On paper, Lift to Experience’s whole schtick — a trio of good ol’ boys from Texas writing a concept album about the end of the world where Texas is the Promised Land — is pretty ridiculous. And The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads’ No Limit-esque cover art only adds to that impression. But then you listen to the album, with its My Bloody Valentine-esque maelstrom, Josh T. Pearson’s soaring voice, and lyrics filled with stirring imagery and Biblical references, and you realize those good ol’ boys actually pulled it off.

The entire album is epic, but “Into the Storm” brings it all home with the intensity of a charging locomotive. “Tell your mother you won’t be home for Christmas this year,” Pearson sings. “Say you’re headin’ south for the Promised Land/With gun in hand.” And when he does, I want to pick up a Winchester and follow him into the apocalypse. Pearson sings of America, Babylon, and the world falling into ruin even as he urges on the faithful: “As we tread along to the darker song/With salvation yet to come/Ponder the thought of what little you’ve brought/Yeah the journey for you my friend has just begun.”

The song’s final minutes find Pearson crooning/intoning/chanting “We shall be free” in the midst of a holy whirlwind of psychedelic rock, a promise of redemption to come that’s just about as uplifting as rock n’ roll gets.