Iron Lung - Adapting // Crawling LP

At last, IRON LUNG return with their first full length since 2013, ‘Adapting // Crawling’, and it’s hard to know where to start. Their presence as a band, then as a label, has been somewhere near the orbit of the store the entire 20 years I’ve been here.

I remember the Cold Storage compilation (a Max Kohane/Endless Blockades/Eerie Stratum joint effort) arriving at the end of our time in Penrith (along with Aarght Records titles and Stained Circles licensing of Jay Reatard) when we started seeing a glimmer of what our future may well be, a more direct-to-underground mode of operation.

The Iron Lung appeal to those unversed in the Power Violence tradition is this: do you have foundational punk and hardcore sensibilities, but are curious about greater sonic extremities?: Gruelling sludge, grindcore speeds and, I dunno, now in their 2025 form maybe even the considered noise compositions of Kevin Drumm.

For a style of music with its foundations in youthful blasts of fury, there’s an xtreme consideration in their minimal palette, a nuance in their destructive frenzy, or as Matt Korvette (of yellowgreenred.com, cheers for all the context/dialogue in these vague /vibe-driven times) puts it in the press release, “Extreme hardcore is not a new phenomenon, yet Adapting // Crawling is undoubtedly a vital new fork in its socket.” - Nic

P.S. Did you know Iron Lung will be playing in Sydney with Faceless Burial, Photogenic and Spite at Marrickville Bowling Club July 12? Get your tickets here!