Struck By Lightning-True Predation

Translation Loss Records
2012

Columbus, Ohio might be known for it's college and athletics. Indeed the campus is very lovely and the highlight of the sports department has to be the Horseshoe. Get outside the campus area though and man are there some scary and run down parts of town. These are the sorts of spots where you do not want to get stuck there on foot at nighttime. I have to imagine that is where we would find Struck By Lightning. This four-piece band features Gregory Lahm (previously of post-sludge band Mouth of the Architect and also the owner of Soulless Creature Productions) on vocals and guitars, drummer Travis Kline, guitarist Mike Leach and bass player Thomas Owens. After not even a year together the band signed to Philadelphia's Translation Loss Records where they issued 2009's highly praised "Serpents". Bands like Unearth, Mastodon, Killswitch Engage, Tragedy, Entombed, His Hero is Gone, Trap Them, Disfear, Rotten Sound, Big Business and Mastodon have all been mentioned in the past in regards to the sound these guys put out. All of that aside with "True Predation" the band takes "Serpents" another notch higher and another level louder. This comes off as "Hey Alex, What's That Noise????" and ends up as a blistering sludge/hardcore/death/thrash release full of foul rage. For a band that could rage alongside Mastodon and not even break a sweat their humble roots show through at times. Discharge, S.O.D., Cro-Mags, Neurosis, Cryptic Slaughter, S.O.B., Big Black and the like all hide out in these 10 tracks making proper sonic assaults when the time is just right. Just when you think this is some of the sickest sludgecore you've ever heard this heavy, intense and raw street thrash sound pops out of nowhere and everything feels right in the world yet again. For a band not that old and a long way from the mean streets of New York's early hardcore scene these four guys sure do know how to lay down a feeding frenzy of a pit. These tracks have all the makings of a full-blown fists in the air and bodies hitting the ground thrash riot only with enough punk and hardcore cred to make even the most jaded mohawk laden kids crack a smile. Struck By Lightning do their hometown of Columbus, OH proud.