LO!

April 2013 saw the release of Sydney quartet, LO!’s, second album entitled Monstrorum Historia. A brutal mash up of sludge, hardcore, rock and even some classical content, the album has been receiving rave reviews across the country.

The record’s name is defined as  “creatures that are generally described as being indescribable”. An apt title indeed, considering the diverse content that LO! bring to the recording studio.

Guitarist Carl Whitbread explains, “I think I actually came up with the name, it translates to book of monsters. I started work on the artwork, came up with a rough idea. I wanted to have that vibe to it. Jamie (Smith, the band’s vocalist) basically thought that name would be very appropriate and the visual concept would work very well.”

The brutal heavy vibe translates across the album and when asked if the band went into the recording process with any pre conceived ideas and how he thought the album turned out Whitebread states. “Pretty happy with it. [We] didn’t really have a specific agenda on the second album, we went with the flow and see what came out. [There was] a lot more input from the band this time around and that made it a lot more heavier.”

Instrumentals on the album almost give the listener some breathing space; “Yeah, definitely pre meditated, we did that on the first album, we took some Old Man Gloom, they do that a lot. I know some people don’t like it, but I always like listening to albums as a whole and I think those things are essential in giving the listener a bit of space and also gives us a chance to be a bit more flexible instead of just doing the heavy stuff.”, explains Whitbread.

LO!’s music video “Bastion” from the debut album Look And Behold was a killer video in more ways than one, we asked Whitbread if there were any plans for a music video release from Monstrorum Historia.

” [We] didn’t really have a specific agenda on the second album, we went with the flow.”

He reveals, “Yeah, we’re actually in the process of coming up with ideas at the moment, it’s high on the priorities, we’re just trying to figure out what would be best to do and come up with some concepts. Hopefully in a month or two max.”

On a video concept, Whitbread reveals that the band have “A couple of different ideas. I like the idea where I’d like to have some sort of animated clip, but that’s a lot of work and time and money, so we may not be able to go down that path”.

The guitarist incorporates his work in LO! with his design business, Aborted Prosthetics. “I do all the design work, primarily for LO!, I work as a visual designer by day. Unfortunately not much money in it for a full time job but yeah, I’ve always been in control of the visual aspects for LO!

With collaboration with Tumbleweed vocalist, Richie Lewis on the debut album, Whitbread was asked who he hoped to work with in future LO! releases, “We’re hoping Cult Of Luna drummer Magnus who recorded all their stuff, who has a studio in Sweden and really likes us, he’s keen to work with us in the future, so that would be really good if we could afford it. It would be an interesting result.”

LO! recently returned from a European tour supporting Cult Of Luna and The Ocean, the musician was more than happy with the response, “Really good, I think Europeans in general are so much more accepting of heavy music as opposed to back home. There’s such a larger audience, pretty much most of the shows we had such a good response, especially Romania, where I guess they don’t get tours as frequently as everywhere else. I think we ended up with 700 people watching us and I guess most of them probably didn’t know who we were but they just really enjoyed it and everyone got involved.”

“I think Europeans in general are so much more accepting of heavy music as opposed to back home.”

It was clear the band were on a tight schedule in Europe, but was it all business? “No, not much sight seeing at all. A lot of driving. Most of the drives eight hours a day, a really tight schedule. Get to a venue, down check, play, go to bed, get up next morning, drive – repeat. We did get to Bucharest a couple of hours early in the morning so we had all day there, plus we had a day off in Rome so we got some sight seeing done there but generally we didn’t have time.” Whitbread laments.

LO! head off on a national tour minus the West Coast in July with Whitbread keen to play new material to the fans, “Playing most the stuff off the new album which we haven’t had a chance to do as yet. We pretty much finished the album and went straight to Europe. Very keen to play the new songs, should be really good”.

Following the national tour LO! revealed some possibilities before the year was out, “Umm nothing set in stone. See how we go. Looking to get back to Europe or the States but probably won’t happen until next year as we’re all pretty much financially broke. But, we’d also like to release  an EP or a 7 inch maybe towards the end of the year. I guess between some of the shows, we’ll try write for that as well” , Whitbread divulges.

With the half way mark of 2013 nearing, we asked Whitbread what he thought was the album of the year so far, “I’d have to say and I’m not bias because we played with them but I think Cult Of Luna’s “Vertikal” is probably my favourite for the year. It was one of those albums where at first I definitely liked it but it didn’t blow me away straight away but after listening to it so many times and even more so after seeing them play a lot of material every night it really made it more special and yeah, it’d definitely be my number 1 so far for the year”

So LO! hit the touring circuit again in July with one of the scariest voices in metal, Jamie-Lee Smith back behind the microphone, we enquired what it would be like to be around the singer 24-7. Whitbread is open with praise for the beasty vocalist, “Haha Jamie’s actually really funny, he’s probably one of the more funniest guys in the band and very quick witted, always a lot of laughs with him. He does enjoy having a bit of party as well. A lot of times on tour there was a lot of sleeping in the van and bad hangovers.”

Monstrorum Historia is out now. Check out our review of the record here.

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