By J.J. Anselmi
At its roots, post metal is a direct offshoot of hardcore punk. Neurosis began as a crust punk outfit, and Boston’s hardcore scene profoundly influenced Isis (the band). Minneapolis’s Lungs also revolves around a hardcore ethos, which gives their droning attack a serrated edge. As Dust Reaches The Earth, the band’s debut LP, is post metal in its purest form.
Drummer Jeff Nicholas opens “Call To The Giants” with a high-energy tom groove, over which he and his band mates yell as if they’re trapped in a burning car. Lungs then breaks down into a depressive groove, the bleakness of which derives from Sean Tobin and John Olivier’s hopeless riffage. (Since this recording, Dan Lee replaced Olivier on guitar.) This section, as well as many others on As Dust Reaches The Earth, will lull you into a state of anxious meditation.
“Sermon On The Mount” begins with a delicate dirge. From here, Lungs transitions into tortured post-rock before closing the track with monolithic metal. While Tobin and Olivier launch into a duel harmony assault, Nicholas plays an athletic double bass beat, and bassist Mike Cushing fills in the space between guitars and drums with a mudslide of distortion-laced thrashing.
The third track, “Dust,” begins with a sample of an aged farmer talking about the destructive aspects of corporate farming. Lungs follows with Western-tinged doom, which sounds similar to the Americana sections that populate Coalesce’s OX. In Lungs’ case, these sounds conjure images of the rolling hills and farmland that sprawl across Minnesota. But these are harsh, post-pastoral images. The instruments drop out, and the members of Lungs contemplate the void with melancholic acapella before returning to dustbowl trudging.
“Alluvium” and “Winters” further exhibit the band’s ability to seamlessly transition from ethereal to crushing—and in ways that always serve the overall composition. The sixth track, “Never The Sun,” begins with clean-yet-ominous guitar work that pays homage to Old Man Gloom. Just when you start to feel at ease with these sounds, Lungs jumps into metallic chugging that will constrict your throat.
As Dust Reaches The Earth closes with the brooding “Aegrus.” Throughout, Tobin and Olivier cover the earthen tremors of the rhythm section with soaring harmonies, like Thin Lizzy’s guitarists playing leads over a Zozobra song. Toward the end, frenetic guitar work pushes the rest of the band into pulverizing metalcore, returning the listener to a similarly manic state that the beginning of the LP creates.
On their debut album, Lungs finds that rare balance between letting songs breathe and utilizing enough changes to keep things fresh. As Dust Reaches The Earth is equally beautiful and fierce, constantly illustrating each member’s masterful musicianship. It also leaves Lungs with a wide range of possibilities in terms of where they can go next. Wherever that is, I’m sure it will be great.
https://lungsmetal.bandcamp.com/
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