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FILE UNDER: Coltrane-core
Lightning Bolt - Earthly DelightsAlternative Press - Scott Heisel on 11/7/09 @ 7:00 AM - altpress.com
Providence, Rhode Island's finest noise duo are famous for their insistence on performing on the floor during their gigs. This incendiary act--once a defining custom of DIY hardcore bands during the '90s--ostensibly functions as a wrecking ball to the invisible wall between band and audience. Like their "stage" set-up, the music of Lightning Bolt is designed to pull the listener in. At their most demented apex, the band whip up a swirling cauldron of sinister sounds that is as hypnotizing as it is pulverizing.
The band spent the past 14 years perfecting a synthesis of avant jazz song structures and Pacific Northwest fuzzed-out metal. If it weren't for their devil-horned approach to jazz, Lightning Bolt wouldn't be half the band they've been. Their ability to succeed with a simple rhythmic equation--drums + bass--testifies to their superior skills as musicians.
Their fifth full-length, Earthly Delights, is as loud, complex, bludgeoning and idiosyncratic as its predecessors. They don't fuss much with their formula, pumping out Karp-like slabs of bowel-shaking low end and ricochet drum runs. True to their previous vocal apathy, singing consists of random, indecipherable howls and murmurs relegated to the outer limits of the mix. Certainly lyrical meaning exists in songs with titles like "Nation Of Boar" and "Rain On Lake I'm Swimming In." But Lightning Bolt's sui generis has never been outspoken political platitudes or revelatory emotional musings.
What separates Earthly Delights from the band's prior output is a hint of melody. "Colossus" boasts a catchy, Black Sabbath-sized riff bathed in almost impenetrable distortion that percolates and simmers with uncharacteristically restrained percussion. Jangling, echoed guitars rattle during the beginning of jam freakout "Flooded Chamber," signaling what could have been a hooky guitar line to a trip-hop song. They save the heaviest, catchiest and most confounding song for last: "Transmissionary," a psychotic, dizzying beast that is equal parts Iron Butterfly and Melvins.
With a band this committed to following their own bent muse, it's hard to find fault with their desire to not rock their own boat. Earthly Delights doesn't differ much from what came before--they ain't fixin' what ain't broke. When you concoct music this impressively oppressive and unique, follow George Bush Sr.'s dictum and stay the course. (LOAD) Casey Boland
GO DOWNLOAD: "Nation Of Boar"
Official Website: http://www.loadrecords.com
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