CD Review: Concrete Lung - 'Waste Of Flesh'

‘Pyre Burns’ fires-off next and it’s a standout on the disk. Ed_Oxime’s angry voice soars over some piercing riffage and William Riever’s slight keyboards and chaotic percussive touches – this is one of the coolest songs that we have heard in a long while as it manages to post-punk guitar style with EBM-esque programming and a blistering heavy-as-hell metal attitude. ‘Destructive’ follows up nicely with a more atmospheric tone that builds towards a noisy, angry, violent old-school finish which in-turn leads perfectly into the title tune. This beast is unleashed upon our aching lobes like a mutant with its prominent acoustic drum beats mixing in again with the unpredictable guitar-lines and the strong repetition of a vitriolic key phrase, "Waste of flesh" alongside bleeps and samples galore. The near-eight minute ‘Sins Of Flesh’ remix that follows shows off a neat diversity by capturing dark painted soundscapes that are filled to the brim with club-baiting keyboard parts and soft riffs that clash against the moodier rhythms and heavier electro-Industrial sounds of the first three minutes. The final offering on the disk is the ‘Graveyard Recovery’ remix and this one is a much more raw and evocative affair mixing spacey electronic lashings and attractive squelchy synth sounds for a Flesh Eating Foundation influenced powerhouse to end the disk in typically explosive fashion.

Think of Concrete Lung as the musical equivalent of The Terminator - this stuff is honestly going to knock your teeth in and possibly replace your healthy organs with some cables and wire – yeah, you’re just going to have to deal with it. This country hasn’t had a better band in this genre for a long time.