IRON LUNG — Life. Iron Lung. Death. (review)

IRON LUNG — Life. Iron Lung. Death. album cover

Album · 2004 · Hardcore Punk

3/5 · 2022-06-14
siLLy puPPy

In the murky world of hardcore punk where it merges with metal, several niches have emerged that often are almost impossible to distinguish. Take powerviolence for example. This dissonantly fast and furious style of hardcore punk is closely related to thrashcore and grindcore but unlike grindcore has pretty much jettisoned any traces of a classic heavy metal connection. While Siege is credited as the pioneer of this sub-sub-genre between the cracks noisefest, the style has pretty much remained a behind the scenes sorta thing that only true hardcores venture into.

One of the many bands to gain a considerable cult following is the Seattle based IRON LUNG. This duo of Jon Kortland (guitar, vocals) and Jensen Ward (drums, vocals) started out in Reno, Nevada in 1999 before relocating to Oakland, CA before heading up to Seattle. These hardcore punk bands love to release a series of short scattered releases and IRON LUNG has been no different. In its wake has been left a long list of EPs, splits and live albums but very few what anyone would consider full-length albums.

This 2004 release LIFE. IRON LUNG. DEATH is considered the band’s first “album” but album in the chaotic noisy world of the powerviolence means an album’s worth of material is usually less than a half of an hour’s worth of playing time and the 2004 vinyl edition of this album didn’t even hit the 18-minute mark but the CD version released at the same time added a bunch of bonus tracks. These hardcore bands also love jumping from record label to the next and this release alone has found its way onto three as well as available on Bandcamp.

IRON LUNG delivers the expected powerviolence goods on LIFE. IRON LUNG. DEATH. This is a violent explosive set of performances that marries hardcore punk and grindcore seamlessly together with occasional chill outs resulting in oozing sludge metal. There’s nothing really out of the ordinary on this album as the powerviolence subgenre seems to have contained itself within a small range of possibilities. What you get is the usual breakneck speeds with screaming vocals in a raging fury with heavy distorted guitar riffs and breakdowns. Tracks all range close to the one-minute mark and start to sound the same after the album finishes.

Definitely one that gets IRON LUNG in the small club of powerviolence but creative expression is pretty much nonexistence. While perfect for fulfilling those needs of quick and explosive musical expressions, IRON LUNG, at least on this debut, doesn’t have the vision to take the genre in any new direction. Not nearly as developed as bands like Nails or Magrudergrind but all in all a decent but not essential example of this caustic branch of hardcore punk. For those only interested in eruptive irreverent noise with minimal musical motifs, then you’ll love this but these kinds of bands are a dime a dozen and anyone wanting a bit more than just the pure unhinged angst will find this a bit lacking.