The Mountain Movers - We Walked In Hell And There Is Life After Death

by Lisa Holmes

Dancing with the devil

"It is an often quoted fact that the devil has all the best tunes – trouble is, not all bands name-drop quite as blatantly as The Mountain Movers."

Reeking of stoner introspection and a fascination with the kitsch side of religion, The Mountain Movers are happy to wallow in the sight of God. Or should that be the devil?

Fronted by enigmatic school teacher Daniel Greene - who also happens to be a divinity school graduate, author of poems and children’s stories, and obsessive religious artist specialising in drawings of nuns and monks fixing electrical equipment (seriously),  The Mountain Movers are not your stereotypical indie band.

‘We’ve Walked In Hell...’ is reminiscent of another time, and for a debut album it is really reactionary. “Whispering to the sky I began to realise / That the devil, the devil is alive” croons Greene on the five-minute lament of ‘The Devil Is Alive’. Whether they are being serious or whether the obsession is real, religious euphoria lingers in tracks like ‘The After Life’.

It is an often quoted fact that the devil has all the best tunes – trouble is not all bands name drop quite as blatantly as The Mountain Movers, and most of them rock a lot harder (or at least a tiny bit) – the Movers drift by in a haze of instrumentation . Every song is about Beelzebub, but each track is gentle and almost sweet with airy guitars and heavy piano presence that gives an overall impression of a rather ramshackle performance at the local backwoods bar; elegantly wasted and with high-brow ideals that bypass most of the regulars.

Given the title of the album it is easy to see it as a journey, penultimate track ‘Lost’ is a call to “Escape to the place where you are dazed.” The band have clearly sold their souls to the devil and they are coming out the other side, with a resigned tone of voice and the fatalistic attitude inherent in album closer ‘The Devil Always Wins’; “Since I sold myself to sin / The devil always wins.”

So if alt-country bound by a Faustian pact is your thing, then seek The Mountain Movers and ye shall find. If not then it is probably best to stay the hell away.

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