Isn't Baltimore also called the Doom Capital of the world or something like that? Anyways, Psychedelic Doom Metal band from the city, BLACK LUNG, release their 3^rd full length record "Ancients" this March and it promises to be a great one. So let's dive into it.

"Mother of the Sun" has a mid-tempo Stoner vibe to it, its lazy, it's slow, and its groovy. But gotta tell you the truth, even after listening to it multiple times, the sound in general is uninspiring, even though there is not a whole lot you can point fingers at to complain. The song does pick up the tempo and has some fast paced Stoner riffs, helps the song to chug along. The title track "Ancients" sounds like a happy Punk-ish Stoner song, even though there is not much Punk element in it, but the riffs and the vocals add a slight Punk feel to it. Again, nothing very impressive, except the fast paced Punk-ish riffs and vocals. "The Seeker" goes on a tangent with its unidimensional BLACK SABBATH's "Paranoid"-esque riff. Actually in the middle of the song, I paused it and started listening to "Paranoid" to compare the 2, and hell yeah, the 'inspiration' is too close to my liking. "Voices" has some cool interesting riffs, but the band doesn't use them enough, and relies again on the easy 'repeat-till-you-die' mantra held by Stoner bands, but unfortunately, BLACK LUNG fail to pull that effectively as well here, as they try too many things in other parts of the song. They seem to fail to get the balance between 'not experimenting enough' and 'trying too many things at the same time'.

"Gone" has a cool riff going on for it, and even the Punk-ish vocals really work greatly here with the unique riffs. This probably is the best song in the album, so far. It has that raw 'Mad Max' vibe to it. "Badlands" mixes Sludgy juicy riffs with Stoner Doom riffs, and I cant say that they get it right here. It feels like its all over the place, and the output isn't what could have been a great song. Not to mention the shift in tempo in the middle, doesn't really help the song much either. "Vultures" feels almost like an instrumental, because the vocals don't start until 1:45 minutes, and even then, they don't stand out or bring anything new to the table. The song flows like a mindless stream of water down the stream. The melodic parts are ok, but don't seem to be in synch with the constantly shifting tempo of the song towards the latter half. The album ends with "Dead Man Blues" also chugs along slow mid-tempo riffs and lazy vocals, which some might read as Grunge vocals, but unfortunately, they don't sound Grunge enough to be classified as that. But the song does have some cool solos and guitar work, but it all feels chaotic and haphazard in structure.

The 3^rd full length album from the trio, honestly is a bit of a disappointment in my view. It could have been great and some songs did show glimpses of what that greatness could have been, but the band struck to its slow mid-tempo sound and it just doesn't seem to impress me enough, especially due to the haphazard song writing in play, all throughout the album.