Silver Mt. Zion: Horses In The Sky - 21st Anniversary Edition

Long a cult favourite among fans, the 2005 album by Thee Silver Mt. Zion is often cited as the group’s high water mark and cemented their evolution into a distinctly and divisively uncategorizable band blending punk, emo, post-classical, Klezmer, and other folkways into a unique and strident protest music.

Out of stock for two years, Constellation is issuing a 21st anniversary vinyl repress of Horses In The Sky that expands on the original’s extensive artwork and packaging: for the first time in a gatefold jacket with fully artworked inner sleeves, the repress also restores the 12-page 10”x10” art booklet and preserves the Side Four vinyl etching.

Topping the best ‘post-rock’ albums of 2005 at Tiny Mix Tapes with a 4.5/5 rating, their review nonetheless states “with varying song mechanics, a wider array of lyrical themes, and a broadened pallet, Silver Mt. Zion has escaped the shadow of their sister band [Godspeed You! Black Emperor], crafting an album with the kind of underground appeal that outlives tags like ‘post-rock.’” Six tracks spread across three sides of vinyl include two of the group’s most beloved sprawling multi-movement protest songs, “God Bless Our Dead Marines” and “Mountains Made Of Steam,” both massive live favourites at the time.

From the band’s original self-penned onesheet: THESE SONGS ARE STICKY, WORRIED KNOTS – everyone sang and handclapped too – (we learned to play these songs on the road mostly…) 6 busted “waltzes” for world wars 4 thru 6, or the sound of our nervous unit collapsing across sing-song eruptions of anxious light and clumsy heat, for all the GENTLE dreamers to cradle or discard… the politics of it is just love thy neighbour mostly, or heartbroken temper tantrums for grumpy refusers, or saucy anthems for all the stubborn dumbass resistance cadres maybe…

Or as Sergey Mesenov at All Music has written:

“It's the mixture of urgency and beauty, insistent hope and quiet desperation, epic ambitions and staggering simplicity, that elevates Silver Mt. Zion beyond any sort of post-rock tagged playground, where they never really belonged to begin with, to a much higher plane reserved for truly great bands and truly great records.”