By far one of the most iconic songs from its era, “The Lord of Lightning” is a fast, heavy track focusing on the havoc brought by the titular Lord of Lightning — a godlike figure who attacks a group of (seemingly) innocent people and inadvertently creates The Balrog from the corpse of one of his victims. The song features narration from Leah Senior as well as the band’s hard garage rock sound akin to work from Nonagon Infinity. During the song’s five-minute runtime, we get multiple references to other pieces of the band’s discography, with repeated uses of the phrase “Nonagon Infinity” and the entire outro consisting of the bassline from the “Mind Fuzz” suite. The song is also reprised during “The Floating Fire.” As of writing, the song is one of their most played songs, beaten only by other classics like “Gamma Knife” and “Rattlesnake.”
The earliest versions of “The Lord of Lightning” predate Murder of the Universe by a year. The first known performance of the song was on 2016-07-03 with the song making numerous appearances throughout 2016 — even in promotional material for Gizzfest, as well as radio shows promoting Nonagon Infinity. The reason for that is that the song was the result of that album, Murder of the Universe as a whole being an attempt to make an uglier, larger version of the Nonagon Infinity sound.
These early renditions of the song start with an instrumental section reminiscent of “The Reticent Raconteur” before moving into the song proper. This section would remain a part of the song’s live renditions in the future. The lyrics are notably different from the final version and seem to change from show to show, implying that they were at least partially made on the spot. That said, they are reminiscent of the final version, just with different content for the verse. Just like on the album, these versions of the song end with the bassline of “I’m In Your Mind” and usually pivot into the suite. It was released as part of Murder of the Universe on June 23rd, 2017.
“The Lord of Lightning” was used in promotional material for the album. The single-disc edition of Murder of the Universe on vinyl splits “The Lord of Lightning” between sides A and B.
“The Lord of Lightning” features prominently in Jason Galea and Ben Jones’ music video for “The Lord of Lightning vs Balrog,” uploaded May 30th, 2017. The song’s segment shows the band playing (occasionally using sticks), in what appears to be the Redwood National and State Parks with fast, flickering cuts between shots and, at times, to band members with the Nonagon Infinity symbol projected onto them.
“The Lord of Lightning” was played frequently in 2017. Early in the year it was played as a standalone after “People-Vultures” with the intro like in 2016. In March the song was often paired with “Cellophane”, linking them through the bassline. In September it switched places, now at the beginning of sets during a medley of Murder of the Universe material (“Welcome To An Altered Future” > “Digital Black” > “Han-Tyumi, the Confused Cyborg” > “The Lord of Lightning” > “Cellophane”). That year the band performed the song on Conan on 2017-04-17 — their first (and only as of writing) appearance on U.S. late night television.
Going into early 2018 the song kept its 2017 spot, though was pushed back to a second set and occasionally cut from “Cellophane” during the beginning of the year. Later the medley was altered, removing “Welcome to An Altered Future” and replacing “Han-Tyumi…” with “Vomit Coffin”. In October its purpose changed again as the medley was removed, leaving “The Lord of Lightning” and “Cellophane” on their own. In 2019 the track was often played on its own though it was sometimes paired with other songs, like on 2019-07-26.
After one appearance in 2020 (2020-02-02), it was played as an encore for the band’s fully microtonal shows at The Croxton Park Hotel in Naarm (Melbourne) starting on 2021-02-23 as well as making an appearance for “Garage Rock Night” on 2021-12-22. 2022 performances would see the song be performed as part of a medley of “The Lord of Lightning vs Balrog,” with Leah Senior providing narration. Yet while once a given set choice, “The Lord of Lighting” has taken a back seat to many other songs in the Gizz canon with only a couple of performances in 2023/2024. These versions are typically paired with “The Reticent Raconteur.”