Green Lung – ‘Necropolitan’ [Album Review]

It’s been three years since UK occult, folk, stoner/doom, heavy metal, rock ‘n’ roll quintet, Green Lung, released their brilliant, chart-topping, forest-dwelling, career milestone record, This Heathen Land. Time feels like it has flown, given the band’s propensity to play a grip of festivals throughout every year and tour like they don’t have homes; they have remained in the public consciousness and grown exponentially since. Their headlining set at Desertfest 2026 felt like a perfect curtain call for the This Heathen Land touring cycle to come to a close, and the release of a new song and end-of-year tour announcement just prior felt like it was all but confirmed.

And so with the release of Necropolitan, Green Lung transports us from the spellbinding folklore of the ancient British woodlands to the haunted cobbled streets and graveyards of old-timey London town. It also shifts the aesthetic from natural, earthy greens to a more ’70s neon-horror palette that feels perfectly in keeping with the sound and themes of this record.

“Open The Hellmouth” gets Necropolitan underway with a not-too-unfamiliar verse of ritualistic chanting, shrouded in an eerie cannon of vibrations and sounds to set the tone for what’s to come. This leads straight into “Dance To The Grave” and our first of many big beautiful riff dalliances on this record. It feels lazy to make the Dio-era Sabbath and Prequelle-era Ghost comparisons because these songs have so many differing layers and brilliant ideas, but the melodic influences and similarities can’t be ignored. As you would expect from an album of this nature, organist and keysman John Wright has a much heavier workload compared to past releases, acting as an atmospheric orchestrator for the macabre and eerie melodies that are lurking behind the songs.

The individual moments and standout performances are strung across this record. The weight, heft and technicality in the riffs on songs like “Black Magic Radio” and “Necropolitan Line” not only contrast heavily in pacing and gallop to the rest of the record, but also show off a completely different layer of guitar and bass work than we’ve seen from them previously. Frontman Tom Templar takes some really rewarding risks throughout the record, “To The Gallows Born” being maybe one of his most vulnerable and melodically endearing performances yet.

Lead single “Evil In This House” was an absolutely perfect preview of the directional change this album was to take, but at the same time has real familiarity with the songs from 2021’s Black Harvest, both in its haunting delivery and catchy nature. The two standout highlights from Necropolitan come by way of “Oxymandias” and “Alostrael (Be My Babylon).” Stadium-shaking, anthemic rock ‘n’ roll bruisers that have all the dark, moody and uniquely authentic Green Lung atmospherics that I long for.

I went down a real deep rabbit hole with the symbolism, bigger-picture storytelling, and sonic cinema for this album, and I will be honest: it left me flat as far as being able to enjoy Necropolitan for what it is, which is a collection of great songs. I consider Green Lung one of the best bands this country has produced in the last 10 years, so I find it difficult to have any form of criticism for what they do because ultimately it’s still better than what 99% of other bands are doing. Necropolitan, for me, feels like nine songs that will work incredibly well live, but have been massively overthought and overproduced to a point where they feel like a parody of something that didn’t need changing. I love this band, but I’m yet to connect with this album.

Necropolitan Track Listing:

1. Open the Hellmouth
2. Dance to the Grave
3. Black Magick Radio
4. Necropolitan Line
5. Evil in This House
6. Together in Death
7. Ozymandias
8. Alostrael (Be My Babalon)
9. To the Gallows Born

Run Time: 40:58
Release Date: September 11, 2026
Record Label: Nuclear Blast