My reviews are always too short so I’m going to pad this out with some prehistory. House of Lightning is the brainchild of one Floridian named Henry Wilson. Henry played and plays drums in Floor, who once recorded an album called “Dove” in the early 90’s which got shelved when they decided to break up. When they reformed as a power-pop doom outfit in the early noughties, their self-titled opus reignited interest in the long-lost album which eventually got its day in the sunshine. Floor then broke up again, and Henry switched to guitar and formed a band called Dove (bear with me) who I once described very cleverly as High On Fire’s ADD-riddled little brother. Their one and only album is an absolute classic slab of heavy satisfying riffs played via sliderule; short sketches of tracks that get the job done in a most interesting manner. That album seemed to take a while to garner a fanbase, with a deluxe vinyl release half a decade later vindicating my spot-on assessment. Another half decade on and we find Floor have reformed again, but Henry hasn’t lost that guitar picking itch, continuing the good work with Dove and channelling it into House Of Lightning. If you are still reading, well done.
So for your hard-earned dollar, “Lightworker” gives you ten tracks that are a crystal-filtered, slightly ethereal, even more tech as all heck version of Dove, with more time changes, sudden stop on a dime riff shifts and a seemingly throwaway attitude to song construction that sees whole sweet passages never returned to. It gives Crytopsy a run for their money but here’s the difference: it’s kind of all happy. I mean look at the cover for starters, with its pastel shades of yellow, orange and pink, all geometric abstractions in a Seldon Hunt on happy pills style. The music is chiming in its joyous melodiousness and general major chordage, although you dumbasses will probably have to give it a hundred play-throughs for it to begin to click. Don’t worry, it’s still hella heavy and chugalicious, just really bloody strange with it. This is to be encouraged.
Fair Warning (LP)
Translation Loss (CD)