Album Thoughts
This is the first Green Lung album I listened to.
It’s super good, and when I’m stressed or have a lot of emotions that I want to leave, it’s a perfect choice to have on when driving with the windows rolled down.
Songs
Incantation
- I feel like this provides really nice musical context and a sense of scale for the upcoming album. From peaceful and intimate to grand and expansive.
Let the Devil In
- This is the first Green Lung song I heard, and it made such a big impression that I immediately sought more.
- The pensive, elegant, clean intro with the ‘documentary’ narration into an explosive chord and slamming drums is impactful, and then you get into some fun harmonic vocals.
- And the way they let the growling bassline play is… just too direct a way to my heart.
Ritual Tree
- This one takes a minute, but once it gets over the hump, it’s a good time, really showing off their riffs.
Templar Dawn
- The chord progression in the chorus tickles my ears, and the rhythm almost feels like shuffling stomping, like a dead march.
- Then the bridge after the solo feels like an adventure!
Call of the Coven
- This is another showcase of the riffs and expansive sound Green Lung uses that I won’t shut up about.
May Queen
- A suitably melancholic, mournful song, given the subject matter of sacrificing a chosen one to bring the rain.
- Even the brighter chords are arranged so that there’s a sadness in the hope, once again leaning on blues chords and syncopation, especially when the distortion is removed and the clean guitar gets to reverb out.
- Then the long, harsh, keening notes of mourning at the end.
- It feels like the “smartest” track on the album, even if it’s not my favorite.
Into the Wild
- And after that, how can you not want to disappear into the woods?
- This one is my favorite. It has the biggest sound, simple as that.
General
- This is a big part of what I mean when I talk about blues-y metal. I wish there was a little more of that flavor in here, but I understand not overdoing it. Something about it just feels right.
- After … And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead, we’ve got another very atmospheric album.
- I almost feel like part of why I feel that Green Lung’s sounds are so “big” or “expansive” as I keep putting it is that they play with sound scale. The quiet moments have more… “detail”, I guess I’d say (even if they’re not quiet, per se), removing the distortion from the instruments, and then absolutely blowing the speakers out.