Interview by Kris Peters
Aussie blackened sludge purveyors of metal Lo!have today released their fourth studio album The Gleaners, an album which looks set to further solidify the band's growing reputation following the critically acclaimed 2017 album Vestigial.
A sonic blast of intensity dispersed over nine visceral anthems, The Gleaning captures Lo! at their breathtaking best and details a further descent into the unknown that is guided by the forces of nature.
Vocalist Sam Dillon sat down with HEAVY this week to discuss the new album and the process of bringing it to life.
"This is a proud moment for us," he acknowledged on the release of The Gleaners. "A lot of work and research has gone into this album following up from 2017s Vestigial. We've had Pelagic Records back in our team looking after us and it's been a dream. This is probably some of the most experimental and expansive work that we've ever done."
Experimental and expansive are both cool words when it comes to music, so we push Dillon to go into more detail.
"We wanted to be able to be cinematic, theatrical and have those anthemic choruses that we're known for amongst the sludge genre," he explained, "but we also wanted to push and stimulate things that are important to us. We didn't want to just release another album that was the same as its predecessor. We wanted to be able to keep the same groove but expand and make it interesting for ourselves. As long as we're being genuine to ourselves and what we enjoy about creating extreme music, then we know that we've done our best and hopefully fans will get on board as well."
In the full interview, Sam talks more about the musical side of The Gleaning, the musical and lyrical theme that runs through it, experimenting with cinematic landscapes, how Lo! have grown over the course of four albums, blending hardcore, black metal and sludge metal together and getting the balance right, live shows and more.