Lightning Bolt : " Sonic Citadel"

"Blow to the Head " is a fair title for the opening track as it pounds you with unhinged chaos.  Even then it's more melodic and song oriented than many of the songs to follow. For a band that is commonly in your face and a challenging listen , this album takes those things up to 11. With "USA is a Psycho". They do not not give an inch. There is an angular groove , but it remains hammering.      The is more of punk feel to "Air Conditioning" and by punk I am thinking Dead Kennedys here. There is a punchy part that has a touch of metallic aggression to it. The punk things stays in play on "Husker Don't" . I like the song title better than the actual song, though it doesn't suck , it's just hard to have a song that lives up to that title. It just has little to hook my ears . They thrash into "Big Banger" with a heavy coating of weird.

"Halloween" doesn't seem to have anything to do with Halloween. The movies or the holiday. Things get a great deal more melodic with the more folk flavored indie rock of " Don Henley in the Park" . It has some silliness to it , but as far as song writing goes one of the more refined pieces. The drumming is the most insane element to their playing. He is the super star of this band. That doesn't mean the drumming always saves the day. They might have their energy dialed in, but rush right past writing an actual song at times. " Tom Thump" being one of those times . "Bouncy House" finds the vocals buried in the mix. There is a manic energy to it that is more like Amp Rep style noise rock.  Some of the guitar melodies seem to come from children's songs just sped up. I see what you did there guys/

There is more of a Queens of the Stoneage style rock to " All Insane" . It's a solid song that sounds like it could have been written by a band who was not just fucking with you. The drums go into "Van Halen 2049" racing. Bombastic could be used to describe many elements of what happens here. It descends int John Zorn like noise. Overall I think they accomplished what they set out to do. I will give this one a 9.