Album Review: Heavy Lungs - All Gas No Brakes (Alcopop!)

Bristol quartet Heavy Lungs' All Gas No Brakes is the sound of a band shoving their way to the front of the UK post-punk pile with busted knuckles. It is a searing debut that drags you by the collar and spits in your face, daring you to keep up through tracks that are at once grimy and loud, unpredictable and strangely hilarious. After six years that saw three EPs and a split 7-inch with IDLES, Heavy Lungs' now sounds imbued with the urgency of a getaway driver flooring it toward the cliff's edge.

Fronted by Danny Nedelko—known for a fevered stage presence and a particularly real near-electrocution incident—the band is rounded out by Oliver Southgate (guitar), James Minchall (bass), and George Garratt (drums) on 12 tracks that are as precise as they are feral. Matryoshka starts with Nedelko’s ragged bark of “Don’t worry son, it’s not over yet”, setting a tone that never lets up. The title track then is all sneering bravado, built on a rhythm section that throbs like an idling muscle car before peeling out.

Tension is the entree here, defining the album. The single Dancing Man is a paranoid waltz through Nightmare Alley. Angle Grinder grinds with menace, and Plagiarism delivers punchlines sharp enough to draw blood. “You said it first, I said it better / Catch me if you can, I’m the Gingerbread Man,” Nedelko taunts. There’s a sharp wit and acerbic snarl reminiscent of Mark E. Smith to his vocals. The frayed edges of All Gas No Brakes also recall early McLusky, another band that relished self-destruction as art and amusement. Late to the Party barrels with primal drums, while 2 Hot 2 Ride is a breakneck 95-second joyride through a brick wall. Then there’s Sometimes People Just Explode, a song that escalates with such barely-contained fury you half expect it to detonate mid-play.

Recorded over six chaotic days at Holy Mountain Studios in London, the album was concocted fast, loud, and just on the edge of an unraveling live show. Its apropos mistakes are left in. While much of UK post-punk is fixated on dour social critiques, Heavy Lungs choose a different route. They don't make the mistake of sitting still, overthinking, and getting caught up in self-importance. They would rather find absurdity in despair and turn every track into a potential riot, evoking the Nick Cave-fronted The Birthday Party.

All Gas No Brakes is a hurricane of an album, and it makes no apologies for the wreckage it leaves in its wake. It’s a live wire, the sound of a band unshackled. If you haven’t caught on, now’s the time because this is the sound of a band kicking down the door.