I’m sometimes way too quick to throw around the words “Album of the Year”. But every now and then, an album comes along that simply makes you stop giving a damn about holding back. Necropolitan is one of those records – and if anyone wants to knock Green Lung off the top spot in 2026, they’d better dig very, very deep. For me, this album is already sitting firmly at the top of the list.
I’ve loved this band for years. And to me, Green Lung have long been far more than just another great Doom or Heavy Rock band. Anyone who has seen them live knows that these Brits don’t simply play their songs – they create an entire world. With Necropolitan, that world has become bigger, darker and, quite frankly, fucking magnificent.
The short, ominous Open The Hellmouth throws open the gates before Evil In This House lets the fog roll over London with massive riffs and Tom Templar’s unmistakable vocals. Dance To The Grave then hits the accelerator hard: stomping Heavy Rock, colossal guitars and a chorus that immediately sinks its claws into you. Beneath all that swagger lies a vicious swipe at greed and tech billionaires – proving that Green Lung aren’t content with simply lurking around in some Victorian horror story.
Black Magick Radio gets wonderfully sinister, with organs, ritualistic vocals and that filthy groove making the whole thing sound like a pirate broadcast straight from Hell. Necropolitan Line is one of the absolute highlights for me: a driving, almost anthemic Heavy Metal journey through London’s legendary railway for the dead. NWOBHM gallop, Doom weight and pure Green Lung magic all collide here.
Ozymandias takes Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous poem and turns it into an epic, psychedelic beast dripping with atmosphere. Alostrael (Be My Babalon), meanwhile, dives deep into the occult world of Aleister Crowley and sounds exactly like the kind of invocation you’d perform by candlelight in some forgotten crypt. And then comes To The Gallows Born, closing the circle in truly majestic fashion. Tyburn, gallows and death meet Mellotron, pastoral melodies and a finale somewhere between Folk Horror and classic Heavy Metal.
What makes this album so special, though, is the attention to detail. Recorded at the legendary Rockfield Studios and produced by Tom Dalgety, Necropolitan sounds warm, organic and absolutely huge at the same time. Organs, Mellotron, fuzz-soaked guitars, acoustic textures and that wonderfully analogue atmosphere give every song its own character.
Necropolitan is Green Lung at their very best: occult, melodic, heavy, psychedelic and packed with songwriting that has grown far beyond simple genre boundaries. A proper bow to a band that has turned Heavy Metal into its own living, breathing world.
Album of the Year? Maybe I’m jumping the gun again. But this one is going to be fucking hard to knock off the throne.
-Helge Neumann
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