The Death Of Day EP

“The music we like to put together is dark, but so is the subject matter, so the medium has to be as well,” O’ Brother’s lead singer/guitarist Tanner Merritt spells out the Georgia band’s EP The Death of Day, a necessary darkness for a debut.
The medium holds the expected fare of instruments and voices in a marriage of sounds, but to break the cimmerian shade of an album based around sleep and its emboss to the natural world a dynamic had to be created, a wall of density given breathe and firm grip around melodies unable to wander. The expected sprawl of soft/loud/soft is sacrificed projecting a new luminance where the strength is the tiny twisting light that exhales.
The early pains of the five some featured Johnny Dang, Michael Martens, and Anton Dang joined in making quiet climbs from graceful notes, an older indie-rock portrayed by freshman still seeking a voice. But members left and Tanner Merritt and Aaron Wamack joined helping create five refined songs, the make up of The Death of Day.

To keep the recording as natural as possible O’Brother opted to record the songs straight through live — forgoing the studio temptation to fill each space the band kept to their ethereal stage essence. Recorded by Brad Fisher with assistance from Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull the best takes were chosen for keys and effects to be added in later creating the soundscapes tucked beneath each song.
The visual context of The Death of Day was penciled and painted by Wamack as Martens filled in the coloring creating a matching capture of the world the band had captured.

The Death of Day is only the begging for O’Brother, but they are large first steps in a caroling movement towards the tethered goal of understanding the dawn.

“…With acerbic lyrics hung around its neck like millstones, The Death of Day is a lumbering behemoth, as dangerous and deep as it is pained and crippled. Its five tracks clock in at over 31 minutes of distorted rock, crunchy feedback, and hollered declarations. Clearly vocalist/guitarist Tanner Merrit is well versed in the Dustin Kensrue School of Emoting , but his gravely tones owe just as much to ‘90s grunge and alt rock. Only a voice such as his could stand atop the mile-high wall of sound generated by the band (Johnny Dang and Aaron Wamack on guitars, Anton Dang on bass, and Michael Martens on drums). “

- Travis Parno for absolutepunk.net

• EP •