Green Lung's Woodland Rites early favorite for Album of the Year

South London's Green Lung dropped an album perhaps destined to be named Album Of the Year on at least a few lists back on March 20th.  Impressively, Woodland Rites debuted at number one in that month's Doom Chart poll and perhaps more impressively, the album has lingered in the countdown ever since, holding down the number 22 position after the June balloting was over and done with.

The band had released the Free the Witch EP in February of 2018 as a four piece and the Green Man Rising demo in June of 2017 before that.  It was the addition of organist John Wright to the existing chemistry of Tom Templar (vox), Scott Black (guitar), Andrew Cave (bass), and Matt Wiseman (drums) that gave Green Lung that extra kick on Woodland Rites that was missing on the previous two releases.

The album has received universal praise from sources such as The Obelisk, The Guardian, Doomed and Stoned, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, and the list of doom media outlets singing the album's praises just goes on and on.  Add to it I Talk To Planets as it is most assuredly among a small handful of albums that are currently in the running to be named our Album of the Year as we reach 2019's midway point.

From the moment the needle drops on the opening track,"Initiation," and you hear the sounds of bird calls, soon joined by a gentle acoustic guitar strumming before the band cuts loose and lets you know this is going to be a heavy release, with Sabbathian overtones and plenty of witchery afoot.  Of course images from the film Wicker Man instantly rushed to the forefront of my mind.  It was my entry point into this genre all those years ago.

The songs on side one get progressively longer as the record goes on, "Initiation" at 2:33, "Woodland Rites" at 4:33, "Let the Devil In" checking in at an even five minutes and "The Ritual Tree" at 6:48.  It's my view that Green Lung is at its absolute best on the longer jams.  "The Ritual Tree," "May Queen," and "Into the Wild," all 6:41 or longer, are the strongest entries on the record, in my mind at least.

So, what can I say about the music itself that hasn't already been said?  It's riff driven drugged out doom, steeped in the occult, chock full of towering solos, a deep low end, and a smattering of samples thrown in for good measure.  You can practically smell the pine needles and feel the candle wax dripping as a druidic ritual is carried out deep in the forest.

It's good clean fun if your idea of good clean fun involves a ritual sacrifice, a bacchanal, and Green Lung center stage blaring out tracks from Woodland Rites as the evening's main event. Turn that shit up to 11 and tear off the knob! 100!

Bandcamp. Here.
Facebook. Here.