GREEN LUNG
GREEN LUNG “This Heathen Land”
By Octopi Mills
Opening with a well-placed Prologue, GREEN LUNG sets the script for "The Forest Church" which is a blending of 70s rock and traditional metal styling with a hedge craft pf smoky folk influence all made the stranger by the vocalist who is all the aforementioned things with a touch for the operatic.
The guitars have an inherited power metal feel and a lineage that is of interest to listeners of older style bands. There is use of keyboards that sound fungal and perhaps inspired by the mellotron. "Mountain Throne" keeps a similar feeling intact and as they move into "Maxine (Queen of Witches)" the use of the keyboards come to the front carrying the old SKYCLAD buttery of the Sanders legacy to retrospect with its legendary tom foolery and passion. Somewhere around the 13:49 the keys become fungal once more.
A dirge of olden doom rises with some great guitar and instrumentation work all the way around for the song "One of Sorrow" which offers a dynamic of theatrics and things epic to keep the album flowing. The ending becomes like a whole new song in itself and the musicianship is of a higher tier. "Song of the Stones" has a primitive drumbeat and things evoke a sort of JETHRO TULL feel for old folk that sounds British and true with the lyrics always pagan in their theme. "The Ancient Ways" reminds me of the good things that are in the band PAGAN ALTAR but it is of its own here and again...the instrumentation is noteworthy as in the psychedelic passages bind the overall formula of the music's development.
There are moments where they reach the sort of operatic peak of old BLIND GUARDIAN, that sort of thing, and also have a knowledge of progressive rock. The album closes with "Oceans of Time", opening with the sort of eerie synth that is slow and builds like FLOYD knew how to with Roger Wright before turning into what it became.
Though at times there are things i don't quite like or feel at home sleeping around or being snowed in with, I must say that this album deserves to be with the albums of this year and the music is quite incredible and well done in both skill and interest. This recording will make this band remembered for many moons to come.