Pick any track from prog-loving Candians, Black Mountain’s third album Wilderness Heart and you could sit there literally counting the 70′s influences with every riff, every vocal, every bit of synth noodling; from Bowie to Zeppelin to Black Sabbath, with these more obvious touchstones coloured in at every turn by some shade of familiarity.But yet, it doesn’t ever sound tiresome or novelty in showing its allegiances, unlike, say Wolfmother.

Opener, ‘The Hair Song’, unravels in triumphant fashion with a truly gigantic riff channeling Stephen MacBean’s inner Jimmy Page, and is overflowing with positive vibes, aided by the beautifully soulful vocal double team of MacBean and Amber Webber. In fact, this is one of the stand-out elements present throughout the whole album, with both members perfectly complementing the timbre and style of each others voices, giving weight to what could be just another gruff guy trying to mimic the blues; with ‘Radiant Hearts’, ‘Rollercoaster’ and ‘Buried By The Blues’ being particularly great examples.

Flitting between a range of different moods whilst still remaining cohesive (it almost sounds like it could be a live set on its own), laid-back, sprawling numbers, like ‘The Space Of Your Mind’, are punctuated by some simply fantastic headbangers such as ‘Let Spirits Ride’ and title track, ‘Wilderness Heart’; both sounding like lost cuts from coked-up middle-period Sabbath, and still managing to sound devastating in their fairly simple blues grounding.

As you reach the end, Wilderness Heart begins to feel more like a result of time travel than a painstakingly manufactured clone of the band’s favourite records, and in fact, a refreshing take on a collection of styles and visions that undoubtedly provided the frame work to so much contemporary work of this ilk, a lot of which just doesn’t cut it. This does.