Mountainscape 4 Play Prog Reading 2nd November 2025
4 Play Prog festival – The Face bar Reading Sunday 2nd November 2025 Part One
This was as new venue to me but thanks to Google maps I was able to plan my journey easily enough. This time I chose to travel via London as the across Country service can be a little difficult at times
This meant I could take advantage of the slower multi stopping service from Crewe to London Euston which departed a few minutes late but ran to time thereafter often arr8ving ahead it its slchedul3d time and having to wait before departure, the train arrived safely in London on time the transit to Paddington entailed a short stroll to Euston Square to get the Bakerloo line to Paddington for onward travel with GWR to Reading.
Well the scheduled train was cancelled so I get the next Reading bound train and thus 30 minutes later I was in reading, A quick stroll up to Chatham Street and then walking along said street including traversing the Windrush island led me to The Face Bar where the event was being held.
I duly secured a spot on the comfortable seating with a clear view and settled down to enjoy the music. The opening band were new to me Mountainscape are a 3-piece based from the south of England I believe members hail from all over with at least one member coming from Birmingham, the other from elsewhere
Mountainscape play a blend of Heavy metal and Instrumental Progressive Rock, with nods to Science Fiction and Ambient genres in that least and say their music explores the pairing of dreamlike shoegazing with earth shattering heaviness unexpected twists and a strong emphasis on memorable songwriting
Their opening track is called Atoms Unfurling it is a fine piece of music, The bass player uses am fuzz on his bass and this gives it a very heavy sound similar to Opeth in their earlier days the guitarist uses a plethora of effects on his guitar but still gets a rocky sound. It’s a bit of an acquired taste but I do like it Second song is called Irredescent from the album of the same name, on this the guitarists uses lots of delays on his chords before the music hits a very heavy part for several moments before returning to the gentler opening chords once again. The guitar sounds incredible like a wall of sound, controlled on the edge of feedback.
Next is a new song called Elder Scrolls inspired by the game and also Skyrim game that were originally on the PlayStation platform, this track uses the music from those games’ music as an Inspiration for the music, Again it is very heavy in places. You can understand the filmic remarks they make about this music.
The next piece is again taken from the latest album an is called Belonging, This is very space like in its opening section and chorus effects are used to great effect. The bassist plays a lot of complex tones and chords before playing in a very rhythmic style in a more rock-oriented style
Final piece is another new piece that will be a new ep next year it’s called closure and again it mixes lighter moments with incredibly heavy parts overall Mountainscape make a good impression, I’m not entirely sure they are really my sort of thing and I think I’d struggle with a full album but this short set was certainly entertaining and interesting to see today.
They appear at Prog The Forest in December this year where they will probably appeal to many.
Mountainscape are Dan Scrivener – guitar Ethan Bishop – Bass and James Scrivener - Drums
Info here: www.mountainscapeuk.bandcamp.com