Apocalyptic Rock

posted in: Artist Features • Rock

Originality is a hard thing to come by, and even harder to sustain. Whether you’re M.I.A. or Tom Waits, eventually someone’s gonna plunder your goods. So, Charlotte, North Carolina band, The Lo and Beholds, better watch their backs. The five-piece band obviously has a lot of influences; their accomplishment lies in the fact that they’ve melted them down into an unidentifiable mash. Singer Jason Rudisill sounds like Ozzy Osbourne in one moment, Isaac Brock the next. The band’s idiosyncratic songcraft is an alloy of math rock, metal and indie. Mouths to Feed requires several listens until you can start to get a handle on what’s happening”it’s a sinister, slouching rocker where high and low register guitars rut and drums skitter behind arcane, almost Biblical imagery. At first it’s all mute dread and foreboding, but then the music swerves into a Zeppelin-esque romp with handclaps and tambourines”like a gospel revival on the verge of Armageddon. Less ambitious, but infinitely more moving, Sleep Tight, Satellite strips the layers and polyrhythms away to just a voice and a guitar. In his frayed voice, Rudisill sings, I will lie between the patterns in the night / And guard the corner of the sky where you sleep tight / My satellite. It’s just a wisp of a song clocking in at 2:47, but in it lies irrefutable evidence of the band’s artistry. Behold.