The Extra Dimensional Wound

Lightning Swords of Death hail from a secretive and often disregarded part of the American black metal scene. The group has been on a rampage since 2003 when they released the acclaimed "The Golden Plague," which triggered interest in the USBM underground and eventually conjured a record deal with Metal Blade Records some years down the road. "The Extra Dimensional Wound," however, makes all the word-of-mouth hype and buzzing positivism completely irrelevant once the band's monotonous facade of vapid black metal frisked over a trashy screen of harshness slowly crumbles beneath the high expectations and hopes of black metal fans everywhere. Lightning Swords of Death is so focused on the haphazard side of musical brutality that it siphons the potential out of "The Extra Dimensional Wound" like a slutty chick sucking beer out of a keg, at least until the forty-four minute plod finally (and thankfully) goes into hibernation.

Lightning Swords of Death strives on an abrasive form of black metal with blatant overtones of thrashy riffs, typically divulging in rapid sections and speedy patterns. Unfortunately, the album is loaded with riffs and ideas that just fly at rapid rates and show aggression. On top of that, nothing is remotely memorable; the constant barrage of heaviness surges by without leaving a touch of noteworthy material. They only make due on a few gems: the grooving riff at the beginning of "Nihilistic Stench" will immediately induce those bobbing reflexes in your neck, and the title track bulldozes from start to finish, its slashing riffs and hammering percussion heave an essence of violent graciousness the remaining counterparts fail to achieve.

"Invoke the Desolate One," however, makes an impact the size of a proton. "Damnation Pentastrike" starts after the useless "Zwartgallig" interlude, and once again the riffs, harsh vocals, unsophisticated percussion, and forgetful instrumentality carry no fire. The record's leftovers do just that, yielding zero riffs or memorable moments worth mentioning; it's like background music for an extreme metal party, honestly. The closing "Paths to Chaos" tries to avoid the record's ongoing banality through noisy interludes and a plethora of riffs that end up burning for eleven minutes. What does the listener gather from this monolithic conclusion? Absolutely nothing, much like the whole pie; just another slice of the jejune, monotonous, unresponsive nonsense that defines "The Extra Dimensional Wound." Oh garbage man, where art thou?

This venomous assault quickly becomes a silly and feeble offering which completely drops the ball once Lightning Swords of Death puts up its instrumental barrier that separates the band from a land of individualism or a musical cache worthy to be broken. Instead, the eight-track dud stays dormant in its thrashing black metal state, never to become anything more. Everything that could be wrong with this release is, and the sole fact that this blueprint has been done by factions far superior to Lightning Swords of Death should provide my final thought regarding whether or not this album deserves a spot in your collection.

This review was written for: www.Thrashpit.com

Lightning Swords of Death are a black metal quartet from California. This new album is their second full-length and their first on Metal Blade Records. This comes after a high profile tour they did with Septicflesh and Behemoth back in early 2010.

Taking cues from Nordic and Swedish black metal of the late 80s and early 90s, such as Celtic Frost, Mayhem, and Bathory, this sound is very primal and aggressive. But don't make the assumption that this is some 90's rip-off band, you can also hear trace elements of the American side of black metal, blasphemic and over the top lyrics and vocal performances seem to almost adhere to bands like Judas Iscariot or Angelcorpse. Essentially, what you have here is a band that wants to be from Europe with an American screamer.
Musically, on here you will find no real guitar riffs, poly-rhythms, or out of the ordinary flute solos.

The music on here is pounding and punishing, for the most part filled with machine-like double-bass work, frantic bass work, and guitar work that seems to have a rush of adrenaline and taken a dose of speed. You will almost never hear the drums go below 200 bpms in any song, you will rarely be able to discern one guitar riff from the next, and you will almost never be able to hear the bass; but, the whole album does have great tones, the bass is monstrous sounding, while the guitars sound like the scene of someone looking into the mouth of hell. Just to mention, this is really only the first half of the album.
Once Damnation Pentastrike gets about half way into it's 6 minutes, things change a bit. About here is where the music takes on an almost doom like feel to itself, slowing down to Candlemass speed. The guitar and bass chords becoming crushing, and the bass can be heard. The band then decide to continue with their regular approach of just rapid fire assault with the rest of the album once Vorticating Into Scars begins.

Overall, this is a decent record if you're looking for something to give you a rush of adrenaline. Any fan of black metal that likes it's more brutal and aggressive side will definitely enjoy this album. This is going to be a tough one to win people over, but if you can just take it in, it is actually pretty enjoyable.

Highlights: Nihilistic Stench, Venter of The Black Beas

Originally Written for :
http://dontcountonitreviews.blogspot.com

The didn't quite have me at "hello". They had me at "Lightning Swords of Death". I think the name is excellent, and captures the spirit of the band well. Apparently they've been around for several years and have worked their way to where they are now: signed to Metal Blade and getting lots of positive press.

I'm not really sure what genre label to put on this. Black metal? Maybe--the excellent vocals are black metal, and they seem to draw from both the death-influenced Swedish school and the bombastic Norwegian one (see "Nihilistic Stench"). Blackened thrash metal? Sometimes--the title track definitely fits the bill, but they're not so much about riffs as they are about atmospherics. Blackened death metal? Well, there are definitely moments, like "Invoke the Desolate One".

Whatever genre tag you want, they play a form of gritty, dirty extreme metal that has a purely American sense of simultaneous reverence and irreverence, equal parts love for the music and over-the-top self-parody. That's just the way I like it. Besides the band's name, look at some song titles to get a feel for their attitude.

"Damnation Pentastrike" is likely the highlight of the album, with its varying tempos, riffs, and great atmosphere. But even with the acoustic/atmospheric interlude "Zwartgallig" coming a third of the way in, there's really only one low point. That's the extensive ambient noise section in the middle of the closing track (I don't mind a little bit, but it just goes on too long).

The Verdict: This is very convincing extreme metal that draws from a lot of influences, and it's done well. Their American sensibilities and irreverent approach could make them more accessible to US listeners, a gateway into black metal for the budding extreme metaller.

originally written for http://fullmetalattorney.blogspot.com/

The first thing one will notice about The Extra Dimension Wound is the massive stride in production the band has taken since their debut The Golden Plague in 2007. While that was a raw and appreciable debut effort with some decent songs, I was simply not prepared for the huge tones here on the follow-up. The bass here is enormous, and the guitars brazen enough to rend open the very flesh of the Earth, to spew forth otherworldly abominations. The Lightning Swords of Death are a pretty intelligent band. They have a cool name. They use consistently good cover art. They have phenomenal song titles like "Damnation Pentastrike", "Vorticating into Scars" and "Venter of the Black Beast".

It comes as a contrast then that the band play such a brute, simplistic brand of punishing black metal. Clearly the major influence here is Bathory, and the band culls their pacing almost directly from the first four albums, in particular The Return and Under the Sign of the Black Mark. But there is also something more broadly 'Swedish' about the LA band's writing. The spacious, creepy tones they emit are resonant of the more energetic exertions of orthodox black metal bands from that nation like Ondskapt, Valkyrja, Dark Funeral, Diabolocium, and others. Lightning Swords do not try to impress with a huge slew of riffing...in fact, this is almost the stuff of the primal, fundamental elements arisen from chaos. Barbaric, prototypical death metal rhythms thrust about the interminable, downward spiraling galaxy at both fast and slower range of execution, while Autarch's throat gorges on the hopeless truths of a carnivorous cosmos, as it feeds on the flesh of all living forces.

I'm going to be blunt, though. This is an album one should listen to SOLELY for its oppressive atmosphere, because there is not a single case of a guitar riff on this entire album which I felt was written well enough that I'd want to listen to it again. The riffs feel as if they are meant to be predictable and effective, and a result, not so interesting. These are not new ideas here, but the channeling of familiar force into the skull. Thus, the blunt instrumentation of "Damnation to Pentastrike" and "Nihilistic Stench" rely upon their sum wall of force attitude as a quality rather than the individual components, which do not stand out far at all (though it would be hard to argue that this drummer is not a beast). In fact, the most musical moments on all the album are the 2:00 "Zwartgallig", which is but an ambient interlude...and the closing moments of the epic length "Paths to Chaos", in which there are some finely tuned leads, and I love that doomed bass.

The Extra Dimensional Wound has me on the fence, because unless I'm really in the mood for something mindless with a punishing tone, I have very little reason to revisit it. As a loyal and contemporary tribunal to a band like Bathory or Mayhem it's functional, loud, and oppressive, but then...it also lacks the genuine filth and the memorable songwriting those bands were able to produce 20 years ago. There exists comparable if not better black metal writing now from hundreds if not thousands of bands internationally in these days, and I just wasn't taken in with anything beyond the band's nihilistic grasp, superb tone and lurid packaging.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com