Review Summary: Intensity bottled up, only to be broken and spilled by the masses.
Despite the moderately laughable band name, Lightning Swords Of Death are up and coming in terms of their music. It’s fair to say that in having three years between records has allowed room for growth for this Los Angeles blackened sludge metal act. Their debut record, which appeared in 2007, was a rather steady but far from exciting release.
The Golden Plague did not really showcase a band launching onto the world scene. The band, which has stayed relatively underground throughout their career, but in the light of their 2013 release,
Baphometic Chaosium may have something… something to launch this act onto the world stage. Needless to say there’s not a lot different in the overall soundscape between this record and the band’s other releases, but it has become a tighter, focused and ultimately, more enjoyable listen. As you can expect from the album title; the record is a little chaotic, sinister, dank and pretty angry in design. It’s a good thing too, otherwise this would be an overly dull listen.
From the sunny visage that can be found in their home town, it’s not at all easy to except the severe contrast that culminates in a murky
Baphometic Chaosium. The band’s 2013 record lulls, atmospherically through hazy spoken word, nasally vocals and screams, not to mention the occasional minimalistic passages that contrast with the thick riffs and blast beats. There are a couple of issues that can and do rise during the length of the record. Namely, where tracks blend into each other showcasing just how too much of the same thing allows for no track to stand out. Sure, the title track opens the album with an energetic display. Vigour and aggression collide and at a first this will captivate the listener, but after a few repeats the formula is sure to become stale, leaving little room for the track to grow.
Baphometic Chaosium, in all fairness is an incredibly solid record. Unfortunately, it’s those attributes that let it down in the long run. With eight tracks finishing just short of forty minutes,
Baphometic Chaosium maintains its pace throughout steadily, without a huge amount contrast between tracks. It’s not as though this would be detrimental to the album’s overall quality but it certainly doesn’t help preventing the listener from becoming a little nonplussed from the relentless assault of the genre’s stereotypes i.e. blast-beats, murky guitars dark tones et cetera.
Overall, there isn’t really too much to say about Lightning Swords Of Death’s,
Baphometic Chaosium. It’s enjoyable enough on a casual listen, but for the entire album’s consistency there are features that showcase a band going nowhere with their music. In simple words, its consistency and straight-forward song writing lets the recording down on repeated listens. The record is far from bad, and it’s just as far away from stellar. Instead,
Baphometic Chaosium sits somewhere roughly in the middle. The album is certainly nothing new on the sludge scene even with so many bands cited as influences but it is solid enough to stand alone yet, be overshadowed by the genre’s heavyweights. The music has enough of the right stuff in design to ensure it does what it was meant to, but nothing more, especially on the back of the group’s sophomore record
The Extra Dimensional Wound.
