Avalanche by Mountain (CD, Mar-2006, Collectables Records)

In my opinion Mountain is the greatest pure Hard Rock band America has ever produced. Listen to the following mighty recorded works carefully to find out why:

Mountain (1969) ~ by Leslie West (co-founder of Mountain)
Climbing (1970)
Nantucket Sleighride (1970)
Flowers Of Evil (1971)
The Road Goes Ever On (live, 1972)
Twin Peaks (recorded live in Japan, 1973)
Avalanche (1974)

Though Leslie West (guitar and vocals) and Corky Laing (drums) have continued to work together over the years playing concerts and recording, Avalanche was the last Mountain recording to feature co-founder Felix Pappalardi, who passed away in 1983.
[Years later we have seen the release of Mountain Live from King Biscuit Flour Hour {pretty good, but has some technical problems} and even more recently the release of several "official" live bootlegs of varying quality]
Leslie West has also produced several fine solo recordings over the years.

Avalanche is considered by many to be one of Mountain's weaker LPs/CDs (along with Twin Peaks, which did not feature Corky).

I'll concede it wasn't their strongest effort (though better than Twin Peaks). Having said that, I must also tell you this is still a heck of a record by a great, great Rock band. There isn't a weak song on the CD- they range from good to very good to great.

Leslie West plays several styles of guitar well; but when he turns his attention to Rock'n'roll and Rock he is fantastic. His gruff singing is very charismatic, and he's the best Riffmeister this side of Black Sabbath.
Felix Pappalardi is the smoother side of the band, with a mellower voice, and perhaps a broader knowledge of music overall (he has nothing on Mr. West when it comes to Rock, though). He was a great producer(of The Cream, for one), a superb bass player, and very fine on the keyboards.
Both were legendary songwriters, with the band's powerful Canadian drummer Corky Laing being a strong contributor as well.
David Perry should not be forgotten- he does good rhythm guitar work here.

My favorites are Sister Justice and Last Of The Sunshine Days.
I like Alisan, You Better Believe It, and Back Where I Belong almost as much.

The covers of Whole Shakin' Goin' On and Satisfaction are also very good.

The digital remastering is well done; this CD sounds almost as good as the LP.

Get it while you can !