Goddamn, this album is amazing.
Green Lung dropping this album the week of Halloween – after the day, but occult affairs stretch well beyond that day – is quite clever given their thematic reliance on dark folklore and horror. I was bewitched by the band starting with their last album Black Harvest which I enthusiastically reviewed two years ago. It was one of the catchiest albums I had heard in 2021, ensuring that I’d keep my eye on their work from then on. It only took two years for them to sign to a bigger label (which of course brings its own concerns, all of them assuaged with this release) and drop an album that may be even better than their last. To quote the intro track, ‘come – it’s time to explore this heathen land‘.
Carrying the subtitle ‘A Journey into Occult Albion’, This Heathen Land is more of the same from Green Lung and I can’t over- or understate how much I’m okay with that. Here, we get the same driving heavy metal thunder, doomed and stoned allure, some nice classic rock worship, all wrapped up in a theatrical occult overcoat with smoking pipe and some sigils for protection. The difference here is that it genuinely feels like the band pushed themselves even harder to deliver a fun, diverse, complete project to great effect. I’m just in awe they were able to do it twice in a row.
Remember how good “Old Gods” was for a first song on Black Harvest? Green Lung just about outdid themselves with “The Forest Church”. Following a scene-setting intro track, we get this motherfucker with its fluttering riffs, haunting verses, and explosive chorus that’s endlessly singable. There’s a lot more variance here which I appreciate because those powerful, catchy moments are still as good as ever, the rest is bonus. The organ is pulling overtime with its subtle, but very key inclusion to the melodies on the track – something you can’t help but hear on the whole album – but its solo is what seals the deal. I also love the lyrics after the bridge that lead into the final hook, boldly delivered by Tom Templar:
‘The forest church is a place we only know
The forest church is where we go
When the moon is a sharp sickle in the sky
Hanging yellow, pale, and lowCome with us down, down to the forest church
On hallowed ground, down in the forest church
What’s lost but found, found in the forest church
We’re all hellbound, down in the forest church’
The repetition is like that of a possessed occult chant, becoming more foreboding with each bar, and yet it still sounds like a fun time. I wanna go to the forest church!
Lead single “Mountain Throne” is similarly great, really showcasing the magical writing chops the band has, channeling a nearly bygone sense of rock with the guitars and vocals, but embodying a new school of devilry befitting of 2023. What’s even better though is the moody “Song Of The Stones” which has a drum and acoustic intro that made me expect a callout of ‘listen to the wind blooooooow‘ from “The Chain“. And that’s not really where the similarities between Green Lung and Fleetwood Mac end – just like on Black Harvest, Green Lung come off as astute, learned rockers having studied the likes of Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, or even Golden Earring. These dudes are so about capturing those similar rock band vibes as the legends that came before them and I love them for it.
If you want something a bit different though, I need to tell you about the elation that “The Ancient Ways” gave me. This is a high-flying rocker of a track, as expected, but what happens in the center of it really took me for a ride. Here is where Green Lung cash out all their psychedelia chips with the warbling distortion and atmosphere of dimensional travel. I love the guitars here, arpeggiated and pensive, flanked by acid-tinged organ and vocals – my only complaint is that I wish this section lasted longer and let you sit with it for a while, but the train must keep moving.
There’s a couple ballad-esque tracks on here too. You have the single “Maxine (Witch Queen)” which is an homage to Maxine Sanders, a key figure in the development of modern Wicca and witchcraft, and a very danceable one at that. Organ takes lead often, verses are a bit more understated – totally makes sense why this was a single, but it’s still a great fixture on This Heathen Land. You also have “One For Sorrow” which, outside of the funereal “Born to a Dying World”, is the best slower track Green Lung have ever produced. It sounds like it could be a Candlemass song which is just about the highest compliment I can pay to a classic doom-oriented band. This is where Templar’s voice shines the most, and I absolutely adore the final leg of the song which has some of my favorite lyrics:
‘One for sorrow
Two for mirth
Three for a funeral
And four for birth
Five for heaven
Six for hell
Seven for the devil
The devil himself!’
I’ve covered almost every song on this album as they are all worthy of elongated, fanatical discussion, but I haven’t even talked about one of the best on the album, “Oceans Of Time”. Much like “Born to a Dying World” was for Black Harvest, this is the emotional heart of This Heathen Land, a transcendental love song chronicling the unbound affection between two people that not even hundreds of years could separate. It’s pretty cheesy and dramatic, kind of reminding me of the overwrought gothic love touches of Type O Negative or even HIM, but a tinge more tasteful and I wouldn’t have it any other way. And really, that’s what it all comes down to with Green Lung: enveloping yourself in the theatrics of it all, suspending your disbelief, and flaring your imagination to dream up the otherworldly and folkloric tales of occult and horrific happenings that the band so expertly weave together with spell and sound.
I haven’t felt this invigorated by heavy/doom metal since I discovered Magic Circle around a decade ago – if you know me, you know how big of a compliment that is since they’re one of my favorite bands ever. Goddamn, it’s so beautiful. This Heathen Land is functionally perfect, making good on the promise Green Lung have shown with their work up to this point. Lightning has now struck twice for the band, but it’s not a matter of chance as that expression implies; more a matter of phenomenal writing, dedicated performance, and a vision to see through with the former two things. As far as I’m concerned, they are one of the most powerful bands out there in the heavy metal and doom world right now. Lucky us that up to now they have proven to be quite benevolent with their gifts.
