Bristol punk/noise-rock quartet Heavy Lungs release their debut album `All Gas No Brakes` this month on which the band examine topics of anxiety, guilt, and mental health, but with a healthy dose of humour.
The album opens with `Matryoshka` and after a quick web check I found that Matryoshka is associated in Russia with family and fertility and is used as the symbol for the epithet Mother Russia. After discovering that vocalist Danny Nedelko had moved from Ukraine to the UK at the age of fifteen, I could understand the significance of the title. The song itself is a kind of belligerent spoken / sung diatribe shared over a grinding post punk soundscape. Title track `All Gas No Brakes` has a kind of Gang of Four `To Hell with Poverty` vibe to it and becomes a delicious hypnotic earworm of a track.
` Late To The Party` has a kind of stream of consciousness about it and musically seems to mirror the narrative frustration of trying to get ahead but not succeeding. There`s a fairly compelling feel to `Dancing Man` which I read is an abstract tale about a sinister character and a band in-joke. The addition of screaming in the background adds another delightfully menacing dimension.
`Angle Grinder` is a much more almost straight forward indie / post punk offering but retains that ominous prospect of exploding at some stage under control. I felt there was an air of resignation on `Plagiarism`, a laid-back discourse on fraudulent representation which ends with a brief game console soundbite.
`Head Tilter` begins with a dense pulsating beat and a vocalised monologue that maybe hints at an inner mental heath turmoil. The track heads in a fairly heavy metal direction as it progresses with some pounding drums and shredding guitar riffs. There`s 174 seconds of mayhem shared throughout `It’s Been` which does have a rhythmic section but also an overall enticing sense of chaos.
`Rock, Paper, Scissors` has a delightful punk texture with pounding drums, a thumping bass line and accompanying guitar chords with vocals kind of floated atop. There`s a similar feel to `2 Hot 2 Ride` but it`s a scintillating slice of fast paced bedlam.
The album closes out with the wonderfully titled `Sometimes People Just Explode` which has a dark heavy slow pace that allows a platform for a kind of rapped invective.
There was so much to cherish on `All Gas No Brakes` which to me had an underlying tension, a feeling of retrained menace or danger. It had that enticing sense of seeing a sign that says `Danger do not touch` and you know that you just can`t help yourself.
Throw caution to the wind and take a risk on `All Gas No Brakes`, I guarantee it`ll reward you richly.
Rating 8.5 /10
