Green Lung: in league with the anti-bunny
AFTER TWO YEARS of waiting, Green Lung’s Live Rites tour has finally come to fruition, as it concludes its journey in the Welsh capital. In the pandemic years, they’ve not been idle. With the release of their second album, Black Harvest, last year, the traction the London quintet have garnered cannot be ignored. Scaling the British underground to greater heights, they’ve become one of metal’s more unmissable bands, and tonight is no exception.
Making up for lost time, fans are treated to a feast of dirty riffage with five other bands supporting. LOWEN’s paganistic aura sets a strong precedent from the start. Singer Nina Saeidi’s voice alone send shivers up the spine of a quickly filled Clwb floor. Harrowing and darkly tranquil, they set the bar high, but that doesn’t faze LACERTILIA a single iota. Injecting the night with a healthy dose of adrenaline, their feral grooves seem to fully possess frontman Matthew Fry, sending the warpainted barbarian into a rabid frenzy.
SUNS OF THUNDER know how to write a good rock’n’roll earworm and keep things moving along, albeit at a more domesticated pace, but HAAST’s stoic stoner melancholy is proving a tad challenging at this point and may have fared better in a less dense line-up. Pulling a double shift, Suns Of Thunder guitarist/vocalist Matt Williams takes to the mic once again in more charismatic fashion, as SIGIRIYA’s QOTSA-esque desert rock gives the evening a jump start.