PREAMBLE:
It’s practically impossible to avoid prefacing a review of the debut EP from Light of Eternity without first addressing the tragic and untimely death of Killing Joke guitarist Geordie Walker, who passed away unexpectedly last November. The loss of the inimitable guitarist pulled the plug on an iconic band that was still enjoying a remarkable third (or was it fourth?) act and some strenuously well-earned acclaim after decades of iron-willed perseverance and resistance to compromise. Killing Joke unwittingly played their final show just a few months earlier on the exalted stage of London’s Royal Albert Hall, and a new chapter seemed poised to begin. Sadly, it was not to be.
Much as he did with his first two excellent solo forays, erstwhile Killing Joke drummer/founder Big Paul Ferguson had begun working on the project that would become L.O.E., prior to Geordie’s sudden demise, simply as a comparatively relaxed, extracurricular outlet beyond Killing Joke’s notoriously tempestuous working parameters. A guitarist named Paul Williams (not to be confused with the soft-rock singer/songwriter and ASCAP chairman of the same name) from a Durham, England band called Chaos 8, had approached Big Paul about possibly playing on some material he’d started writing. In short order, a creative collaboration flourished and gained momentum, with Big Paul recruiting vocalist/bassist Fred Schreck into the burgeoning fold. Big Paul and Schreck had previously played together in a band called Crush back in the early `90s, but Schreck had originally served in the ranks of a revered New York City band, The Ancients. Things were starting to gel.
In the immediate wake of the stymied plans and deep emotional upheaval of losing his longtime friend and bandmate, Big Paul immersed himself into this project with Williams and Schreck as less of a dalliance and more as a veritable lifeline, devoting himself to the galvanizing music of this new band – now named Light of Eternity – as a means of healing and recalibrating as he mourned Geordie’s sudden absence.
Armed with all that foreshadowing, this reviewer continues to find it difficult to listen to L.O.E.’s first recordings without reading deeply into them.
REVIEW:
I cannot honestly say what I was expecting after being sent L.O.E.’s debut EP, given the particulars. The last music I’d heard by Schreck was his work with Satellite Paradiso, an impressive musical collective helmed by former Psychedelic Furs guitarist John Aston that specialized in a sort of lushly modern psychedelia. Conversely, guitarist Paul Williams’ past music with Chaos 8 offered more of the bottom-heavy crunch of punky, industrial rock with an endearing abundance of snarl and sneer. Taking into account Big Paul’s versatility as a musician and the many stylistic turns he’s taken with various bands over the years, not least with Killing Joke, I was quite curious as to how L.O.E’s music would hit me.
But hit me it did…
Pressing play on the EP’s first track, “Edge of Fate,” as I was lazily meandering to the office, one sleepy morning earlier this week, I certainly wasn’t prepared. A single, monolithic note from a dreadnought-sized synthesizer confirmed that it was entirely too late to dodge the scud missile about to hit my ear pods. Williams’ corrosive guitar and Big Paul’s drums simultaneously drop into the mix for a concussive half-minute that establishes the full, widescreen presence of the band before BOOM, we’re off on a chugging gallop when Schreck assumes the mic as the pavement starts cracking all around me.
As a brief aside, some full disclosure: When I first listened to this EP, I immediately assumed that the vocal duties were being divided between bassist Fred Schreck — whose primary role in previous bands was as vocalist — and guitarist Paul Williams, leaving Big Paul free to bash the bejeezus out of his drums. I jumped to this conclusion given the pronounced dichotomy between verses delivered in a fiery, higher register cackle and a lower, magisterial baritone. I have since been informed, however, that all vocal detail on the record was handled by Fred Schreck, a revelation that is frankly astonishing, and a striking testimony to the breadth of his abilities.
Straining at the inherent tension that essentially comprises the trio, Schreck basically … schrecks the Hell out of this song, buffered by Williams’ strafing guitars and the signature thwomping wallop of Big Paul behind the kit. The fury of the man pounding the crap out of these intricate rhythems is palpable, but, at the same time, this explosive sound never boils over into simply bombast for bombast’s sake. The song is taut and burly, but controlled, muscular but melodic. While Williams seems hellbent on pushing proceedings into the red, Schreck wrestles control of the track’ s middle-eight with a sonorous refrain before we’re again racing at a breakneck pace towards a detonative climax.
Crawling breathlessly out of the smoking crater left by that first track, I brace myself for another bowel-worrying barrage, practically hugging a lamp post on lower Lafayette Street for stability. Instead, I am met with the stately opening notes of an elegiac hymn called “Lament,” which, while rendered similarly sinewy by Williams’s hefty guitars and Big Paul’s emphatic drumming, is a far more nuanced affair than its pugnacious predecessor. Schreck’s resonant croon rises above the brewing storm to not-so-obliquely recount what can only be Big Paul’s innermost sentiments regarding Geordie Walker’s passing, the end results being as poignant as they are powerful.
From there, it’s back to the carpet-bombing with, suitably, “Explode,” finding Schreck reverting to his hellion wail for a shouty barnburner with yet another stomping riff.
The final cut of the EP is “Tipping Point,” a lyrically scathing, gaping-jawed takedown of a flaccidly weak-willed target (a single entity or society as a whole?) vainly preoccupied with consumption and self-gratification. This doomy disavowal is fulsomely fleshed out by fat, chunky chugging underpinned by Big Paul’s gigantic beats and a wash of minor-key synths.
And suddenly, it’s all over. While the word “Light” may indeed be in their appellation, rest assured that Light of Eternity’s music is about as bright and sunny as a forbidding cumulonimbus ready to soak you senseless and flatten your home. But as dark and dense as it can be, it’s also the sound of pure, propulsive catharsis and a bracing first shot across the bow.
I, for one, cannot wait for more. This first EP is unleashed on June 1st. Go get it.
Find them on Bandcamp and Facebook.
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