By: David Jupp
Album Type: EP
Date Released: 19/02/2018
Label: Deckhead Records
In a genre
packed with bands that draw on decades-old tone and aesthetic, it takes a
mature hand to re-appropriate bygone creativity without sounding forced.
Luckily there is a confidence and craft present in Green Lung’s writing that
belies their months. If Green Lung can
expand the template that has served them so well across these four superb songs
then a truly exciting future awaits.
“Free the Witch” CS//DD track listing:
1). Lady Lucifer
2). Free the Witch
3). Living Fossil
4). Older than the Hills
The Review:
It’s been two hundred and fifty days or so since Green Lung
announced themselves on the UK
heavy-stage with their blistering demo ‘Green
Man Rising.’ In the months that have passed since that promising release,
the London quartet have refined their craft
across a host of England’s
underground stages. Now armed with a growing following and half-an-hour of new
material, the question is can Green Lung transfer the heft and excitement of
their live show to tape?
‘Free
the Witch’ sparks with lead single ‘Lady Lucifer’ and a crescendo of crisp guitar hammer-on. As the
tension builds and we reach the twenty-seventh second, Green Lung proceed to drop the
hammer on what is sure to be one of 2018’s stand-out riffs. The groove on
display here bangs with such an endearing audacity that you can only hope the
record to follow will measure up. As guitarist Scott Masson whittles down the
dirt, singer Tom Templar makes his entrance. Washed in reverb and folk-horror
croon Templar transmutes the bands 70’s aesthetic, from cover to sound. ‘You smiled with lips incarnadine, whispered
black magic, rites obscene.’ As the song climbs to its apex Masson cracks
the reigns with an outrageous solo and “Free
the Witch”’s opener sets a ridiculous standard.
Title track ‘Free
the Witch’ is up next and is a much more direct affair. The lurch and
swerve of ‘Evil Empire’ that crackled in the opener is now replaced with a full
pelt nod to debut-era The Sword. Just as the record becomes in
danger of reverting to type the arrangement peels back and Masson injects
another well-judged solo. ‘Free the
Witch’ lurches home on a bed of cultish chant and half-time stagger.
In making the jump to Bear Bites Studios (Vodun, Ghold)
and employing Wayne Adams on production Green Lung have shed the compressed savagery
of their live demo and allowed their stellar rhythm-section room to breathe.
Track three ‘Living Fossil’
demonstrates this upgrade perfectly and the song is all Andrew Cave’s.
The arrangement follows a similar pattern but before any unwanted familiarity
encroaches, Cave’s bass swaggers in for an overdriven solo. The months spent on
various stages refining these cuts is evident and Templar hauls the song home, ‘Living fossil, a blast from the past.’
Green Lung’s debut closes in sprawling fashion with ‘Older than the Hills.’ Not content to
banish their live demo to audio-history there is a clever re-integration of the
vocal hook from ‘Freak on a Peak’
but this time the extended track-length really allows the band to flex their
muscles. Across its eight minutes each musician takes a moment in the
spotlight, and as Masson’s guitar wails in the storm Cave and Wiseman’s rhythm
section rumble home on an array of deft fills and charming girth.
In a genre packed with bands that draw on decades-old
tone and aesthetic, it takes a mature hand to re-appropriate bygone creativity
without sounding forced. Luckily there is a confidence and craft present in Green Lung’s
writing that belies their months. This confidence is only emphasised by the
fact that b-side ‘When the Axe Comes
Down’ is left off their debut. When you are in a vein of writing so rich
you can cast away such strong songs it can only be a good omen. And that is
what ‘Free the Witch’ is, an
impressive and rousing omen, of greater things to come. If Green Lung can expand the
template that has served them so well across these four superb songs then a
truly exciting future awaits.
“Free
the Witch” is available here
Band info: bandcamp
|| facebook
