Review: Warlung ‘The Poison Touch’
Houston Texas’s Warlung returns with the follow-up to 2022’s Vultures Paradise, which I enjoyed quite a bit, although, if I’m being honest, I haven’t reached for it much since for whatever reason, so upon seeing their new album The Poison Touch in the promo portal, I took it as a sign that I needed to revisit this super talented Texas band.
The Poison Touch is Warlung’s fifth release overall, and their third on global stoner, doom and psych powerhouse Heavy Psych Sounds. With Vultures Paradise, I found myself drawing aural comparisons to Uncle Acid, as well as Alice In Chains, mostly due to their use of dual, harmonizing vocals, courtesy of guitarist, vocalist and keyboardist George Baba, and guitarist and vocalist Phillip Bennett, and it’s instantly apparent on opener Digital Smoke that they have taken their musical evolution to the next level.
That next level for me comes in the soaring, dizzying, harmonizing vocals which recall contemporary Mastodon, much more than the fuzzy swing of those Uncle Acid vibes I felt on the previous record. Propelling this comparison is the performance of the rhythm section, with brothers Ethan Tamez on drums and Chris Tamez on bass, wherein Ethan turns in a very Brann Dailor-esque presentation, holding down the beat while simultaneously propelling the track with a myriad of head-spinning, octopus-armed fills.
White Light Seeker unveils itself as what I’d describe as a prog-rock stomper, complete with plenty of tempo changes, subtle organ flourishes, and the ever-so-epic dueling vocals. Mourning Devils is an instrumental interlude featuring some volume swells and trippy effects that set up one of the cooler, catchier heavy rock songs you’ll hear all year in Spell Speaker.
Starting with an irresistible, head nodding, ear-worm bass line before unfolding into a massive, driving, riff monster augmented by some spaced out, back and forth lead work. Warlung take their time building the track before the massive main riff kicks in, eliciting instant devil horns and air guitar. When coupled with the soaring, melodic vocals and the spacey, prog-y middle section, to say nothing of the killer shred, the end result is simply among the better, more epic heavy rock songs I’ve experienced in a while.
a prog-rock stomper, complete with plenty of tempo changes, subtle organ flourishes, and the ever-so-epic dueling vocals…
Holy Guide is a bit of a late-Ozzy-era Sabbath-basher complete with those ever-present vocals and more subtle, yet wicked organ flourishes, while Rat Bastard proffers some chugging, moderately thrashy malevolence in the main riff, but the bombast is, of course, balanced by the soaring, harmonized vocals across the chorus.
The penultimate track, The Sleeping Prophet, is a nice, twinkly, cosmic palette cleanser which again has me thinking about modern day Mastodon. Warlung show some nice sequencing after the two bashers that proceeded it, whilst on closer 29th Scroll,6th Verse, the band lets it all hang out displaying the heavy, fuzzy riffing, the walloping low-end, and of course those epic soaring vocals.
As with Vulture’s Paradise, I enjoyed The Poison Touch quite a bit. And while I’d say I’m not the biggest prog fan in my heavy rock, Warlung added just enough to their sound to keep the listener guessing and engaged throughout while wondering where the next twist or turn will take the song. In addition, this new long-player sounds fantastic, it’s warm and lush with everything being mixed really well.
Warlung have also proven to be pretty damn prolific as they seem to have settled into a two-to-two-and-a-half-year cycle of recording and touring. Another cool, well-executed record from an extremely talented band who have pushed their sound forward without it becoming jarring. Recommended.
Label: Heavy Psych Sounds
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: Martin Williams
