Life. Iron Lung. Death.
625 Thrash
Many bands try to be brutal and scary. Few bands accomplish this feat. Iron Lung exceeds it. Released in 2004, the band's first LP, Life. Iron Lung. Death., is downright frightening.
Iron Lung is a two-man band that plays modern power violence along the same lines as Hatred Surge and The Endless Blockade. Drummer Jensen Ward (ex-Gehenna, Cold Sweat, Artimus Pyle) and guitarist Jon Kortland (ex-Gob; the band from the Pig Destroyer split EP, not the MTV band also called Gob) throw up a blasting, grinding wall of noise that is well-written and structured.
This is a band with a unique voice. Ward and Kortland share vocal duties. Their bizarre harsh-vocal harmonies coupled with their tight playing and artful arraignments create one of the best listening experiences in underground hardcore.
In a 2006 interview with Heartattack magazine, when asked about Iron Lung being a medically-themed band, Kortland said, "...I felt like Iron Lung was a perfect metaphor for human suffering." (HaC #49, p.20)
This is no big talk. Life. Iron Lung. Death. serves as a concept album about immobility and pain but it's also a metaphorical and symbolic tome about the modern condition. The record is a challenging listen as is but, when heard while reading along with the lyric sheet, it becomes an exercise in fear.
In addition to the Life. Iron Lung. Death. LP, this CD features the Demonstrations in Pressure and Volume EP as bonus tracks, along with Iron Lung's sides of the split EPs with Brainoil and Teen Cthulhu.
Download it, listen to it, feel the funk; but I encourage all of you to track down a copy of the real-deal album so as to the the full effect.
Iron Lung - Life. Iron Lung. Death.
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