Kristian Montgomery & The Winterkill Band are on a roll. Their third album in as many years, A Heaven For Heretics, tackles the daunting challenge of understanding people who have been banished to the outside of mainstream America by narrow social mores created by narrow minded people. As usual, Montgomery delivers his message like a harrowing encounter with an uncertain fate, his rugged vocal delivery and the monster roots rock sound he sings over forces listeners to consider their own fate before engaging in behaviors that can trap one’s soul in a state of spiritual suspended animation without a chance for redemption.
Opening track “I’ll Break Your Heart Again” finds the rugged vocalist and roots rocker belting his raw, salty voice over a thick throbbing rhythm section. Montgomery well applies his sprawling voice over a haunted landscape of fiery guitar licks that echo through this song like animals howling and baying at night. This all points to the Montgomery strength of applying his forceful musical personalty over a well conceived and well executed scenario.
“Come Carry Weight With Me” moves along at a take your sweet time pace, leveling all in its path with the density of the spiritual message it carries. Montgomery masterfully weaves this piece, his handsome husky voice singing out over a landscape of brittle, weepy guitar lines and a groove that punctuates with a gavel like force. There is a heaviness in Montgomery’s self-restrained vocal, slowing waving his world weariness like a flag. There is a second layer of heaviness in the deliberate impact of what is going on beneath his voice. As a songwriter and arranger, Montgomery puts his listener right inside the world he wants to show them.
Moving at a brisk, rockabilly pace, “Times Like These” travels like a strong wind across a sandy desert. Its bulbous, muscular motions are perfectly augmented by an electric six string guitar crying out its sliding motions. There are a couple of rugged rhythm guitar lines, speedy, uptempo, unfurling their sparks, and racing along with a galloping groove. Montgomery finesses this uptempo piece, keeping his vocal delivery at a running pace, smooth flowing, but at a pace that makes it fun to try to keep up with him.
“Here’s To The Men Who Have It All And Still Want More” speaks to the inner soul of those whose greed and desire threaten to suck the essence and spirituality right of their beings. Montgomery isn’t judging them. Montgomery has a fiery guitarist injecting a harrowing, summoning phrase that calls out the urgent need for these men to be saved before they seal their own gate, gaping holes in their world they can fall into and never be able to crawl back up out of.
“Ain’t Got Nobody But Me” is a steady crawl across a landscape of drawling rawness, raw vocal emotion and a raw, droning guitar line, a sound of prominent, serious darkness. The guitars grow more tense in their bossy, feisty delivery as Montgomery belts out a deadpan expression of loneliness and worse, emptiness. One can feel the dire fate of another in the way Montgomery’s vocal, thick with emotive fiber, travels across an abandoned field of lost souls.
“The Year The Bottom Fell Out” is a mellow sprawl. Montgomery’s resting croon sweeps across a landscape of ringing tuneful lead guitar phrasing and a lilting groove. While this singer lays out his vision of a loss, his Winterkill Band offer plenty of sweet, rangy melodic beauty. The contrast between the sweet lead guitar and his easy going, adjusted vocal personality convey a feeling of helplessness that permeates much of Montgomery’s philosophy of life. Only here, he renders his philosophy with resilient beauty.
“Family Owned” returns Montgomery and the Winterkill Band to darker, dire, downtempo angst. Montgomery’s strong muscular personality forges his roots influences and his rock influences into a cohesive sound. As always, Montgomery forges his band’s dark tones and lyrical imagery into a painterly description of the state of the human soul. His anger at people who belong to powerful families emerges from this song of haunting guitar aggression and stabbing groove. Like all of the songs on this album, it’s impossible to deny the rage coming from this songwriter.
“Secret Watering Hole” breezes along, a dreamy pace, keeping Montgomery’s handsome croon, lightly picked electric lead guitar, and considerate groove into one floating cloud of flinty sound and gritty realism. Concocting this cocoon of vocal and instrumental notes is another tool in Montgomery’s utility belt. It also doesn’t hurt that he has the storied studio producer Joe Clapp playing that lead guitar as well as turning the knobs at Ultrasound Studios to earn the distinct flavor of notes distilled with Americana roots.
“If I Live To See Virginia” shows Montgomery and his Winterkill Band in a funkier vein. The groove keeps tugging at the ear with its sneaky backbeat. Clapp’s riffy lead guitar carries the song with a zippy allure. Over the twitchy lead guitar, Montgomery belts his lyrics with a heightened urgency, a calling for salvation, a salvation he’d like to see before sunrise, if his mission, as urgent as his music, is as successful as the vision he has built up in his words.
Close out track “Peach” follows a road trip to Mexico, complete with sharp rockabilly lead guitar curls and a persistent banjo flavored shuffle. It’s interesting to hear on this number how well Montgomery fits his belty persistence between the open spaces in each meter. This approach helps the listener feel his struggle to overcome all obstacles to get to where he wants to get to.
Montgomery has done it again. He has created a consistent vision of life in the harrowing modern world. His powerful voice carries well his messages of love, hope, darkness, and redemption. Montgomery’s life experiences have forged him into a singer-songwriter with a vision and enough of a haunted to soul for him to have the perfect ear to make his listeners hear what he is feeling.
