I've said it before: Translation Loss has an amazing knack for finding bands that are head and heels over most of the metal world. This time they saved a bunch of trouble. After a fall out between members of another band on the label one of the members left and formed this beast. Though this is a heavy band there lie little similarities between Mouth of the Architect (former band) and Struck By Lightning (current band). The overall heaviness and overbearing production are still there in spades but the songs build much quicker and unfold in a very different way. The best way to explain the overall sound on this one is a combination of Disfear and Entombed. A heavy death metal rattle with the thumping bass and Motörhead-esque riffing of Disfear.
The same things come up throughout the album, how much these guys love Disfear and how relentlessly heavy the songs are. The heavy bass is almost suffocating but in the best way. The guitars pull in and out of the mix and slip perfectly in-between the rest of the instruments to make an almost battering ram style attack. The vocals is what sets this band apart from any crust-core contemporaries they may have. While the riffs bobbing and weaving moves things forward, the vocals are gruff and raw - not nearly as screamy as what you would usually hear in this style. The vocals makes the album as a whole sound much more evil and intimidating, it also makes for a much more enunciated lyrical style.
Where this album differs from the crust/d-beat style is another thing that makes this album stick out. The guitars ring out and throw themselves around the mix and when a solo pops up, it makes the song much stronger in general. These nods to the most basic tenets of metal make all the difference. This is also where you see the similarities between the current and former band: the sliding scale of a meandering bassline and almost atmospheric use of noise producing a more fully encompassing sound surrounding the listener and making the listener nearly claustrophobically uncomfortable.
There of course is growth to be made; the longer songs seem to fail at making the most of their running time. There is also a lack of interest in making the solo a staple in the songs where it could easily be used to brighten up the songs and make them more memorable. I feel the best way to end this is the way I ended my notes on the album upon my first listen; I stated that it is as though Disfear, Motörhead and Neurosis get trashed in a bar and start a band. Struck by Lightning is that band.
