Not sure if Smoke Mountain is the work of the Pitt family, but all three members of the band share this last name. What they also apparently share, judging from the self-titled debut EP, is the love for heavy stoner, also with a nod to equal part very early Black Sabbath and Southern sludge. A pretty heady combination, which finds a lot of commonality in the hands of Smoke Mountain.

The band doesn’t go out for a tremendous riff variety. Instead, they latch on and don’t let go of a pattern (Demon), even if they have to vacillate between a pair of 2-chord riffs (Violent Night). DIY garage rock culture permeates the EP throughout and Smoke Mountain certainly know the ins and outs of how amplifiers work. That piece of music technology they mastered really well, excelling in the creation of fuzzy fat bass sound (surprised no bass player is listed for the band). The drums, on the other hand, don’t get too adventurous, mostly follow the guitars, which isn’t a difficult path, but crush cymbals all over the place.

Upon this throne of foggy heavy muck reside high preachy stoned vocals. If you didn’t know Sara Pitt is the vocalist, one could have guessed it is some dude with a high voice trying to emulate Ozzy on Sabbath early records, without the weeping vibrato. With Smoke Mountain Sara sometimes goes for a spoken phrase here and there, but when singing her voice has a boyish ringing effect to it.

Drowning even further into the sludge on the title track, Smoke Mountain would be at home with Sourvein or Graves at Sea fans, but it would be fun to hear them cover a Sabbath song or two. I bet their live show does not go without one.