I got handed this outside the Skinny Puppy gig by the band to review and wish they had been supporting. Alas they were doing the honours a few nights later with Front Line Assembly and I note also have shows coming up at Infest and Amalgamation festivals. This should give you some idea about their musical orientation as should the name Concrete Lung illustrate the fact that they are at the heavier end of the industrial side of things.
This may only be advertised as an EP but you get over half an hours worth of music from five tracks plus a couple of remixes. The thing that struck me straight away is that the band have managed to craft a really diverse disc with no two tracks being reminiscent of each other. ‘Breathe In The Monochrome’ is the opener and the heaviest track, thudding into life with squalls of electronic discordance and then pounding out some meaty percussive weight. This reminds a bit of Streetcleaner era Godflesh as it ploughs and stomps away with distempered vocals spat out by singer Ex Oxime. Following this ‘Recovery Position’ aptly lightens the mood with an EBM flow to it, pulsing and popping away like very early RevCo or Controlled Bleeding. The distorted sampled laughing in it also helps keep the listener on their toes as well as the change of style, I think it’s from Predator but could be wrong. Somewhere in the middle sees ‘Pyre Burns’ starting off a bit like Steve Albini whacking it out Big Black style before drifting into floating vocals that remind a bit of the afore referenced Ogre and combining the two styles in a Leech Woman tribal bombast. I particularly like the dark atmospheric and creepy ghostlike voice samples behind the title track. The words ‘Waste Of Flesh’ are then unrelentingly repeated in your face and bristling with contempt, message received and understood. With the ‘Sins Of Flesh’ remix following straight after and concentrating on the electronic side of things and leaving out the vocals out it works particularly well, almost as though the song has simply been extended. It also kind of sounds like GGFH have been let loose at it which is another big plus.
All in all this is a great foundation for an album and has made me really want to catch the band live. I can see them getting a lot of high profile supports and being very much in demand on the strength of this, the flesh is far from weak!
http://www.myspace.com/concretelung
