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Album Review| When I Am Gone My Blood Will Be Free by Call Me Lightning
If there is band dear to my heart it is Call Me Lightning. When I was just a wee-lad at the tender age of 12 or 13 I began smoking schwag and going to shows, mostly at Mad Planet or Shorewood’s Legion Hall. My friends and I would blaze that shit up in what we considered a “chill alley”, coerce one of our parents to drop us off, hide our weed behind a dumpster and shortly after begin punching each other in the face to the sounds of Juiceboxxx, Doom Buggy, and our favorite Call Me Lightning.
It’d been nearly 5 years since I saw Call Me Lightning perform, but at their record release show at the Bay View Post I, with some of these same friends, was thrown into a nostalgic time capsule. They played a fantastic show that met all my standards, thanks to Nathan Lilley’s unrelenting energetic stage-presence (not to mention his legendary facial hair) and Shane Hochstetler’s enthusiastic thrashing. They even heeded our request to end their set with “We Be Dragons” (off of their debut The Trouble We’re In), which ignited a friendly mosh. Undoubtably Call Me Lightning still put on one of Milwaukee’s finest live performances.
Their new album When I Am Gone My Blood Will Be Free, despite label shenanigans that’ve plagued the band for quite some time, was released July 20th on Dusty Medical Records. On When I Am Gone we find them journeying towards a more distinguished and coherent sound, that can be attributed partly to Lilley’s newfound control over his howls and the band’s ever-growing understanding of song structuring. And while I still believe Call Me Lightning has yet to find their pinocle sound When I’m Gone is a cleverly strong post-punk album, with it’s lingering sense of anarchy, rebellion or something in-between, that invokes the listener to clutch to each verse Lilley spits as an inspiring pre-battle speech.
It begins with “Called to the Throne”, a blazing opener filled with a impenetrable rhythm that aids as the articulating nucleus for the rest of the band, even allowing the incorporation of horns. Shortly followed by “Bronze Hell” which barrels through it’s first three-minutes to find Lilley, over locomotive drum rolls, reminiscing about a conversation “When I was born a child, my father took me aside. My dad he said to me, ‘My boy you will not be a man until you fall in love.” then Lilley screams “And then you’ll fuck it up!” followed by an exclamatory guitar riff. Music doesn’t get much better than this.
The rest of the album prevails largely due to it’s timely contrasts or lack of, coupled with CML’s increased emphasis on gradual instrumental build-up, “Pure Shit” being my favorite example of the latter. CML’s increased maturity shines on “The Fog”, which is an unapologetic, but still oddly beautiful note to a former love that finds Lilley appropriately struggling to find his voice over the most toned down CML has ever sounded. They then manage to shake off their version of melancholy and revive their excellent chaos, finishing the album in some familiar garb.
When I Am Gone marks the evolution of a band in a genre that manages to keep far too many stagnant. Call Me Lightning strike a balance amidst some unfavorable circumstances and continue to inspire some uncontrollable punches. Cheers guys, you’re undoubtably one of Milwaukee’s finest.
Grab it HERE!
mp3- Bronze Hell by Call Me Lightning
mp3- The Fog by Call Me Lightning
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