Events

[ROCK] On “Slow Sin,” the brooding opener to Atlanta five-piece O’Brother’s impressive new Endless Light, frontman Tanner Merritt declares, ” …but you are acting like a brain-dead infant/Waiting in line for a chemical to fix it/Acting like a sickle-cell child with a death wish/When you are light, you are time, you are endless.” A sense of frustration and subdued rage bubbles just below the surface of the track and permeates much of the album, which Merritt has described as “apocalyptic space-pop.” To most of us, this won’t qualify as pop on any level, (one must wonder what Merritt listens to for fun), but rather something closer to the progressive art-metal of Tool with a healthy shot of Muse stirred in for temperance. The results are compelling and believable, and there’s definitely a ‘disaster-aftermath’ feel holding it all together. Produced by Robert McDowell and Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra, the relentlessly dark Endless Light works well as a conceptual whole and moves at an evenly-paced plod throughout. Even the hooks are cloaked in a bit of drone (“Deconstruct”), maintaining the charcoal grey that even characterizes the cover art. If it all seems pretentious without an excuse, consider the many other bands that sound similar and don’t project anything close to this level of surefooted creative direction. There’s no big radio song, no sing-and-clap respite, but don’t we have enough of that crap? Check out Endless Light and eat your veggies. O’Brother plays Saturday, April 16 at The Waiting Room with Frameworks, Big Jesus, and The Naturalists.