“You are about to embark on a journey into occult Albion” says the voice on the prologue before Green Lung come out on stage.
It’s a version of what plays on the “This Heathen Land” record, released early last month. A record so good that it has propelled Green Lung all of a sudden, it seems, into the big leagues.
A Kerrang! cover story last week has perhaps helped pack the room (“it blows our minds that so many of you have come here on our first visit to the City” offers Tom Templar, the band’s singer) and has also maybe contributed to the fact the age of the crowd is lower than you might expect.
And I say that because what Green Lung do is somewhere in between Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, a “classic metal” sound and all topped off with a healthy dollop of organ.
They are quite brilliant at it too. “The Forest Church” and “Maxine (Witch Queen)” both showcase the new album and its stunning charms.
“Woodland Rites” proves two things. First, that they’ve always been this good and second, they haven’t changed their ethos since signing to the major label Nuclear Blast last year.
Guitarist Scott Black unleashes a marvellous solo in this one, and if you expected that, then if the phrase “I hope you’ve bought your Crampons” has been used in rock gigs previously, then I’ve never heard it. It is, though, before “Mountain Throne”.
As much as the guitar is king here, the organ of John Wright is right up there (he also gives it his best Captain Caveman on extra percussion at one point) and he is magnificent on “Leaders Of The Blind”.
“Song Of The Stones” is a folk side to the band, acoustic with bass player Joseph Guest singing a verse, and there’s always the whiff of a misty moorland on a winter morning about them, but never more than on “Hunters In The Sky” (“Tories and Landlords leave the hall” chides Templar).
Their songs mean something too. “One For Sorrow” takes on depression with a supremely thunderous middle bit (“heavy metal drowns it out”) and they always have, as “Old Gods” underlines.
“Oceans Of Time” is a prog-tinged, slightly understated epic to end, although there’s a very quick turnaround for the encore. Interestingly neither are from “….Land” and instead “Let The Devil In” and “Graveyard Sun” concentrate on the other two albums.
Green Lung have taken six years to become overnight sensations, maybe, but my goodness they can play and craft their songs. Theirs is a very British form of metal, one that borrows from the past, yet mixes it with an enchantment and a mystical air too.
They have got something special, and they are probably, the best of the UK metal new breed, and the one best place to go wherever the path takes them.
Photo: Keith Tracy
