It seems to be growing rather rare to find a Black Metal band that is actually a band in the first place, as well as be a well orchestrated outfit that sounds great without falling prey to stereotypes or poor audio qualities that don't suit them. Lightning Swords of Death may not be the most original Black/Thrash act out there, but they do a good job at creating a very heavy sound on their second full-length effort, The Extra Dimensional Wound. While a quick search on the internet showw that they have gone under other names, it seems the band has finally set themselves in the direction they want to face, and with this release, give us a powerful, brutal Black Metal release.
The overall feeling of The Extra Dimensional Wound is traditionally Black Metal. The structure in the music is essentially the same as many second wave acts, but simply being amplified by a heavy Thrash influence, which can heard throughout the recording. Some of the guitar riffs, one could argue, can actually venture into more of an old-school Death Metal sound, one that some newer bands are trying to recapture, such as the act Cretin. This leads to some very punishing music that seems to just never stop. The Extra Dimensional Wound is simply loaded with intense, generally pissed off music that hammers away at the listener, only to stop for instrumentals that, while not randomly placed, really don't need to be where they are in the long run. As you listen to "Invoke the Desolate One" come to a close, you've gone through three pulse pounding tracks, only to be greeted with a raw, atmospheric instrumental entitled "Zwartgallig", which is not bad, as it actually sets a nice desolate atmosphere for the time it plays, which works well with the generally punishing music that appears on this release. It does, however, set up the start of "Damnation Pentastrike" nicely, as this song starts off slow and kicks into a more straight-forward Black Metal sound that isn't anything all that impressive or original, but still sounds good, has a commanding drum presence, and picks up as you go through it before reverting to an ending similar to the start of the track.
The production of the album is far different from the band's debut offering. The Extra Dimensional Wound has a much higher quality, leaving behind the trademark underground kvlt "raw" production style, for a much clear, more professional sounding one. This move actually works out well for the band, especially due to their intense music throughout the album, allowing the listener to pick on the harsh guitars and pounding drums better, giving an accurate interpretation to the listen of just what he/she should feel with this album. The bass on here stands nicely on it's own, being rather high in the mix, but not enough that it completely dominates the album. Of course, in "Damnation Pentastrike", it could be heard clearly over the instruments, though not drowning them out, during some of the slower moments, while the faster moments finds the bass adding a whole other layer to the music, blending in almost perfecting with the guitars and pounding drums, making it's presence feel completely natural in the mix in the first place.
There's plenty of great songs on here, though sometimes the drumming can sound somewhat similar. Some of the more blast-beat oriented drumming on "Invoke the Desolate" can be argued as being rather similar to some of the drumming on "Damnation Pentastrike", as well as various other moments like it through the album. While there are similarities between them, there are also plenty of moments where it becomes clear that each song has it's own unique sound. "Nihilistic Stench" is just a fast paced early Thrash inspired song with fantastic two-step mixed in throughout the song that really makes it stand out from many other tracks on here, and "Venter of the Black Beast" is just a slow, intimidating track right from the start. And, of course, you have the more straight-forward Black Metal track "Damnation Pentastrike" adding variety to the mix and never truly crossing into the Thrash territory. All of these songs are fantastic themselves, but when you teck on the slightly distorted but still harsh as Hell vocal approach that just adds to the overall burdening sound of the album.
The longer songs on this release are a little touchy. While the first track that would be considered longer out of all on this release, the opening title track, "The Extra Dimensional Wound", starts off slow for a little bit, but then slams right into the music. Unfortunately, the introduction doesn't really do well to prepare the listener at all and comes off rather useless in the long run. However, the closing track, "Paths to Chaos", which lasts almost twelve minutes, actually seems to end at about the five and a half minute mark, then goes into some ambience that would reflect the title of the album nicely, almost like an astral sound effect. Eventually after almost two minutes of that, the bass kicks in, then the guitars and drums, then thing go right ahead to continue where the song supposedly left off and finish off the track. The problem is that the little space there with the ambience really just sounds horrible where it's place, and slows the climax down, though the ending of this release was doing fine on it's own, leaving the song to feel rather drawn out before going back into those astral sound effects once again to close the song out.
While The Extra Dimensional Wound isn't one of the most original albums out there, it's definitely one of the better ones out there. While many fans of the style are creaming themselves on the raw production quality setting some kind of ambience to the music, Lightning Swords of Death went to a more sinister route musically that stands out nicely amid the influx of Black Metal releases hitting the streets the year of it's release. If you don't want to go on some sort of spiritual journey and just want to hear some absolutely sinister Black Metal, then The Extra Dimensional Wound by Lightning Swords of Death is ready to punish you. With only a few tracks that don't stand out well, with one, "Vorticating Into Scars", just being a little more repetitive then the drumming can sometimes be found through the album, there's no reason to skip by this album.
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