Mountain
Eruption

Review By Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck
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  Classic Rock is as popular as it ever was. For this listener, it never lost its appeal. Mountain was always one of those bands that were hard to forget with songs like "Mississippi Queen" and "Nantucket Sleighride." They seemed to maintain their popularity forever. Leslie West, Corky Laing and the late Felix Pappalardi, their great producer and bass player, were a trio comparable to Cream.

Eruption maintains the recognizable time-period band colors and album cover artistry, while presenting several live sets from two different eras. Disc one is dedicated to 1985 performances at The Ritz and L’ Amour, while disc two is in Europe (unspecified location) in 2003.

I did not hear a big difference in the way the band sounded between the two timeframes, however, West plays a smokin' incredibly inspired powerful guitar on all the songs from the 2003 recording, particularly on the track that closes out the set, "Dreams of Milk and Honey." You can hear all the Cream and blues influences in Leslie’s playing style to this day and he is as strong and determined as ever to get on stage to give his paying customers a show they never will forget.

As great as this music is to hear, these performances did not have the sound mix to support the efforts of the band. At times Leslie’s guitar and vocals fade away, as if he was walking away from the mike while singing and playing. This happens enough to certainly make mention of, but its not disturbing enough to deter your enjoyment of this two CD set; it was not a crucial factor to me listening several times, I can tell you that for certain.

I am glad to see the Mountain remasters are sparking more interest in the band and West and Laing decided to go out back on tour. Rock 'n' roll keeps you forever young, just ask these gents, they know.

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