A Sabbath by the Sea: Pagan Doom rockers Green Lung bring the occult to British seaside

It’s a lovely summer afternoon in Margate, a quaint seaside town on the eastern coast of England. The streets and beach are crowded with families and groups of friends, enjoying the glorious sunshine while having a pint or an ice cream. Just around the corner, at the iconic Dreamland, a gathering of people mostly wearing black are queuing up for “A Sabbath by the Sea”, an evening of heavy and occult music headlined by Green Lung and with support from Lowen. This is the final chance to watch Green Lung outside festivals this year before they go to the studio to record their new album.

Lowen

As the venue fills up, Lowen hits the stage immediately, grasping the audience’s attention with their incredible blend of Middle Eastern music with prog, stoner, and doom. The opener “Najang Bah Divhayeh Mazandaran” brings an amazing performance by Nina, who wears incredible traditional attire and brandishes a knife, while singing in English, Farsi, Akkadian, and Sumerian. Cal’s dynamic drumming and Shem’s exciting prog riffage are excellent additions to the mixture. Unfortunately, it’s a short set, but they still get a huge reaction from the crowd and well deserved.

Lowen’s last release, “Do Not Go to War With the Demons of Mazandaran,” was one of our favourite releases from last year, and we can’t wait to see what they come up with next. They have a headline gig later this year at The Underworld, London, and we are looking forward to seeing them in action one more time.

Green Lung

As Tom Templar and the lads step onto the stage with their opener “Woodland Rites”, it hit me that not too long ago I was seeing Green Lung for the first time at their release party for their first album.
Now, with three albums in their career, it is incredible to see how comfortable they are on stage and how they carefully plan their sets: “Mountain Throne”, “Templar Dawn”, “Oceans of Time”, “May Queen”, “Forest Church“… It’s a set full of bangers.

And what incredible performers they are! Tom is a terrific frontman, always running around the stage and playfully interacting with the crowd. Scott’s headbanging and catchy riffs remain a joy to see live. Joseph’s backing vocals and bass, along with Matt’s drumming and John’s organ playing, are the signature of the band, especially in tracks like “Maxine (Witch Queen)“.

The atmospheric track “Graveyard Sun”is one of the highlights of the evening and a very nice way to finish the main set, which is followed by a powerful encore: “Old Gods”, “Let The Devil In” and “One for Sorrow”, which in my opinion is their best track to date.

Green Lung‘s meteoric rise is not by chance. It’s an incredible act to watch live, and their take on doom metal/occult rock just gets better by the year. Album IV can’t come soon enough.