Posts Tagged ‘Mountain’

Lacking in any sort of familiarity with Mountain or any of West’s previous solo efforts, it would be fair to say that ‘Unusual Suspects’ was approached with a fair amount of trepidation.  The rock Valhalla line-up of supporting guitarists gave a fair indication of the calibre that West is held in, so fears were at least temporarily allayed. 

‘One More Drink for the Road’ begins innocuously enough; a swampy run-through with enough dynamic fretwork to keep it interesting.  The dubiously-titled ‘Mud Flap Momma’ is an entirely different prospect altogether.  Opening with a box-stomp kick drum, it scuttles like a disconsolate tramp around a barbed-wire riff; Slash remaining utterly restrained in adding some fantastic accents and great interplay with West.  Lyrically, it’s bollocks; but that is generically irrelevant, regardless. 

‘Unusual Suspects’ manages the almost unheard of feat of not letting the guest stars outshine the main attraction as well.  Whilst ‘Standing on Higher Ground’ may as well be a ZZ Top track; ‘Nothin’s Changed’ displays a pleasantly subdued effort from Zakk Wylde.  It’s seemingly rare that artists pay decent tribute without whipping it out for a pissing contest.  And to West’s credit, he keeps up with Wylde with little to no effort whatsoever.

Sadly, the poor points are pretty awful.  A pointless cover of ‘I Feel Fine’ is utterly to the detriment of the latter half of the album; and otherwise standout track (and strangely reminiscent of Chris Cornell) ‘To the Moon’ has some truly abysmal lyrics laced throughout.  However, for an induction into the blues-soaked arena of Leslie West, it could be far worse; and there is enough quality on display to make a dabble worthwhile.

Matt Crane says….

For more info on Leslie West and Unusual Suspects click HERE.

Leslie West, Legendary guitarist and the founder of one of rocks most influential bands, Mountain, will release a brand new solo album, ‘Unusual Suspects’, on Monday September 19th.

The album features West alongside a hand-picked line-up of the world’s finest guitar players; including Slash, blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa, Black Label Society front man and ex-Ozzy guitarist Zakk Wylde, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and Toto’s Steve Lukather.

Released by Provogue Records, the album follows the shocking news that, in late June, West underwent life-saving surgery, when his leg was amputated above the knee.   While such an ordeal would surely deter lesser artists, West insisted on honouring the ‘Unusual Suspects’ album’s September release date and is gearing up for a US tour in October.

“These guys don’t just show up to play on everybody’s albums,” says West on his special guests and the album’s title.  “They’re all stars in their own right, and fantastic players – everyone with their own sound and style, about as far from the usual suspects as it gets.”

To find out more, check out the links below.

Leslie West – Facebook
www.facebook.com/lesliewestmountain 

Leslie West – Twitter
www.twitter.com/lwestmountain

Leslie West – Youtube Channel
www.youtube.com/lesliewestmountain