Having recently graced the cover of Kerrang magazine, Green Lung are set to become the next big thing in metal which is ironic considering their sound is deeply ingrained in very specific moments in time. Green Lung most recently played Manchester while supporting Clutch and there was a significant amount of that audience returning for this sold-out headline show with high expectations for them and for the support band, Boss Keloid.
As a Wigan resident, it’s fantastic to see one of the best local heavy metal bands supporting such a massive tour for the northern dates. Boss Keloid is a band I’ve been aware of since seeing their CD in Static Records back when it was near the bus station.
Boss Keloid fit the bill perfectly due to their invocation of 70s prog rock imagery. Everything feels like a cosmic experience and is designed to take you on ethereal journeys through slow chugging riffs on tracks like ‘Orange of Noyn’ which feels like some Frank Frazetta-inspired creature trudging through desolate fields of sludge on some distant planet.
While all this sounds really serious and over the top, Boss Keloid take their music seriously but still have enough of a sense of humour about themselves to goof around on stage as the band played The Pink Panther theme. There’s No real reason why, it was just fun and it was good to see a group of really talented musicians just being silly.
It’s very difficult to make out lyrics at a live show but Boss Keloid’s music is so vivid that you still get a sense of an ethereal location through these sludgy riffs accentuated by bright synth tracks underneath. ‘Hats the Mandrill’ is a personal favourite from the set as it keeps shifting energy and undulating as if it was some evolving organism destined to reach some higher plane of reality.
Definitely check out Boss Keloid if you like 70s Prog Rock, sludge metal or riding the great worms of Arrakis.
Green Lung would later take the stage and it was packed by the time they arrived. This show was completely sold out and completely dominated by Geezer Butler moustaches, flower crowns and the smell of illicit substances (I’m no narc but you weren’t subtle).
Green Lung opened their set just like their latest album An Invitation Into Occult Albion with a journey into This Heathen Land as they burst into the mid-paced crushing riffs of ‘The Forest Church’. The unique vocal inflections of Tom Templar who expertly invokes the likes of Vincent Price in The Witchfinder General if he was a heavy metal frontman.
Green Lung’s songs are all fairly lengthy but that adds to the atmosphere, their tracks are mostly mid-tempo affairs that feature Black Sabbath-style riffing but to call them derivative would be a misrepresentation of how skilled and well-refined they are as a band.
Tracks like ‘Maxine The Witch Queen’ perfectly capture that doom/prog sound you would associate with bands like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, you could easily convince someone that Green Lung formed in 1973.
One of the highlights of the set is ‘Song of Stones,’ a serene folky track that uses next to no distorted riffing and instead creates a soundscape straight out of a Hammer horror film from the late ’60s.
Tom Templar’s vocals are at their absolute peak here as he soars through impossibly high notes with ease but only when it is the most impactful to the song.
Green Lung have some incredible musicians in the band but their skills are always utilised at appropriate moments. Guitarist Scott Black has a massive amount of huge ripping guitar solos that rarely feel excessive, they’re always grand statements that build up to glorious crescendos.
‘Hunters in the Sky’ has that bouncy sludge laden guitar work you’d expect to hear on something like Masters of Reality but it still manages to feel modern even though everything about this track is taken from another time. The breakdown is absolutely crushing and managed to get a packed in audience moving to the best of their abilities.
Folk horror and heavy metal are a match made in heaven and Green Lung are masters at blending the two. Tracks like ‘The Ritual Tree’ feel like they were made to be included on the soundtracks of movies like The Devil Rides Out or Blood On Satan’s Claw or even The Wicker Man. The grim bleak tone of all of those movies works in a metal setting and Green Lung’s ability to build tension and have it pay off every day shows a rare skill as songwriters.
Green Lung are at their best when they commit to huge sweeping stories on tracks like ‘Oceans Of Time’. This sound feels massive and grandiose in a way that only masters of their craft can create, it builds tension perfectly before hitting the distortion for maximum impact during the expert guitar work.
Green Lung ended their set with the haunting clean tones of ‘Graveyard Sun,’ a track that has a bleak sense of finality to it which is to be expected from a band that holds doom metal so close to their hearts.
The track closes off a magnificent set with such a poignant and introspective ending without sacrificing the huge sludgy riffs, massive guitar harmonies and catchy synth work.
Many newcomers have found their new favourite band and given they are so young, they have nothing but new and exciting things to offer in the future, hopefully in a much bigger venue. There is much for Green Lung to accomplish in this Heathen Land…
