Although breaking our rules a tad and reviewing a single, how could we not when we get it sent to us on nice green vinyl and backed up on CD just in case the reviewer has no turntable? In this digital throwaway age that is greatly appreciated and one certainly misses the extra benefit you get of having record inserts and nice artwork nowadays. The artwork on this by Tracey Unwin is particularly striking too and matches the green disc inside nicely.

Concrete Lung consist of duo William Riever and Ed Oxime but do not let the fact that there are just two of them and that they use a drum machine put you off in the slightest as they are really super bastard heavy. This is something I discovered on previous album ‘Visions Of Hell,’ but with these new tracks they seem to have pushed things up a notch and boosted everything up to crush.

‘Die Dreaming’ is a heavy industrialized wreck with doom tinged dystopia running through it. It is a bit difficult not to mention the influence of Godflesh as it is very much apparent but vocally the roars and the sluggish battering pace of it all also have me thinking of Esoteric a bit. The slight elongated reverb sound as they boom forth is really effective and the drums are sledgehammer slabs of noise. Guitar, bass and keyboards all have their voice too although none of them dominate the mix, just adding to the thick vicious textures of its robotic mainframe. It’s a brooding slab of techno-fear making you think the machines are just about to take over and run amok.

The flip side is ‘Communal Slave’ which sees futuristic sounds clamouring away with an almost spring like bounce about them behind the ever present thud of the drum. This builds up nicely with the vocals becoming more distempered and the melody coursing through the song addictively. It is a really dark number and it gets right beneath the skin and not in a particularly pleasant way. Another one to put on your forthcoming soundtrack to Armageddon compilation, that’s for sure.

The band play the London Electrowerkz on the 28th April and I am sure this will be on sale there, if not you can find it online. Be warned though you will need a record player as it is vinyl only!

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Pete Woods