Lightning Born: Hear COC, Bloody Hammers Members Evoke Sabbath on Doomy New Song

North Carolina supergroup debuts heavy "Shifting Winds" with trippy animated video

Rising from the depths of North Carolina's sweltering summer heat comes a new doomy supergroup, Lightning Born, featuring members of Corrosion of Conformity, the Bloody Hammers, Demon Eye, the Hell No and Mega Colossus. Today, May 28th, marks the release of their debut single and its animated video "Shifting Winds."

Taking cues from genre forebears Black Sabbath, the sludgy track ambles through several leaden, downtempo riffs before vocalist Brenna Leath's haunting wail enters with a tale of fiery destruction and rebirth.

"I had a lot of fun with the lyrics for this one," Leath recalls of the writing process. "It was during the 2016 election season, which we all really enjoyed. The song is a loose metaphor for the insidious ideologies, rising tensions, and shifting power balance between political parties that I felt during that time."

The singer cites fellow bandmate and COC bassist Mike Dean's "core guitar and bass ideas" as the song's structural center, explaining he "has a signature groove; that's what makes him such a blast to write and play with."

Dean's own recollection of the songwriting process is more modest, explaining the song grew out of a jam started by drummer Doza Hawes and guitarist Erik Sugg. "The rhythm track was Doza and Erik jamming in the studio," claims Dean, "with me recording it. We arranged it and then Brenna came back with some heavy lyrics. I threw some bass on it one afternoon."

The resulting tune is a classic entry of stoner-doom hypnosis that begs for slow-banging heads and a hazy cloud of smoke to highlight the sonic ambience. Apocalyptic images of fiery death reigning down on the earth populate the video, done in a unique stop-motion animation style that examines each symbolic scene in a deliberate manner before introducing another character or event. The clip was created by artist Costin Chioreanu, who other recent work includes Corrosion of Conformity's "Wolf Named Crow."

Lightning Born's self-titled debut album comes out June 21st via Ripple Music. Pre-order here, and see below for a track list and album art.

1. Shifting Winds
2. Renegade
3. Silence
4. You Have Been Warned
5. Salvation
6. Magnetic
7. Out for Blood
8. Power Struggle
9. Oblivion
10. Wildfire
11. Godless