Review Summary: A truly enveloping listen that is brimming with passion
It is often said that post-rock is a genre that is becoming increasingly stale and boring. While bands by nature should be focusing on putting emotion into their work, they seem just be following the same, tremolo-riddled, lack-luster buildup laden framework and it only works to the detriment of the overall piece. While instrumental Southeastern Michiganders "Man Mountain" are not blazing new trails for the genre, they seem to have been hit by a wave of true passion for their work. Their record To Call Each Thing By Its Right Name (a quote by Boris Pasternak) is teeming with a sense of freshness while still remaining a true "post-rock" album.
The album begins with "What Has Been Will Always Be", and leads you through a beautiful soundscape before laying on a very nice "noodly" riff, hammering on and off notes in gorgeous succession. This song (and album for that matter) is by no means a shining revelation to the genre as far as writing goes, but it is incredibly well-made, and does what it is supposed to and more. The atmosphere created is blissfully free, yet full of density, whilst remaining joyful and cathartic. "Lucerna" is a testament to the group's ability to write a song that isn't one long crescendo, but rather a dynamic track with pace-shifts and density. "Man of Science, Man of Faith" brings the record full circle and ends with one of the highlights of the album by adding a little grit and power to cap off an incredibly solid release.
One of the major faults of the genre nowadays is that production offers no passion to the listener and it sounds simply as if unmanned instruments were reciting the music. This record does not fall into that category. While it is very bright and cleanly recorded, there is most definitely a sense of rawness in the production which aids in the overall feel of the album.
It really isn't every day that a group can personify a genre so expertly. Man Mountain shows that this record is everything that post-rock is desired to be, without all the smoke and mirrors that plague the majority of bands in this genre of music. Avid post-rock listeners will applaud the emotion and passion of this record, and newcomers to the genre will simply love the beautiful, moving soundscapes. To Call Each Thing By Its Right Name may suffer from an ever so slight case of deja-vu throughout its 3 tracks, but it is a great new post-rock album that dodges nearly all of the problems associated with the genre and grants us a look into what seems to be a very promising career for this young band.
