(written by Islander)
As an older person who’s been smoking cigarettes since age 16 I feel like a band named TarLung was made for me. Though they probably have a natural following among coal miners, hash fiends, and people who do enough weed each day to stop a water buffalo in its tracks and haven’t changed their bong water since the Obama Administration.
With a name like that, I also expected this Viennese band’s music would be unhealthy, nasty, and possibly choking. And I wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t entirely right either, because while their new album Axis Mundi does deliver crushing (and often nasty) sludge and doom, it includes many other captivating ingredients as well.
You’ll be able to understand that for yourselves because what we have for you today is a full premiere stream of the album in advance of its January 30 release by Argonauta Records.
Based on what you read above, I guess it’s apparent that Axis Mundi is this writer’s first encounter with TarLung’s music. Smarter people got wise to them way before I did, having delved into one or more of their three earlier albums or seeing them on stage at festivals or touring around many countries in Europe. I’ve obviously got some catching up to do, and won’t have to force myself to do it, because Axis Mundi is so compelling.
One reason it’s compelling is because it’s so pulverizing, and so capable of triggering reflexive muscle contractions among listeners. You’ll viscerally feel both of those impacts right away in the album’s opening track and early single “Static Noise“.
There, the muscle movement comes first, propelled by fuzz-coated riffing that throbs, blares, and slithers, backed by the kick drum’s big thump. And once that diabolically infectious hook has been set, TarLung begin the pulverization, grinding like a cement mixer, tuning those throbs to insidious levels of intensity, punching even harder, and venting brutal, serrated-edge growls. The music also seems to slither like some armor-clad python and to wail in some combination of misery and ecstasy.
The song feels drugged, and dangerous, and it reveals yet another aspect of TarLung’s devilment — a flair for injecting their songs with infectious melodies, infectious in a way that also reminds us of the derivation of the word (an agent capable of spreading disease).
But it’s the very next song which begins to show the band going off in those other directions we mentioned above (directions other than crushing, slugging, and spreading nasty infections). In “The Valley of Nowhere“, they open slowly with glittering strummed chords and high-desert, low-tuned notes, which combine to create an aura of mystery and intrigue. They then use their more tarry tones (you knew we’d have to use that adjective) to pick up the melody and carry it forward, though the more queasily toned guitar-leads help carry it too.
The song also again reminds us of TarLung’s talent for getting muscles twitching as they inflict some potent chugs, for dosing the mind with sonic psychoactives (especially through a perniciously quivering guitar solo), and for inflicting bestially ugly and rabidly insane vocal belligerence.
The following song, “Burning Out“, generates an even stronger high-desert atmosphere and brings in yet another ingredient of TarLung’s concoctions, a ghostly singing voice, joined by slowly moaning, fuzz-slathered riffage and eerily vibrating chords. It’s a slow song, but does shift into a higher, chug-fueled gear. It also adapts its own melody in ways that are considerably more unsettling and unnerving, but also more mesmerizing (thanks to a woozy guitar solo).
Without going through every other track, we still need to draw specific attention to a few more. In “Sea of Drowned Souls” TarLung deploy a skipping beat and a dual-guitar harmony that’s stricken with grief and confusion, as well as beautifully soulful folk-vocal harmonies that help make the song a mid-album highlight (and create striking contrasts with the wretchedly tormented harsh vocals and the burly riffing).
And following the sinister chug-fest of “Swans“, “Full Circle” again brings singing to the fore (along with the nasty vocals and a clear-toned guitar) in a song that sounds like heart-felt yearning — when it’s not hungrily gnawing, diabolically slithering, and brutishly jabbing. That one really gets under the skin — but so do the wailing lead-guitar melodies that pierce listeners’ minds within the crushing stomp of “Between Earth and Moon“.
Lastly we’ll mention the album’s title song, which closes things out. It’s bleak and bruising — a primitive, chugging, and hard-punching beast — but it’s also home to a gripping guitar solo, and overall it’s a fine example of the ways in which the band use their two multi-toned guitars to unspool captivating melodies.
And with that, we’ll get out of the way and let you enjoy all of Axis Mundi from start to finish:
TARLUNG are:
Rotten – guitars
Philipp Seiler – guitars & vocals
Marian Waibl – drums
On the album, Lukas Haidinger also performed bass guitar, and additional vocals on “Sea of Drowned Souls” were performed by Thérèse Lanz and Casey Rogers.
Axis Mundi was recorded and mixed by Lukas Haidinger at DeepDeepPressure Studios, and it was mastered by Role at DieTonmeisterei. Once again, the album’s cover art was created by Alex Eckman-Lawn.
It will be released on January 30th by Argonauta Records on vinyl and CD, and on digital platforms. It’s recommended for fans of: EyeHateGod, Crowbar, Weedeater, Iron Monkey, Dopethrone, Thou, and Grime.
PRE-ORDER:
https://shop.argonautarecords.com/
https://tarlung.bandcamp.com/album/axis-mundi
TARLUNG:
https://www.facebook.com/tarlungband
https://www.instagram.com/tarlung_band/
https://tarlung.bandcamp.com/
ARGONAUTA:
https://www.argonautarecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/argonautarecords