A… breath of fresh air was brought to my stereo with the third album of Green Lung. The fact that I still listen to their previous album “Black Harvest” after two years I think it says a lot. I had high expectations of their new work so I’ve been banging away at it for quite some time now.
Despite being a relatively new band, I think Green Lung have already made a good name for themselves in the scene. They may be based in London but from the first few minutes of listening you know that you are going to experience a journey that will take you to all the primordial places of Old Albion. There is indeed something magical about this place.
This special mixture of doom, stoner and metal that Green Lung play is a sound that is so accessible but at the same time so special. For the older folks like me, the references to the greats like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and even Pink Floyd make their presence felt. But it’s all so exquisitely intertwined with the band’s harder lines that make their sound quite distinctive. Tom Templar’s excellent voice of course contributes to this.
One doesn’t need to watch the video of “Hunters In The Sky” to catch the intense mystical atmosphere of the album. The touches added by John Wright’s organ play an important role. Lyrically seamless, the album takes a dive into the history of this country with its myths.
But is this Green Lung’s best album? It’s probably a little too early to answer that question. It includes compositions like “Hunters”, “The Forest Church” and “Mountain Throne” that are undeniably excellent. On the other hand, there are moments like the typically good “Maxine”. To my ears at the moment, it sounds on par with “Black Harvest”. That alone pushes it quite high on my list of the best albums of 2023!
