Lunglust, “As Guilt Collects Dust” cassette

Cassette Insert- 2 Panel sepsLunglust‘s As Guilt Collects Dust cassette took a few listens to get a handle on. I couldn’t quite wrap my brain around what the band was trying to accomplish. However, it finally clicked one morning that the five piece is really letting these songs breathe. It’s not that they’re wide-open, jammy bits of hardcore — not at all. As a matter of fact, opening cut “Closed Casket” goes right into “Broken Idol” without much more than a slight dip in the music.

No, what Lunglust has done here is create a hardcore single that isn’t trying to play a mile-a-minute, with all the riffs crammed tightly into 45-60 second songs. Hardcore’s the rare genre wherein a two minute song can be considered “stretching out,” but such is the case. Every song on As Guilt Collects Dust let’s the instruments speak without the vocals jammed right on top of them, so you can hear the interplay between Jeff Sykes‘ harsh rasp and the band’s lurching, pounding rhythms.

It’s especially noticeable on the final track, “Revenge.” As Sykes yells “REVENGE!”, it’s almost as if guitarists Eric Lee and Eric Kelling are answering him with riffs. It’s incredibly powerful music. Props to Lunglust for playing music that manages to utilize hardcore’s brevity and intensity, but is willing to branch out and let their songs have some space to grow. Any band that’s willing to let their breakdowns have a melodic element to them is aces, in my book.

https://soundcloud.com/lunglust/broken-idol

Lunglust’s As Guilt Collects Dust is available now on Bandcamp and as a limited-edition purple cassette Tor Johnson Records.