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A Silver Mt. Zion – 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons
Montreal’s politically-charged A Silver Mt. Zion adds a new title to their discography. This time the inspirational post-rock group yields a more firm, angst-driven method of delivering their words of enlightenment.
angst – an acute but unspecific feeling of anxiety; usually reserved for philosophical anxiety about the world or about personal freedom
-Collins Dictionary
A Silver Mt.Zion are known for their guitar and violin-driven post-rock melodies, and their varying style has landed them on a punk-rock record. The heavy guitar strumming and affirmative vocals synergize with their political philosophies, producing a firm oral command towards an army of listeners with morally-conscious ideals.
ASMZ put an inarguable amount of effort into confusing and annoying listeners with nearly every way they could. On the CD version, the first twelve tracks (unlisted in the LP version) sound of a high pitch feedback and the album starts at track 13. On top of that, they use their secondary, less-official title “The Silver Mt.Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band” as their publicized artist name.
A Silver Mt. Zion has once again made outstanding album artwork. The stylistic, handwritten lyric book resembles album covers of The Fall and Pavement complimenting the aggression and the liberating ideologies in the album.
A Silver Mt.Zion’s familiar soft sounds of Horses in the Sky are sounded on the first track ‘One Million Died to Make this Sound‘, but it is only a matter of minutes before the record has a new beginning with a distorted guitar and cello to break the tranquility. “Give me a goddamn shovel, / I’ll dig my own damn hole”. Efrim speaks of the global impact on the world given that we continue the way we do.
On the flip side, epic sounding drums are pounded introducing the album-titled song “13 Blues for 13 Moons”. The attitude is turned up by addressing society’s ignorance to violence: “I’m pacing shotgun hallways while my fucking neighbour snores…But I swear I hear them cannon 6 miles out from shore”. Efrim demands action before repeating “No heroes on my radio”, regarding the lack of role models in the mainstream media. The song yields a strong patriotic sound colliding with the punk-rock feel of the album, unmistakably apparent by the end of the song, rebellion by the annunciations “We will not sing in your damn parade”.
“Black Waters Blowed – Engine Broke Blues” revisits the “Horses in the Sky” feel; however, between each verse is harsh guitar noise over violin, similar to the more non-melodic sections in Sonic Youth’s earlier discography, then abruptly returns to sad violin and drums. ASMZ link the saddening song with the lyrical content, comparing our greed for convenience and pride to the price of the world.
The final side “BlindBlindBlind” requests a change of power to people with true ambitions: “We want punks in the palace – / ’cause punks got the loveliest dreams”. The songs’ strong lyrics are emphasized with the minimalistic first half, progressing to a natural overdriven guitar backdrop, a second cleaner-sounding lead guitar, and heavy drums and cello.
A Silver Mt.Zion have always been lyrically strong, illustrating profound messages with little amount of words. “Thirteen Blues” has lived up to the lyrical expectations of their previous albums and successfully pulled off a new direction to their discography.
[...] A million died to make this sound. ASMZ acquire a shapes themselves into a heavier, punk sounding band, enraging their music and amplifying their political viewpoints. To know more, I wrote a review about it here. [...]