It has barely been over a week since I did a review for Kevel’s upcoming album whose interesting take on sludge was more than everything I could’ve asked for, and I’ve been finding myself wanting to find more likewise material to inject into my veins to no avail. But, today, a name I’m already familiar with and was not expecting at all came back to me in order to deliver what I’ve been craving. Montagne was far from the band I was expecting to find in order to give me that which I’ve been craving, but it’s with their fresh EP that they do nothing astonish.

Just two years hardly seems like enough time for a band, however small or large, to change their sound in such a way that it can only be described as surprising, but, yet, it’s been done before in select cases. Again, Montagne was not a name that I was suspected of doing so by any means whatsoever, but it’s at every single possible turn “Black Waterfall” gives us something that is no less than immensely gratifying. Across six tracks that never once play into the listener’s expectations, Montagne uses each of them as an opportunity to not only expand their sound but test what can work when you blend styles together in such an ambitious way that’s driven almost solely by raw emotion. It’s staggering to witness “Black Waterfall” command an extremely respectable blend of post-metal blanketed in beyond tasteful sludge that has so much more happening within from the hardcore elements with a somewhat odd appearance of vaguely black metal influence sneaking its way into the mix, and it’s between this mixture that very much looks to be a clusterfuck on the surface that Montagne commands it with undeniable precision and excellence as the EP lumbers forth with emotion and power hand-in-hand to make for an extremely potent work that becomes nigh on intoxicating once you get into it. It’s a staggering mixture that’s beyond intimidating if you were to put it on paper and tell any band to pull it off without a single misstep, but that’s precisely what Montagne has done here and I just cannot help myself from continuously being enthralled by what they’ve accomplished with it. “Black Waterfall” is beyond anything I could’ve dared expected from any band of any kind, and, yet, it’s done here as though this French act has been executing it for decades.

Surprises are always welcome when it comes to new material that can be thrown at my face, and I cannot help but feel like this one is something special like few others. I remember thinking that Montagne had potential with their EP just a couple of years ago, but it’s here with “Black Waterfall” that they show they’re clearly capable of so much fucking more and I cannot wait to see where else they can take their immensely satisfying and unpredictable sound.

LISTEN to “Black Waterfall” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Montagne on Facebook here.