Look and Behold:
A strange and kinda wimpy name hides a ridiculously ballsy and intense four piece band from Sydney. Look and Behold is Lo!’s debut record, and boy is it self-assured and does it pack an incredible wallop.
The band that sprung to mind pretty quickly when first listening to Look and Behold was Mastodon, although they are far from a carbon copy. Their music is slightly more sludgy and slightly less busy. Probably less melodic too. In fact, their sound is quite difficult to categorize, if such things are important, there are elements of sludge, stoner, doom, metal and rock, but they don’t actually fit neatly or comfortably into any single one of those. At the end of the day it’s just good, heavy (and I mean heavy) music.
There’s also a subtle sense of dynamics in the music too. Check out Aye Commodore for example, which opens in full blown thrashing fury, takes a sharp turn mid stream for a lengthy, almost jazzy light and shade moment, before completely exploding again. They follow this up with Indigo Division, possibly the slowest, fattest, dredgiest cut on the record, but it also opens quietly and thrashes out towards the end. Then there’s the atmospheric instrumental Doth, percussion-free and driven by piano and guitar volume swells.
Unfortunately this musical variation doesn’t actually extend to the vocals to any great extent. Jamie-Leigh Smith’s pain filled guttural howl is truly riveting, but it remains at a very similar level throughout the record, and hence loses its impact after a while. You really have to wait until track nine Moira Kindle to hear any real dynamics in the vocal department. Here Smith proves he can actually sing melodically, it’d be great to hear a touch more of this, even if it’s just to break up the onslaught a little. Hopefully this will come with time.
To say Australia has its own version of Mastodon will probably rile fans of both bands, and rightly so. But for the as yet uninitiated to this very promising Aussie band, which let’s face it, is at least partly what reviews are all about, it puts you in the ballpark as to what to expect. Sludge, doom, stoner and the like isn’t really this writer’s bag, but it happens to be yours, avail yourself of Lo!’s debut long player. You are highly unlikely to be disappointed.
