It’s a crisp, sunny Sunday morning in Albion. Round us, fields stretch so far as the attention can see, whilst the transparent blue sky above us is offset by means of a bracing wind. The bucolic nook of Wiltshire by which we’re status is the embodiment of 18th-century artist and mystic William Blake’s imaginative and prescient of England as some roughly “inexperienced and delightful land”. Birds wheel within the air loads of ft up, and it’s simple to believe the sound of the ft that experience walked those paths over the millennia.
But one thing extra arcane and unsettling is woven into the herbal attractiveness. Looming over us is a bizarre, placing association of stones, every greater than two times the peak of an individual: two vertical, one balanced precariously on best of it. That is The Satan’s Den, and the stones are mentioned to be a dolmen, a neolithic burial chamber that supposedly dates again greater than 5,000 years. If its age and bodily presence are spectacular, they’ve were given not anything at the reputed supernatural houses that give The Satan’s Den its identify. “You recognize,” says Tom Templar, frontman of Inexperienced Lung and British folklore fanatic, “they are saying that should you put a tumbler of water on probably the most stones and go away it in a single day, the Satan will drink it.” All at once, the wind feels somewhat bit colder.
If ever a band may just moonlight as guides to Bizarre Britain, it’s Inexperienced Lung. The Londoners fuse melodic doom metallic with a deep-rooted passion within the historical and the arcane. No longer for not anything is their new album, the majestic This Heathen Land (voted quantity 8 in Hammer’s 50 Perfect Albums of 2023), subtitled ‘A Adventure Into Occult Albion’. The Satan’s Den itself even seems at the album’s within quilt. “It’s the gourmet’s number of neolithic stone constructions,” says Tom admiringly.
We’re now not simply lurking close to a huge pile of rocks in the course of Wiltshire these days for the hell of it. No, we’ve enlisted the band – Tom plus guitarist Scott Black, bassist Joseph Ghast, drummer Matt Wiseman and organist John Wright – to provide us a excursion of probably the most status stones, barrows and henges that impressed the 9 songs that make up This Heathen Land. “I feel it’s rising up in rural Norfolk,” Tom says of his fascination with British folklore and the traditional monuments related to it. “I grew up in one of the crucial faraway portions of the United Kingdom. When I used to be a child, my obsession was once rifling in the course of the woodland for mushrooms. Then entering my teenagers, I gravitated towards witchcraft and folklore. I’d all the time been within the supernatural and ghosts and had slightly of a gothic aspect, and then you definately realise there may be this song that may be a house for numerous that stuff.”
This passion within the matter quickly discovered a soundtrack, with Tom graduating from Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper to black metallic, doom and past. Inexperienced Lung have been shaped in 2017 with the aim of marrying Tom’s two pursuits into one occult-metal complete. “One of the most issues I’m hoping makes Inexperienced Lung stand out is that we’re extra impressed by means of books,” he says. “We’re exploring a literary global.” We’re now not simply speaking outdated Dennis Wheatley-style horror novels right here. One of the most major inspirations for This Heathen Land is Folklore Myths And Legends Of Britain, a Reader’s Digest ebook printed in 1977 (it recently fetches eye-watering sums on eBay).
“Previous reference books, outdated guides to folklore, outdated guides to bizarre England, haunted constructions, actual tales,” says Tom, record the opposite influences at the album. “It’s extra thrilling to me than doing some other music about The Lord Of The Rings or one thing. I’m discovering one thing creepy, possibly one line, and making a complete music from it. It’s the other of, say, Mastodon doing an album in line with Moby Dick.”
Through his personal admission, Tom is the motive force in the back of the band’s center of attention on all issues esoteric. He jokes that the remainder of Inexperienced Lung were dragged into his love of status stones and witchcraft by way of the sheer energy of his obsession. “We’re all in reality invested in finding out about tradition,” says Scott Black as we stomp clear of The Satan’s Den. “There’s some gorgeous, fantastic reviews we’ve had as a band entering this, exploring nature and all of that stuff. I like it.”
We leap within the automobile to make the fast commute from The Satan’s Den to West Kennett Lengthy Barrow, a neolithic tomb close to the village of Avebury. Tom is desirous about this website online. “I’ve by no means in fact been right here sooner than!” he says enthusiastically as he marches off forward folks. For any individual who hasn’t spent their weekend wandering up and down the rustic taking a look at large stones, it’s price unpacking probably the most terminology right here. A protracted barrow is one of those coated assemble that was once used as a tomb. A henge is a round earthen enclosure with a financial institution at the out of doors and a ditch at the within, some that includes inside rings of stone or wood constructions. Then there are monoliths and megaliths (the previous are stones that stand by myself, whilst the latter are huge stones and particularly those who shape a part of a larger advanced). ‘Neolithic’ method one thing dates from the Stone Age, which was once 5,500-4,000 years in the past, which isn’t to be perplexed with the Bronze Age, which was once a mere 4,000-2,800 years in the past. Were given it? There’ll be a take a look at later.
Unfortunately, the passion at seeing the West Kennett Lengthy Barrow temporarily turns to sadness. The panorama and historical past of this nation could also be spectacular and awe-inspiring, however the climate is usually a bastard. A heavy downpour closing night time has grew to become the trail as much as the barrow right into a reservoir. Most effective Hammer photographer Tina had the forethought to deliver wellies. The remainder of us are shod in beside the point sneakers. To cap it off, it’s simply began raining. To Tom’s transparent annoyance, we aren’t getting up that hill. Nor do we make some other deliberate stop-off, the 30-metre human-made chalk mound Silbury Hill, which is in a similar way soggy. “We mentioned we needed to move cocktail tasting in Malibu,” says bassist Joe. “Don’t blame us!”
As we get ready to trudge back off to the auto, Tom spots a work of propaganda from a nationalist geographical region organisation on probably the most indicators main us again to the street. “That’s going,” he says as he rips the sticky label from the signal. “Fucking fascist propaganda.” It seems this type of factor is slightly not unusual. “It’s, and it’s bullshit,” Tom says, shaking his head. “We’re a British band and we need to have fun that. Other people love it as it’s recent, it’s now not extra Odin and Thor. However those other people…I come at it from the exact opposite perspective to them, once we had not unusual land,
traditions that weren’t formed by means of the monarchy or Christianity, people stuff from working-class other people down the centuries. Such a lot of that stuff is deeply anti-nationalist.”
Inexperienced Lung’s emotions are made transparent by means of a patch they promote on their website online and at gigs. It reads ‘Nazi Occultists Fuck Off’ – a play at the Useless Kennedys music Nazi Punks Fuck Off, famously coated by means of Napalm Demise. “The rationale we did it’s to mention that you’ll do that with out it being quasi-fascist,” says Tom. “As a result of it’s been hijacked. It’s a real possibility.”
Nationalist crap disposed of, we head in opposition to Avebury itself. This small, picturesque village is house to the largest stone henge in the United Kingdom. A big outer circle surrounds the homes, with two smaller circles contained inside it. With its automobile park, Nationwide Consider reward store and cafeteria based totally in what looks as if an outdated granary, Avebury is a long way busier than the places we visited previous. Vacationers and households strolling their canine wander between and round those massive megaliths. It seems to be superb, however what was once the needs of the stones?
“No person in reality is aware of,” says Tom. “There’s quite a lot of theories, regardless that. What I know is that the place they’re situated denotes their gender. So, the oblong ones are somewhat phallic, they’re male, and the diamond ones appear to be…” “Fannies?” says Joe, sooner than including, embarrassed: “Please don’t have me pronouncing ‘fannies’ in Steel Hammer.”
Inexperienced Lung themselves are inflicting slightly of stir a number of the sightseers, who’re obviously questioning why those 5 dapper males are being photographed stroking the stones. The sheep roaming round don’t appear troubled, however that’s sheep for you. MHR384.greenlung.indd
“I in the end really feel like a large deal,” grins organist John Wright, as a circle of relatives wonders in the event that they recognise who’s garnering such a lot consideration. “If handiest they knew!” he provides with a smile. Inexperienced Lung themselves aren’t above performing like vacationers as they hit the Avebury reward store. They pick out up quite a lot of candles, crystals, books on Britain’s Mesolithic duration and, in Joe’s case, some old-school cola cubes within the candy phase. However Neolithic stones look forward to no band, and it’s time to depart Avebury for the general vacation spot on our whistle-stop excursion of historical Britain’s monuments. We wish to get a transfer on, in part as a result of we’ll be shedding gentle and in part as a result of Tom has promised us a roast dinner at an area pub referred to as… oh bollocks, Hammer has simply stepped in an enormous pile of sheep shit. Joe seems to be sympathetic. “It’s the most efficient roughly poo to step in,” he says enigmatically, then carries on strolling, leaving Hammer to surprise simply why that may well be the case.
After we arrive on the automobile park of the aptly named The Druid’s Hands pub a couple of miles south of Bristol, nightfall is starting to set in. We stroll impulsively to our ultimate stop-off, the within sight Stanton Drew circle. It’s positioned in a box owned by means of an area farmer, who we could the general public mingle along with his grazing cows amongst its 27 stones for a price of £1 (the general public can pay a quid, now not the cows, clearly).
Dodging cowpats – we’ve realized our lesson on that entrance these days – we step throughout the 113-metre-diameter circle. It was once idea to were constructed as a ritual website online greater than 4,000 years in the past. As of late, with the solar taking place in the back of the stones and the silhouette of a church visual within the gloaming, it appears like we’re weirdly disconnected from actual time. If a gaggle of druids rocked up in the back of us, no person would bat an eyelid. And talking of druids, it’s time to hit The Druid’s Hands for a well-earned pint and a just right outdated Sunday roast. As we troop into the cramped, snug boozer, the eyes of the locals swivel as one in our path.
“I really like this pub, it’s were given an actual Slaughtered Lamb roughly vibe to it,” says Tom. He’s now not fallacious. The one distinction between the faraway inn from 1981 horror vintage An American Werewolf In London he’s relating to and The Druid’s Hands is the wall-mounted flatscreen TV appearing Luton The town vs Liverpool on Sky Sports activities. Nonetheless, the barman is pleasant sufficient, despite the fact that he does tell us that the roast dinner we’ve been looking forward to all day isn’t going to occur because the kitchen has simply closed.
As an alternative, we calm down for a hearty meal of a pint of lager and a bag of cheese and onion crisps. It’s been a memorable and enlightening day, even though Hammer may have finished with slightly much less sheep shit on our sneakers. For Inexperienced Lung, and Tom specifically, those historical websites are all a part of the rustic’s heritage, and must be celebrated as such.
“The entirety now has been subsumed into a class,” he says. “In the end what we’re hooked in to is group. We’re a rustic that has seasons, now we have traditions that occur inside the ones seasons, so it’s group and nature. Increasingly more, individuals are gravitating again towards short of a reference to nature. And it’s about discovering some roughly utopian imaginative and prescient via tradition, and thru counterculture.” We’ll drink to that. And possibly the satan will, too.
This Heathen Land is out now by way of Nuclear Blast. This option was once firstly printed in Steel Hammer #384
