THE AMERICAN BLACK LUNG – Sudden Departure Of Vultures

The American Black Lung was formed by a group of friends in the garage where they were rehearsing, located in Tucson, Arizona back in 2003. The band’s members, deeply influenced by the Hardcore movement and the garage sound of the sixties, toured North America and Europe beside acts like MXPX, Further Seems Forever, and Valiant Thor, among others. Sudden Departure Of Vultures is the band’s second discographic step after … And They Rode Their Weapons Into War, which saw the light of the day in 2006 through the label Burning House Records.

The album takes the listener by the throat with the opening track “Behold The Mighty Galactus,” entering with a groovy rhythm and rather flat sound, especially via the drums. The band gives the impression that the whole album was recorded in a garage with just one take. It’s really difficult to get used to Diamond Rhino’s vocals due the monotonous timber, and the shouting, almost screaming, profile. This strange vocal performance has a twofold result for the band: the first and positive one is that it creates an original, and consequently, an easy to distinguish sound. The second is that the listener centers on the vocals and loses the diversity of the music, and eventually interest.

The music has influences from Black Flag and the Hellacopters, while after some spins some Iggy Pop finishing touches can also been spotted. The Americans reveal their Punk influences in tracks like “Call Me An Animal” and “At His Best He Was A Lonely Heart,” with the classic backing vocals during the catchy chorus lines. The rhythm guitar and Blues licks and fills in “The Skyline Itself Is Alive” spice things up while “Doc Bollywood” brings a “dirty” Stoner feeling that will start showing after multiple spins. The album closes with the cover version of “Born Of A Broken Man” from Rage Against The Machine, where the band chose to perform the song without changing or even adding something new.

The American Black Lung have managed to get the garage atmosphere into their second album, performing some energetic Hardcore tracks with strong and deep Punk foundations. The raw sound production and the sometimes over-shouted vocals characterize the band and dangerously flirts with causing them to be labelled as colorless and flat.