ALBUM REVIEW: Vulture’s Paradise – Warlung

Stomping into the underground heavy rock scene with their 2017 debut Sleepwalker, WARLUNG quickly made a name for themselves and built a steadily growing cult following. Word of mouth and anticipation spread rapidly, allowing the Texas-based four-piece to gain notoriety on the gig circuits at home and further afield. Following albums Immortal Portal and Optical Delusions were critically well-received and crucially helped build the fanbase. WARLUNG are setting up Vulture’s Paradise to be something bigger than they’ve done before. Nine tracks of powerful, stomping, heavily catchy riffage, encapsulating a sound that combines the raw edge coming from their live shows as well as balanced melodic structures to the riffs that they’ve developed in the studio.

What WARLUNG give us is a collection of relatively short, sharp riff-laden punches where the longest track comes in at five minutes 55 seconds. Feedback heralds the arrival of a doomy wall of sound that is the intro to opener Hypatia. Musically it sets out the stall for what’s to come. Defying the listener not to nod their head or stamp their foot to the thunderous drum groove or mammoth guitar lines, Hypatia delivers everything one could want from an introductory track. The band’s influences are evident; there’s a clear rooting in the late 70s proto-metal sound. This is augmented by the psychedelic doom variations that fans of the previous releases will come to know and love, which add flavour to the sonic pot to create a strong pull factor.

With those elements all working together, it’s relatively obvious by the end of title track that this is not a subtle album. The music comes out swinging from the intro and doesn’t let up. Tracks like Demonocracy and Caveman Blues have all the weight of a live track, and, with the mix giving the vocals an anthemic quality allowing them to soar high above the other instrumentation, it’s easy to see that they will go down a storm with gig-going audiences.

However, for its apparent lack of subtlety on face value, there’s a lot of precision in both the music and lyrics. This is far more than just a collection of riffs bolted together with bass and drums and the vocals coming in as an afterthought. Lyrically, themes of death and destruction are prevalent, however the juxtaposition of a sense of lively creativity is generated by the instrumentation and this works as a powerful blend that keeps each track sounding fresh and propels the whole album.

While the entire record is an intoxicating psychedelic swirl of howling vocals, towering riffs and thunderous rhythms, the jewel in the crown is the raucously catchy latest single Return Of The Warlords. Featuring SABBATH-esque guitar lines and vocal delivery (a prominent factor in the WARLUNG influence it seems), it’s three minutes and 48 seconds that showcases exactly what the four-piece are capable of. While initially the sound seems very familiar, harkening back to the greats that have gone before, the dynamic shifts, tempo changes and overall writing of the song keep it individual to the WARLUNG style.

With album number four, WARLUNG have certainly settled into their groove. Their fanbase is surely set to grow off of their previous catalogue and with this addition they have set a new bar for themselves. These nine tracks deliver on their aim of providing something bigger. Rhythmically it’s captivating and the colossal riffs are hard to forget, dominating the auditory sense memory. Vulture’s Paradise is a top hitter showcasing what this band has to offer.

Rating: 8/10

Vulture’s Paradise is out now via Heavy Psych Sounds.

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