The Drowns – Black Lung Flexi 7” (Pirates Press Records)

Today, we’re covering another Flexi 7” from Pirates Press Records. This time, we’re talking about Black Lung, an opening composition from the Under Tension by The Drowns. If you paid closer attention to our pages in the past couple of days, you have probably encountered our article about their brilliant single named Demons. Just like Demons, Black Lung is one among many singles The Drowns put out to promote their debut on Pirates Press, and to be honest, this is a great strategy to promote music through both digital and physical channels. Pirates Press Records are doing their best on the market by continuously promoting their roster, and their success is more than evident if you take a small glimpse in the back catalog.

The Drowns became one of the favorites on a street punk / Oi! scene in a short period, mainly because of their ability to write compelling compositions, fully stacked with loads of entertaining moments and appealing melodies. Unlike Demons, which offered a profoundly melodic version of American Oi! music pervaded with a classic British punk rock accentuations, Black Lung goes entirely into the depths of pure American Oi! music. The number carries the same amounts of semi-distorted melodies as Demons, but it leans towards energetic rock’n’roll music decorated with a recognizable street punk attitude. It’s more than hearable that The Drowns are feeling comfortable in these waters.

Everything about this number is perfect. From thoughtfully arranged chord structures, warm sounding basslines that are fulfilling the ambiance with rich tones, to exquisite rhythmical segments enhanced by compelling drum fills and sounds of the ride cymbal. The aggressive singing approach gives even more power to the performance of the entire group, but The Drowns added substantial singalongs as well. These singalongs are liberating the pleasing wall of sound over mesmerizing melodies that will force you to spin repetitiously this Flexi a couple of more times.

Black Lung comes as a square picture Flexi followed by an X-Ray lung shot. The Flexi carries both The Drowns and Pirates Press Records logos and minimalistic info about the composition. Head over to the Pirates Press web store and treat yourself with this Flexi and Under Tension by the Drowns.