Hailing from Harrow Black
Lung are a quartet that formed back in 2007 and they
describe their music as “brutally honest, fucked up sleaze
rock” and cite influences as varied as Babyshambles, The
Libertines, The Clash, Billy Bragg, The Pogues and Metallica
amongst many others. With gigs under their belts at venues
such as Camden’s Purple Turtle and London’s Storm Nightclub
the band have allegedly started to build a loyal following
whom they have named “the Cunts” (charming). But enough of
the band bio’ and down to what they actually sound like. If
you take into account the relative ages of the band,
guitarist Josh McLaren is a mere is 15 yrs old whilst
frontman Dan Downer is all of 17 and the fact that Junkie
Blood is their first ever release it would be fair to say
that the band have a very steep learning curve ahead of
them.
Musically the product on
offer is very basic in terms of song writing, melodies and
recording but saying that there is a tangible vibe of a band
starting out and may one day produce something bold.
Lyrically there is some hard-hitting stuff going down here
and I would urge the band to stick with this honest
approach.Performance wise there is a lot of work to do. I
don’t think the band would be offended if I say most of the
songs are very much three chord tricks and I would urge them
not to see this as a negative comment, let’s face it, it
never did the Ramones any harm. Music however sounds much
better when it’s in tune and when guitar solos have notes
which fit into the harmonic framework of a song and, sadly
for most of this EP, these basic rules are ignored and makes
it easy to dismiss. There's also the comment in the
biography that McLaren's solos borrow heavily from players
such as Slash and The Libertines. Guys take the Slash link
out as you are liable to make any future reviewers die of
laughter. There is absolutely no Slash vibe in your sound.
New bands have to start
somewhere and Black Lung are taking their first steps.
Junkie Blood is the sound of a band that has just stopped
sliding around on their bums and instead are taking their
first tentative steps. Lyrically they look promising but
musically things are way to raw and underdeveloped for any
serious consideration.
Contact:
www.myspace.com/rumoursofahurricane
Al Hey
