Leather Lung - Graveside Grin - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Leather Lung - Lonesome On'ry & Evil [COMPACT DISCS] date 08/23/2019

When you find yourself adrift at zero gravity with a dreamy smile on your face, you've probably booked a flight into space on Black Lung's latest inter-dimensional transport InchForever BeyondInch. The veteran trio from Baltimore, Maryland have fine-tuned the recipe of their musical rocket fuel, distilled from stoner doom, psychedelic rock, and other fiery ingredients. Black Lung's unique concoction drives every track with captivating tunes, melodic riffing, pumping rhythms, and the inimitable vocal cords of Dave Cavalier taking it home. Every single song on InchForever BeyondInch hits it's mark perfectly. Undertones of anger and defiance manifest as many of the songs are artistic reactions to the historic political upheaval in the USA, dealing lyrically with the lure of fascism, blind nationalism, and corporate oligarchy. Black Lung came into being when two founding members of Baltimore's well-established psych rock band THE FLYING EYES, guitarist and organ player Adam Bufano and drummer Elias Schutzman, teamed up with multi-instrumentalist Dave Cavalier in early 2014. The trio set themselves apart from the crowded field of psych doom and heavy blues with a sonic interchange of fuzzed-drenched guitars, deep driving drumbeats, and Cavalier's raw, blues-tinged vocals. During the pandemic years, Black Lung managed to push forward with new guitarist Dave Fullerton, which resulted in the fourth album InchDark WavesInch. On this milestone, they abandoned some pet ideas such as eschewing bass guitar live in favour of guitars through bass amps, along with the black and white aesthetics that had dominated their artwork of their first three full-lengths. With InchForever BeyondInch, Black Lung demonstrate that it is possible to rage against injustice with an utmost joyful defiance!

Umeå trio Lonely Grave's debut full-length, Craterface, is an infernal powerhouse of pestilent, grinding crust. Despite the almost nonstop high energy level, the record's atmosphere is oppressive and suffocating. Opener InchThe ExtremistInch makes an unforgettable entrance with a deafening cacophony of diseased, rotting noise, soon interrupted by a breakneck d-beat assault and churning blasts. Running just under seventeen minutes, Craterface is by no means a long album, but honestly I don't think it could feel more complete. Lonely Grave lays out a perfect amount of variation between the bursts of hardcore, with (thank God) sparingly used headbang-inducing breakdowns and even an interlude of harsh noise meandering on InchCraterface.Inch It ends incredibly strongly too, the ominous sample that concludes InchBuy Punk GlovesInch providing a final repose before the pumping thrashcore riffs of InchDon't Let Me InInch and the slow, sludgy closer InchThe Three BeggarsInch - which, at only two and a half minutes, thankfully avoids the grind cliche of a drawn out, repetitive last song, which is seemingly hardly ever done well. Craterface handily accomplishes a difficult task it feels short in a good way without leaving the listener feeling gypped, and all I want to do is listen again and again. 2019 from the Swedish metal trio.