Fork
15 Aug 2003, 02:12 PM
Lightning Bolt – Wonderful Rainbow
Lightning Bolt. They are two guys from Providence, Rhode Island. One dude plays bass and the other plays drums. They don’t like to wash. So they stink. The bass player just stands there while playing these deafening chords while the drummer spastically beats at his drum set with a mask over his head holding his microphone in place.
There are some vocals in a few of the songs but they are limited and not understandable, due to the drummer singing through a modified phone microphone. Wonderful Rainbow is their latest album. Previous to this is the excellent Ride The Skies. The difference between the two is: Wonderful Rainbow has a little more melody than Ride the Skies.
So what can I say about this music? It is not for everybody. It is abrasive. It is fast. It is heavy. It is mostly instrumental. It is mostly noise. It is NOT heavy metal. It is noise-rock. There are no sing-a-long choruses. There really is no sing-a-long anything. It begs to be played loud. In fact, I only enjoy it when I’m alone and can turn it up as loud as I want. It is repetitious. Many times for a couple of minutes you will listen to the same few notes/chords being played over and over without much changing. This is a good thing because the notes are deep and they plow, push and they suck you in. Hypnotizing. There is some starting and stopping. Drums and bass kick into a melody…then stop…repeat…repeat. Then the meat of the song kicks in with a blast.
The sounds you will hear are mostly deep rough repeating bass chords/notes with spastically beaten drums along for the ride. Many of the songs have the bass playing high notes. Which is kind of strange, because it is a bass, but sounds great.
It will likely take a few listens before your head adjusts to what it is hearing, but after that your head should make the proper modifications for Lightning Bolt comprehension to take place. Good luck and I hope you enjoy Lightning Bolt as much as I do.
Matt
Lightning Bolt. They are two guys from Providence, Rhode Island. One dude plays bass and the other plays drums. They don’t like to wash. So they stink. The bass player just stands there while playing these deafening chords while the drummer spastically beats at his drum set with a mask over his head holding his microphone in place.
There are some vocals in a few of the songs but they are limited and not understandable, due to the drummer singing through a modified phone microphone. Wonderful Rainbow is their latest album. Previous to this is the excellent Ride The Skies. The difference between the two is: Wonderful Rainbow has a little more melody than Ride the Skies.
So what can I say about this music? It is not for everybody. It is abrasive. It is fast. It is heavy. It is mostly instrumental. It is mostly noise. It is NOT heavy metal. It is noise-rock. There are no sing-a-long choruses. There really is no sing-a-long anything. It begs to be played loud. In fact, I only enjoy it when I’m alone and can turn it up as loud as I want. It is repetitious. Many times for a couple of minutes you will listen to the same few notes/chords being played over and over without much changing. This is a good thing because the notes are deep and they plow, push and they suck you in. Hypnotizing. There is some starting and stopping. Drums and bass kick into a melody…then stop…repeat…repeat. Then the meat of the song kicks in with a blast.
The sounds you will hear are mostly deep rough repeating bass chords/notes with spastically beaten drums along for the ride. Many of the songs have the bass playing high notes. Which is kind of strange, because it is a bass, but sounds great.
It will likely take a few listens before your head adjusts to what it is hearing, but after that your head should make the proper modifications for Lightning Bolt comprehension to take place. Good luck and I hope you enjoy Lightning Bolt as much as I do.
Matt