2005’s self-titled debut from Black Mountain balanced feel-it-in-your-gut rock potency (“Druganaut”, “Don’t Run Our Hearts Around”) with sparser, wandering variations on that theme (“No Hits”). Musically, In The Future is the payload that the debut promised. It’s chock full of huge riffs, pounding drums, acoustic folk meanderings, dream-woven synth passages and spine-tingling vocal performances from Amber Webber.

“Wucan” acts as In The Future’s “Druganaut”, and is the album’s obvious single. Its mid-tempo Kraut-groove will draw many a head-nod and the song boasts the album’s most effective fusion of fuzzed-out jamming with brilliant layers of melodic synth. Steve McBean trades vocals with Amber Webber through the verses, the latter’s moans beamed in from a canyon of distorted reverb. And the chorus? Well, it’s there, but it needs not vocals - just a heaving riff to ride into the horizon.

Much gravity surrounds “Bright Lights”, a song that the band have been performing live for nearly three years. It’s an epic, sixteen minute creature that encompasses everything there is to like about the band and their music: spacey, droning folk; ambient synth detours; relentlessly groovy riffs; and a harrowing banshee vocal from Webber, sung through one of the album’s most electrifying moments of pure rock. Navigating the song’s esoteric structure was initially a challenge for the band in the studio. “That song has grown a lot”, explains bassist Camirand. “I never really liked it until we recorded it for this album and now I'm the first to say 'let's play it'. We just needed to sit down and talk about it… figure out what needed to be done with it.” McBean continues, “It was something we were slightly scared of. ‘Bright Lights’ has been lurking forever and needed to be confronted, but at the same time we didn't want to tame the beast; we just had to learn how to ride it wisely.”

Elsewhere, “Evil Ways”, one of the album’s more cogent tracks, rides a restless tribal pattern from Wells but manages to refrain from indulging in the chorus that it seems to foreshadow. Instead, Schmidt’s elastic, acidic synths chime in, acting as a buffer to McBean’s howls of “it ain’t easy/but you’ve got to change your evil ways”.

Black Mountain balance all the racket with tracks like “Stay Free” and “Night Walks”, offering a release from the bombastic guitars. “Night Walks” is eerily funereal, with Webber stranded between an organ drone and her own shadow, howling into the black sky.

In The Future is an improvement on Black Mountain’s debut. The album is more focused and songs bear more weight, anchored by relentless propulsion from Wells and Camirand. Amber Webber occupies the vocal spotlight a bit more (and it rewards - her gothic cries through “Queens Will Play” are haunting and are a total highlight) and Jeremy Schmidt is given room to breath at the keys, adding levity to a dense mix with the perfect amount of sci-fi sweeps, drones and arpeggios. In The Future is quite an accomplishment; it’s the album Black Mountain were destined to make. Fans of heavy hitting classic rock and its durable, modern adaptations should embrace In The Future’s brilliant reflection of the past.