural feel transcends its format. Perhaps it's telling that it doesn't seem to matter what the sentiment is rallying against; the point is that you can really feel it.
Although still evolving from within and despite a growing rawness in their sound, Silver Mt. Zion have inevitably become less vital to the expanding world of independent music. Which might not be a bad thing. They are clearly operating as a live unit now and are probably happy to work and grow at their own pace, outside of the saturated indie rock idiom. At least their music is emerging from a genuine place -- a place that allows albums to shift in small increments, a place that doesn't frown on longevity.
More about: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestral & Tra-La-La Band
