Lightning Bolt / Hypermagic Mountain
Album: Hypermagic Mountain   Collection:General
Artist:Lightning Bolt   Added:Mar 2006
Label:Load Records  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2006-03-05 Pull Date: 2006-05-07 Charts: Loud
Week Ending: Apr 30 Apr 23 Apr 16 Apr 9 Apr 2 Mar 26 Mar 19 Mar 12
Airplays: 2 2 2 2 5 3 6 6

Recent Airplay
1. Mar 10, 2015: Setting Fire to the Lab
Bizarrobike
4. Jun 22, 2008: Undrinkably Bad Oddities
Mega Ghost
2. Jun 13, 2009: sleepwhenyrdeadgasm
Infinity Farm
5. Jun 14, 2008: On The Warpath
Dead Cowboy
3. Feb 06, 2009: gasmgasm
Bizarro Zarro Land
6. May 07, 2006: Multiple Personality Disorder
2 Morro Morro Land

Album Review
matthew stark rubin
Reviewed 2006-03-03
Lightening Bolt- Hypermagic Mountain (Load)
Reviewed by matthew s. rubin in February of 2006.
FCC Clean (as far as I can hear- cant tell the lyrx but nothing blatant)

Hard Math Rock, the artschool edition. Quite noisy. In philly we call this basement beardo spazzcore. Some of the songs are basically metal, others are totally art-rock nerd fare (but still noisey as shit), and one is just space drone. Two dudes a la Hella: one on melodies (in this case THICK ass guitars), the other on frantic technical drums. The lyrics of what few vox there are cant be understood: no metal screaming but still indecipherable and hardcore, with an occasional catchy melody lurking deep in the mix. There is some amazingly evocative guitarwork buried in these songs, and the drumming is inventive yet consistently hardcore throughout; I don’t hear double-bass, which is refreshing from a noise band. There are also some cool loopy things happening in places, mainly with vox. Yes, this is a very noisey album, but it never sounds repetitive and the trix up its sleeve are nasty. My picks: 1, 5, 7, 11


1*- hardcore riff rock. The riffs are fucking awesome.
2- metal-ish. Very noisey drums. Deep sludge driving fast.
3- also metal vibe. Very fast and hard throughout. Vox more prominent and with cool melody.
4- starts/stops awkwardly at first. Then VERY heavy and fast. Phat. Kind of falls apart (on purpose of course) at the end.
5*- starts with cool spooky/loopy synth-ness. At 1:10 drums come in with insane solo and then guitar joins with the heavy shit. Ends with a SWEET groove-y breakdown.
6- doomsday ascending power chords + tribal drums. Slower and more subdued (relatively speaking). Things ratchet up in intensity around 1:30. Ends with high-pitched SHRILL and awesome guitar solo.
7*- Blues-y guitar solo at start, then riffs galore. Sounds like lo-fi Rage Against the Machine sometimes. There is more single-note lead riffage on this song on this song than the others. Some uncharacteristically sentimental and triumphant guitar playing towards the middle/end of the song. Very fat and thick ending.
8- AWESOME TAPPING! Then crazy carnival music for cannibals.
9- long drawn out melodramatic chords. At 1:00 the drums enter really fucking fast, but chords keep their character. Soon add captivating vox. Maybe the most accessible track…until the end, when it devolves into pure noise rock madness, then a reprise of the chordal goodness that opened it up, and then more noise rock.
10- loopy vox weirdness over spastic drums before the guitar shreds.
11*- Spacey emo feedback droning. there is even some acoustic-sounding guitar. Delay pedals are everywhere. Beautiful.
12- starts with noisey vocal samples, joined by guttural guitar noise. At 1:20, full on attack of the metal heads. Ends TOTALLY SUDDENLY

Track Listing
1. 2 Morro Morro Land   7. Dead Cowboy
2. Captain Caveman   8. Bizarro Zarro Land
3. Birdy   9. Mohawk Windmill
4. Riffwraiths   10. Bizarrobike
5. Mega Ghost   11. Infinity Farm
6. Magic Mountain   12. No Rest For The Obsessed