Nantucket Sleighride is either Mountain's third album or their second. (Felix Pappalardi insists that Leslie West: Mountain was Leslie's solo vehicle, and that Climbing was actually the group's first.) For the uninformed, "Nantucket sleighride" is an old whaling term, describing what occurs when a dory was pulled across the ocean by the harpooned whale at the other end of the rope. Unfortunately,...

Mountain was always content to just blast away and let the chips fall where they may, and this semi-reunion album shows that nothing has changed. Brutality, disrespect, mutilation — all forms of violence are incorporated into Twin Peaks, from the obliterating 33-minute "Nantucket Sleigh Ride" to Leslie West's outrageous "Guitar Solo," during which an overloaded Marshall amp actually explodes...

About Mountain's third album, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that they have finally recorded a quality set of live rock & roll. The bad news here concerns a type of artsy-fartsy lyricism that pervades the new studio-recorded material.

The live side of this record strongly resembles Mountain's midnight set at the Fillmore East on the night of its closing and may indeed...