Vehemency
Despite its interesting band name and a cool cover, Lightning Swords of Death falls to the mediocre category on their second album The Extra Dimensional Wound. I’m not familiar with their 2007 debut album so this review is written in the perspective of a newbie.
The main problem that bugs The Extra Dimensional Wound is that it sounds way too generic Swedish black metal in the latest religious black metal vein: somewhat dissonant and malicious, yet uninspired, riffs and crystal-clear Necromorbus-like production. Throughout the 45 minutes that The Extra Dimensional Wound provides I fail to find any really good or memorable riffs. Thus listening to this album is at best when left at the background. Surely it sounds malign and evil, but that’s all - there’s nothing to remember here, really.
Lightning Swords of Death rarely changes its style on the album. ”Zwartgallig” is a calmer interlude but somehow it sounds unfitting, and the lasts track, 11-minute ”Paths to Chaos” introduces ambient elements which is nice, but seriously nothing too interesting. Otherwise, The Extra Dimensional Wound goes from fast blast beats (”Nihilistic Stench”) to mid-paced material of which the album mostly consists of. There are certain moments, for example in ”Damnation Pentastrike”, that I found enjoyable, but it is not enough.
It is the deep dark, utterly heavy atmosphere (mostly thanks to the very deep guitar sound) that makes The Extra Dimensional Wound sound okay. The album is indeed really heavy but it doesn’t kill the fact that the compositions themselves are of mediocre quality. I am not impressed, not until the band manages to come up with more original compositions.