If you ask me (and you are, since you're reading this review), the power of Green Lung always lay in the tension between their rock n' roll groove and their power ballad delivery. For me, neither part was strong enough to stand on its own; rather, the way each set up the other was what made Green Lung so good. Moving from "Hunters in the Sky" into "Oceans of Time" for example (both from This Heathen Land) just gets me every time. The former is ripping and roaring track arranged around a monstrously infectious chorus while the latter is a gothic, bombastic, and flamboyant tribute to one of the best divas to ever do it, Count Vlad Dracula himself. It's the tension and the payoff that keeps me coming back again and again to the album and, indeed, to Green Lung's entire backlog.
Maybe you disagree; maybe you love Green Lung simply for their ability to conjure the spirit of rock n' roll at their tip of their guitars and infuse it with just enough stoner metal magic. I know at least one person like this and while I disagree, I respect the position; there is no doubt that Green Lung rock. If that's what you're after, then Necropolitan, their upcoming release, has it in spades. From the big main riff of "Black Magic Radio" to the soaring solo and vocals of "Together in Death" (some of the best from the band on both accounts), Necropolitan is all rock. There's a touch of the power ballad on tracks like "To the Gallows Born", which closes the album, and even some at the beginning of the aforementioned "Together in Death". But that's about it; the rest is dedicated to the worship of the riff.
And, for me, this is also where the album's weakness lies. I found myself getting a bit lost in the sea of licks, grooves, and ear-worm targeted choruses. When I tuned in, everything I heard was good, even very good. But it was hard to tune in, as the mode of the album maintained the same pace, the same vibe, and the same intent. I longed for the contrast; the first two tracks went by and I headbanged and danced and had fun but then I wanted to be a bit wistful, you know? To raise my arms in praise of a higher power. To dream of the trees. Green Lung stuff, you know? And it was completely absent.
There are so many examples from Green Lung's career that I could add to the ones in the first paragraph - "May Queen", "One For Sorrow", "Graveyard Sun". These are some of Green Lung's best and most memorable tracks, exactly because they temper the hot, sharp steel of Green Lung's groove with a colder, more epic, and more grandiose iron that, in my opinion, is sorely needed. However, as I said, what's on this album is very good - no one will catch me skipping a Green Lung track when the window is down and the car is going fast and I want to rock the fuck out. But sometimes I want other things and Green Lung's previous albums gave that to me. Necropolitan does not. Alas!