Lightning Born, Lightning Born: Warnings Issued
Posted in Reviews on August 13th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
There’s a word for a band like Lightning Born, with a powerhouse singer, powerhouse riffs and a powerhouse rhythm section. Give me a minute, it’ll come to me.
In the meantime, the North Carolinian four-piece’s self-titled debut for Ripple Music willfully obliterates the line between any number of forms of heavy rock and roll, whether it’s classic doom and boogie or straightforward push and nod. The lineup is enviable, with Brenna Leath (The Hell No, also Crystal Spiders) channeling Stevie Nicks and Laura Dolan on songs like “Salvation” and “Out for Blood” while backed by guitarist Erik Sugg (also Demon Eye), bassist/recording engineer Mike Dean (Corrosion of Conformity) and drummer Doza Hawes (Mega Colossus, ex-Hour of 13), and at 11 songs and 51 minutes, their first outing is a substantial undertaking that signals the cues it’s taken from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath-era Black Sabbath in the lead riff of opener “Shifting Winds” and lives up to that standard throughout in both production and songcraft method.
Of course, they by no means limit themselves to that sphere, and broaden the palette in later cuts like “Out for Blood” and “Power Struggle,” or even the shuffle of second track “Renegade,” which recontextualizes the speedier riff from “Into the Void,” they show their will to create something new from their root influences. They seem most comfortable in the mid-paced groove of “Silence” and the semi-Southern blues-burner “Oblivion,” but do right to change up the tempo as they move forward through the material, or even within the songs themselves, as with “Salvation” and the seven-minute finale “Godless,” which caps the generally-more-patient side B with a rousing argument for viewing Lightning Born‘s Lightning Born as a first step en route to future more complex songwriting. I’m inclined to do that — that is to say: debut album is a debut album — but between the fluidity of the songs from one to the next and the reminder the album delivers of the all-important value of craft and performance in the final tally of the listening experience, one could hardly accuse them of merely getting their feet wet. More of a headfirst dive.
And fair enough. I’ll admit, there are few phrases that in my estimation are going to hurt your band less than “Mike Dean on bass,” but one would be remiss not to single out Leath‘s vocals as a defining factor in Lightning Born‘s approach. She toys some with layering, but by and large sticks to a single, stage-ready take that distinguishes itself from the hook of “Shifting Winds” onward as being malleable to the energy level of the song, as “Renegades” and “Wildfire” or the midsection slowdown of “Power Struggle” and the greater sprawl of “Godless” show. She’s forward in the mix, but that ends up feeding the notion of Lightning Born‘s heavy ’70s roots. The band aren’t shy about those anyway, but neither does that seem to have been the impetus behind their creation. I don’t imagine Lightning Born got together and said, “Okay, let’s form a classic rock band.”
Rather, their execution is organic enough to make one believe their material is based around what came out of jams among friends, eventually structured into bluesy verses and choruses, bridges, the start-stop softshoe of “You Have Been Warned,” and so on. Whatever the case, they’re certainly in conversation with the 1969-1974 era, but are by no means a retro band looking to simply recreate it. Once again, their material speaks more to their own forward potential than the past glories of others. It’s plain to hear in “Magnetic” as the guitar shimmers in the buildup to the hook and in how the bass and drums lead the subsequent final slowdown, the subtle layering from Leath adding ambience to what on the whole is a strikingly straightforward release. That is, there are some light moments of flourish here and there, but in the fine tradition of “nuthin’ too fancy,” Lightning Born stand tall in a stripped-down sound that doesn’t want for anything in making its intentions known or accomplishing its stylistic goals. It’s all about the songs.
Future releases might find Leath self-harmonizing, or Sugg topping solos with solos and solos, or even Hawes and Dean employing some manner of studio-based whatnot into their methods, but Lightning Born‘s first LP holds to a strikingly natural ethic. If you told me “Power Struggle” was recorded live, with the four of them in a room — or maybe Leath in a booth for isolation — I’d believe it. And that feel pervades throughout the entire record, ultimately proving central to its purpose, because while the members of Lightning Born aren’t strangers to the act of being in a group creating music, that’s clearly the spirit in which they’re most looking to revel in these 11 cuts. “Salvation” might be the point at which that’s most readily displayed, but “Godless” might stand as the means through which the band most signal their drive to progress as a unit.
It’s not so radically different from some of what precedes it, but maybe more Dio Sabbath than later-Ozzy, and for the already-converted to whom the record is largely targeted, it is a striking enough distinction, marked out by a more gradual linear build over the first four minutes that give way eventually to some “Electric Funeral”-izing stomp and a slowdown apex given its due momentousness by the vocals that accompany. It’s the finish the album deserves, certainly, but something of a departure as well even from the likes of “Magnetic” and “Out for Blood,” which build on the initial shove and swing of “Shifting Winds” and “Renegade,” changing the structural flow of the offering even as it draws it to a close. This too is well within the tenets of heavy rock traditionalism in terms of style, but stands out owing to what Lightning Born make of it. They could go in any number of directions from here, and given the members’ other commitments I won’t try and predict when that might happen, but if this self-titled is what gets them in motion, that motion is more than infectious enough to make one look forward to what may come.
By the way, the word is powerhouse. I can’t think of one that fits them better.
Lightning Born, Lightning Born (2019)
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