Review Summary: Bring out ya dead
Green Lung’s fourth album sees them cement themselves as one of the top bands in the stoner, doom and psychedelic metal scene. Coming off a headline slot at this year’s Desertfest - the premier stoner and psych metal festival in the UK, right in the heart of Camden Town -
Necropolitan feels like the sound of a band breaking out of the niche and becoming a band worth knowing. Green Lung have a very particular aesthetic, with their music living in the green forests of occult psychedelia, stoner doom and mushroom-infused vintage rock- it connected to rural England’s forests, fields and moors.
Necropolitan transports them from that rural landscape to the city: London city, to be precise.
The album digs into the city’s sinister past: haunted houses, underground occult societies, bodies at the bottom of the Thames, murders on the London Underground, and the vast network of Victorian graves sitting underneath the city. It gives the band’s occult aesthetic a new playground without abandoning what brought them to the dance the first place. Green Lung have always understood that this stuff can be spooky without taking itself too seriously, and
Necropolitan doubles down on that. They marry the campy theatrics of those shops that sell tarot cards and crystal skulls with the heft and riffs of stoner and doom metal.
Musically, the band continues to mix classic and vintage rock and metal inspiration from bands such as
Black Sabbath and
Deep Purple with more contemporary stoner bands such as
Clutch, and the campy satanic playfulness of
Ghost. There’s also a clear connection to English doom metal history, with reference points stretching beyond Sabbath to the likes of
Cathedral and
Pagan Altar. Frontman Thomas Templar’s vocals are theatrical, like a more drunken, manic, snarky Tobias Forge, perfectly suited to the band’s spooky, tongue-in-cheek sound. The heavy use of the organ adds even more retro and vintage flair, while the interplay between the guitars and keys is often a total blast. There are riffs everywhere, thick crunchy guitars, and a bouncy energy that makes this stoner doom at its most FUN.
That energy is sustained throughout the album's succinct 40 minute runtime. "Dance to the Grave" kicks down your door with massive riffs, the first of many tracks that are total head-bangers. "Necropolitan Line" rollicks along like a haunted train at a brisk pace, and lead single "Evil in This House" combines classic Epic Doom with a more upbeat swagger, its hypnotic riff-y swaying being straight Sabbath worship. "Ozymandias" has plenty of bravado too, and across the whole record the performances are strong. This feels like a band reaching the top of their game and having properly honed their craft over years. Everything works together: the guitars, keys, vocals and rhythm section all sound confident, polished and in service of the sound Green Lung have crafted.
Overall,
Necropolitan is a great album and another big step forward for Green Lung. They’ve taken the occult, psychedelic and vintage DNA of their earlier work and planted it into the dark heart of London, creating something that feels both distinctly Green Lung and like a natural evolution of the band. This is the sound of a band cementing their arrival as one of the bands to know in the world of stoner and doom metal, and one of the best English metal releases of 2026.
