Ihlo: Cementing Their Legacy
Progressive metal has become a formidable force in recent years, particularly since the inception of the ‘djent’ movement with bands like PERIPHERY, TESSERACT and MONUMENTS bringing their technical wizardry and innovation to the forefront. In 2019 a bunch of budding newcomers burst onto the scene collectively known as IHLO, who took the world by storm with their highly regarded debut album Union. This release has continued to be revered and was also recently remastered/reissued on vinyl in partnership with Kscope with an assist by TESSERACT‘s own Acle Kahney.
“We didn’t expect Union to be as well received as it was,” admits vocalist Andy Robison. “We’ve been lucky that it’s just kept building and building over time. It was very cool to be able to reissue it with the backing and belief of a well-established label.”
Unfortunately due to the pesky pandemic their plans to spread their wings far and wide off the back of this release were abruptly put on hold and many wondered whether the band had vanished into obscurity never to be seen again. Fear not! The long awaited follow-up, entitled Legacy, is just over the horizon. “We spent a lot of time exploring and figuring out what we wanted our sound to be going forward,” explains guitarist Phil Monro. “Union was a bit of a mishmash of influences and what we could achieve within our abilities. Legacy is more expansive and you can see that development. Andy started introducing a lot of weird electronic sounds which completely changed the whole feeling of the album. We’re trying to do our own thing and I think we’ve succeeded in a big way.”
The term Legacy leaves a broad scope open to interpretation. Whilst IHLO are keen to contribute further to leaving a significant impact on the scene, they were also thinking further afield with their thematics. “The initial meaning was going to be a reference to the software lifecycle and how something can become outdated and become a legacy system” discusses Andy. “It then developed into the way technology is evolving and integrating into our society and how reliant we are becoming on it. We opted to push it further into the concept of technology becoming a part of you and how you, yourself could in fact become outdated.”
After a turbulent journey determining the best course of action for their album artwork, IHLO opted to acquire the services of the esteemed Mattias Norén. The artist responsible for many an iconic piece gracing the covers of albums by bands such as EPICA, KAMELOT and SABATON. “Before finding Matthias, the journey of getting the artwork together was like pulling teeth,” sighs Andy. “It’s particularly difficult to find unique artists these days, especially when a lot of people are depending on AI generated images and saturating the market. I had the colour scheme in mind for a long time as I wanted to make sure it looked different stylistically to Union to set them apart. There is a narrative but each song has its own theme and we wanted those to be represented in the artwork. Matthias did a fantastic job of bringing our specific vision to life.”
The Arch Recording Studios in Southport has become a must sought after venue for musicians in recent years, particularly in the rock and metal circles. This became the venue of choice to record the drums for Legacy. An opportunity which drummer Clark McMenemy took full advantage of. “It’s a really unique looking space, I’m so used to recording in little sweat boxes like a flat somewhere so it was nice to have this massive room which was properly sound treated and it was a genuine joy to track there. Nothing was too big of an issue. We were really spoiled with the equipment available to us. We feel it really contributed to the sound and the mix of the album. It feels a lot more open and dynamic.”
Whilst this will be the first release for IHLO in six years, the metal community has certainly not forgotten about them. The band found the response to their single releases particularly heartwarming. “We just kind of shadow dropped Empire and didn’t promote it so it was really nice to get people responding and messaging us asking what we had in the works. It was reassuring to know people still cared,” expresses Andy. “We kind of lurk around on places like Reddit and the amount of times our name still gets mentioned despite Union being released so long ago is pretty wild. It was very gratifying to see the response to Empire and to see that people didn’t just consider us a flash in the pan. Especially how easily music can slip through the cracks with the way algorithms work these days.”
Arranging any form of touring is becoming an increasing headache in the current economic climate, especially for up and coming bands who are trying to cut their teeth and increase their reach without bankrupting themselves as a result. IHLO are continuing to weigh up their options.
“We’re working behind the scenes looking for opportunities to get back out onto the live circuit again,” states Andy. “We still get a healthy amount of monthly listeners on streaming platforms but numbers mean fuck all. It doesn’t guarantee they will all show up to a tour. We’ve played shows before where there was only about 15 people in the room so we need to make sure it is feasible and find a good balance as we have our own geographical handicaps to contend with. We want to keep establishing ourselves and there is no way in hell we’re waiting another five years to release another album! We hope it will instil more faith in us and we’ll be able to play some festivals. We’ll be playing The Black Heart in London around the time of the album release so we hope this will be a good starting point!”
Legacy is out now via Kscope. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS123 here:
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