Florida rockers HOUSE OF LIGHTNING offer an interesting sound with their new album "Lightworker" which some interesting guitar parts and some intriguing grooves.

The album opens with "Quickness" and the guitar riffs are heavy from the get go, and combined with the vocals this sounds a little like THE SWORD, with chunky guitars meeting nicely layered vocals. The drums are manic but at the same time hold the groove quite well.

"Downbeat Situation" follows this up with a really cool rhythm and groove, and some more cool riffs with an interesting vocal approach, and there's a nice sense of tension throughout this song. This one leads into "More Lights More Trails" which has a sort of MASTODON or BARONESS feel to it, especially in the guitars and vocals. This is quite a modern record musically speaking, with lots of odd moments that work quite well at times.

The album as a whole builds upon this heavy groove kind of sound, with lots of chunky guitars. "Smoke and Mirror" is quite cool, combining that modern guitar playing with some more 80s feeling riffs that remind me a little of Randy Rhoads! Overall the album kind of melts into one big heavy sound, with a lot of riff changes throughout. It works well for the band, they definitely know what they're doing and are very good players, but a little more focus in the songwriting department could help what feels at times a little like a jam band. Perhaps that was what they were going for, as they are a really tight unit for sure here.

The album closes with "Ocean" and this one does actually seem a little more focussed, one of the shorter ones and one that keeps a steadier groove with some nice riffs infused into the song.

The production isn't really too great, the bass frequencies are fairly uneven and jump out at times which makes the mix muddy in places. The drums sound fairly good, and the guitars too, the vocals could have done with a little more clarity but the layering is quite nice.

Overall, this is a solid album; it's worth a listen for fans of heavy stuff that doesn't have "growled" vocals and has some really nice solid grooves in places. I get the feeling these guys are probably really good live!