LO!The Gleaners

Lo! have a long established reputation for dark and unsettling music.

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The Gleaners sinks further than ever before into realms of abyssal psychological murk, exploring the disenfranchisement, destruction and dispossession caused by colonialism and capitalism by turning the lens back at the beholder. 

The final piece of their “triptych” – vocalist Sam Dillon’s word – that began way back with 2015’s The Tongueless, lurching, rumbling sludge riffs roll up from some noisome corner of a nightmare as every track becomes a showcase of genres that only amplify each song’s sense of gloom and dread. Built up from the no-prisoners assault of opener Our Foulding Larder, Salting the Earth unleashes with a filthy groove that descends into an enormous, earth-shattering breakdown that makes up almost the entire second half of the song. Then the bushfire disaster-inspired Deafening Blasts of Apathy rains down a hail of blackened death for just long enough that the tempo and mood shifts which follow become bewildering, a churn of pummeling groove, bursts of dark melodies and post-metal glimpses. 

Lo! have raised the bar for dark and atmospheric extremity with The Gleaners, a masterclass in tension and cerebral, psychological metal.

Opening on fragile and mournful guitars behind the cold emotionless lilt of Werner Hertzog, The Gleaners is the centerpiece and turning point, where bleakness and despair begin to replace confounding rage, and yet Lo! never waver from their stylistic shapeshifting. Even as the title track expands into one of the album’s warmest and catchiest riffs, it lasts only long enough to be a glimpse before veering back into discomfort. On Cannibal Culture haunting atmosphere meets sinister plod ahead of an explosion of crushing riffs as Lo! disavows colonialist white privelege and the immense, labyrinthine Mannon’s Horn with its epic emotional shifts is the perfect denouement. Lo! have raised the bar for dark and atmospheric extremity with The Gleaners, a masterclass in tension and cerebral, psychological metal.

STANDOUT TRACKS: The Gleaners, Mannon’s Horn, Deafening Blasts of Apathy
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