I was fortunate enough to see Iron Lung at the start of this year playing at the Winchester in Auckland and needless to say while being one of the best gigs of the year so far, it also sold me on a band which by that point I was only faintly acquainted with. The only material of theirs I was familiar with at the time was the album Life. Iron Lung. Death and even then I can probably count on one hand the amount of plays I gave it. What immediately grabbed me about the band were their tight musicianship and the unbelievable energy they wield while only being a two-piece. They can veer from all-out, speedy hardcore riffage, to angular stop-start rhythms and crushing breakdown sections all in the space of a one-minute song or even less. Therefore I welcomed with great anticipation their latest effort, White Glove Power Test.
At 41 tracks it’s not the most accessible album and with the brevity of the song length it feels like the album passes by in one nauseating blur, albeit a thrilling, nauseating blur. In a way though this makes the listener consider the album as a singular work and the arrangement of this album lends itself to a concentrated listening session rather than fragmentary act of picking out the best songs in an album. Divided roughly into three parts, the album explores the parameters of the band’s diverse sound. The first section of the album contains their classic hardcore punk/powerviolence songs which their sound is rooted in, while the middle section pushes the limitations of this genre by exploring a more industrial/noise territory, an element which has always been present in their releases. The third and final part of the album is an attempt to merge these two seemingly opposing elements. Mechanistic whirring and throbbing sounds find themselves thrown into a blender with the band’s existing sound, creating a claustrophobic effect which is made all the more terrifying by drummer/vocalist Jensen Ward’s cathartic screams such as on the tracks “Pain Directive (Merged)” and “Heirs to the Prize (Merged).”
The musicianship these two display is rivalled by very few of their powerviolence contemporaries as it seems they possess a strong musical telepathy with each other which has no doubt been honed over years of playing together. There is a strong interplay between Ward’s blistering drumming and Kortland’s unrelenting and inventive playing (his riffs often exhibit post-punk/noise flourishes) with the song “Containment” being a prime example as they flirt with plodding rhythms and build ups which explode into spastic moments. “Brutal Supremacy” too shows the ease with which they move through their abrupt, schizophrenic song structures, as well as other track highlights like “Stress Test” and “[sic].”
Iron Lung pay close attention to conceptual detail with their albums and this latest effort takes this virtue to its logical conclusion. Everything from the lyrics to the packaging and art of the release suggests overarching themes of the consequences of our increasingly industrialised, market-driven world. They take the overt political commentary of classic powerviolence bands and add their own brand of deep-seated misanthropy to it.
Obviously this album isn’t the easiest of listens, purposely making for an unsettling experience for the listener. The density of this album in terms of track listing, sound production and musical complexity means this album requires a bit of time and repeated playing to really get your head around it and it should definitely be listened to as an entirety. In the end though it is a damn fine listen and I strongly urge any extreme music fan to get their hands on it and if possible see them live. Get your profound hate of all things human on and jam the fuck out of this album.
SLANDER 