Broken Lungs - Cultural Decay EP review.

Cultural Decay is the second EP from Brummie 'Loud Fast noise band' Broken Lungs. A band who emerged from the ashes of various brummie acts such as Crime And Punishment 2011 and Someone Said Fire. This is the second EP from the band formerly known as Ghostwriter and the opening track 'Sick to death' kicks off with a bang. Singer Joe Jones' vocals kick in a screamed '1,2.3,4,... GO!" with a huge guitar riff and pounding bass and drums. Its reminiscent of bands such as Gallows, or Every Time I Die, who in the 2000's blurred the lines between punk and metal. Guitarist Nik fills the track with enough quick fire riffs to keep the song interesting, adding a breakdown into the last minute with some nice snares from drummer Dan. What sets Broken Lungs apart from several other bands who can do this sort of thing however is Joe Jones lyrics. Broken Lungs do not appear to be a political band but their songs will be instantly relatable to anyone who's actually paid attention to current events in the past 5 years. Broken Lungs attack the stereotyped idea of the narcissistic millennial with glee, literally screaming 'if I had a penny for every slur I hear about millennial's I could rent a better world'
'Armed the teeth' keeps in a similar vein, with a similar mix of riffs and breakdowns, although the lyrics take a more poetic turn, opening with the line 'feeble hands meet stronger minds, lapping at the fangs the tides they rise'. Whatever any of this means is a bit hard to decipher than the straightforward anger of 'Sick to death'. Closing track 'Baloons in Catacombs' has a few old school heavy metal elements and ditches the obscure lyrics for nihilistic sloganeering, 'I've got all my eggs in the same casket, the whole of humanity is on my blacklist'. Broken Lungs rehearsed and wrote together as a side project a long time before they emerged with EP's such as this and it shows. The end result shows a band who have perfected their sound. It's the anger of punk meeting the aggression of heavy metal. My only real criticism is that these three songs all follow a similar formula. This is fine for an EP but I'm not sure how it would translate into an album. Broken Lungs have skipped the rough, experimental stage that most bands put out on their second EP's and have already arrived at the finished product. I feel that they have missed an opportunity to experiment with new ideas and sounds. Yet if it's loud, fast hardcore noise you're after then This EP comes highly recommended.

https://brokenlungsuk.bandcamp.com/album/cultural-decay