Being a firm believer that one's environment can affect one's mood and demeanor and then subsequently affect the music that one creates, it is always interesting to hear music from bands, groups, and people from areas that are not considered to be musical hotbeds. Isolation can cause some interesting music. Lungs hail from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and although consideration exists for that city to be a decent size, it is still fairly isolated from either of the two coasts. Lungs is the group's first record, and even though there are only three songs, this EP presents a band that has their own ambitions.
The first few minutes of listening to this EP from Lungs has me scratching my head as the band shifts sounds and styles during what comes across as a long intro to a song ("Eunomia" is an instrumental track). It is interesting the way in which the band seamlessly melds some awesome rhythmic riffing that reminds me of Quicksand while adding some post-rock melodic leads (think Explosions in the Sky). The three songs on this self-titled EP all have quite a breath to them, and the production quality is fairly decent, which allows the songs to sound pretty crisp. The keyboard elements in the songs add a little something extra that just seems to open the songs up just enough (see "A Green Sea Dusk"), and I really find myself drawn to listening to the bass lines, while the space-y guitar parts (at times reminding me of Cave In) add just the right texture at times. The heavy parts of the songs might use a bit better transitions from the quieter movements, but other than that this sounds like a solid debut EP, particularly the first two tracks because they seem a bit more polished and cohesive than the third track, "Kinsman".
Even though the band considers themselves an "experimental doom metal" band, their sound seems to place them more into the camp of bands like Cult of Luna while adding several elements that do not normally inhabit that style of music. The EP from Lungs does have some nice surprises and is, in fact, a very pleasant surprise in it of itself. This is not what I was expecting at all (mainly because the press sheet calls them a doom band, which completely threw me off). In any case, I do enjoy this and Lungs does leave me wanting to hear more, which is always a good thing. Hopefully, I will not have to long to wait.
