FURTHER LO – Further Lo

Further Lo is a 5-piece band from Columbus, Ohio, USA, and this is how they introduce themselves on their website:

“Like a downward spiral of quicksand that sucks its victim into a poisonous mixture of elements that suffocate the lungs and paralyze the body, and the music of the body and soul of the listener while captivating him/her as well. Sink with us further to find out more and immerse yourself in the world of Further Lo.”

Now, get this … add in the influence of nearly any band in the Hard Rock-Metal-Grunge-Industrial-NuMetal style (or whatever you might prefer to call any major commercial style of power chord rock from the past 20-odd years), plus a solid dose of hatred and anger, and a Power Metal label, and out comes Further Lo. Does any other band come to mind to fit this description? Further Lo, however, is somewhat unique in the way they arrange most of their songs, as they jump from one style to another within the same song. Even if this is not necessarily always a good recipe, it more or less does the trick for the entire album.

The album’s lyrics deal mainly with things on the darker side of human nature. A few keywords (taken at random from the actual lyrics) are: torment, loss, nightmares, pain, hate, obscurity, loneliness, fate, reality, hate, debts, destiny, hatred, and so on and so forth. The music and the vocal expression helps back all of this up, but it’s truly very hard to believe that life sucks so bad as they claim, even in Columbus, Ohio … and what is it with all this hatred? Who is it that they hate so much? On their Web site, they have been kind enough to inform visitors that their song “Pissed Off” is a fist-in-the-face to all enemies of America. This should ring a large freaking bell in everybody’s head: Will remaining pissed off help make any foe a friend? Anyway, that’s all politics.

One of the worst things on this album is the distorted harmonica that appears in “Fanatic.” It’s kind of amusing at first, but soon it turns incredibly annoying and it ends up spoiling the entire song. In “The Past,” they end the song with the phrase “Follow me into a brand new day.” For a minute, this actually seems like a glimmer of hope! When followed by songs like “Pissed Off,” “No Vacancy,” and “Eraser,” however, one would doubt if accepting their invitation actually is such a good idea after all …

This is not an altogether bad album, but quality tracks (can’t really say highlights … that would be an insult to the band’s lo-down philosophy and I’d rather not end up on their hate-list!) are seriously outnumbered. The 3 first tracks are probably the best. “I Bleed” is a good kick-off, “Attachment Theory” is groovy, but more of a stoner rock song than a Power Metal one, and “Awake” creates a suitable, spooky backdrop for the nightmare-like lyrics.

In general, the individual band member performances are also quite good, but vocalist Aaron Werner struggles and fumbles and seems to be rather uncomfortable with the multiple musical style skipping. Pity, because his vocal abilities are not at all that bad.

Most important, though, is the fact that Further Lo consists of 5 people with a potential. The band’s technical skills and the grooves they manage to create every now and then certainly proves this assertion, thus leaving a shred of hope behind: If they drop all near-rip-off influences and focus on finding their own format, there is a fair chance that the band will survive its present two record contract. Otherwise, their fate may very well be as expressed in their own words on this album: “As I burn again, I fade away.”

Further Lo is bound to find its audience, regardless of what’s uttered here. Unless you are a fan of crossovers from Metal to Grunge and back, there is very little here to fetch, though. If you think that the sun does shine on your path from time to time and not all humans are bastards, you should probably stay clear of this album. In fact, that may go for the rest of you, too.