THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA & TRA-LA-LA BAND

THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA & TRA-LA-LA BAND
HORSES IN THE SKY (2005)
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Let's face it, for the most part people just view A Silver Mt. Zion as a side project, a second string player to Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and for the most part, ASMZ's first 3 albums did little to defy those conceptions. But with their new album, "Horses In The Sky", A Silver Mt. Zion has finally reached their full potential.
The main factor that their albums all boil down to is the vocals. Efrim's voice is an aqcuired taste for sure, but when you can see the sincerity and honesty coming from it, the beauty of it really shines through, despite it being off key occasionally. ASMZ's early albums hit their high points in the vocally driven tracks, such as "Born intro trouble.." majestic closer "the triumph of our tired eyes." Conversely, however, their latest album "This is Our Punk Rock", overdid the rawness of the vocals, making the album a chore to listen to.
But enough of their old stuff, because Horses in The Sky is what it's all about. With this one, the folks in ASMZ have hit their stride. The band always hinted at greatness; they always had it in them to burst out of Godspeed's shadow, and now they've finally done it. Horses in The Sky finds ASMZ's instrumental pieces broken down as far as they'll go, because the vocals are center stage here...and I can finally say that this makes the album better than anything they've ever done. The only track on the album that i dont absolutely adore is "Teddy Rosevelt's Guns", which ironically is the one song that most closely resembles the ASMZ of old. But aside from that one weakpoint, the album is simply amazing. Efrim it seems has finally found the right way to harness his voice to perfection, and the result is simply beautiful songs like "mountains made of steam" and "hang on to each other".
"He has left us alone..." and "Born into Trouble..." where good albums, but stuck to a very conventional post-rock agenda.
"This is Out Punk-Rock" tried to stray from that path, and succeded in that, but little else. The vocals were over done the whole way through, resulting in easily thier least enjoyable album.
And finally "Horses in the Sky" is everything the band could have wanted it to be. They took the concept of "This is our Punk-Rock" and perfected it, resulting in a simple, broken down album that works on every level.

1. God Bless Our Dead Marines
2. Mountains Made of Steam
3. Horses in the Sky
4. Teddy Roosevelt's Guns
5. Hang on to Each Other
6. Ring Them Bells (Freedom Has Come and Gone)

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