For nearly two decades IRON LUNG have played an integral part in punk / hardcore and all scenes adjacent via their music and very own esteemed label, Iron Lung Records. From the beginning, duo Jensen Ward and Jon Kortland have ethically / sonically approached the world: Do It Yourself, obscure, extreme, maladjusted and utterly free from the constraints of “music” or, more widely, rules in general. Today IRON LUNG are back with their first new full-length album in over 12 years – Adapting // Crawling – a vital, 21 minute onslaught that takes head shots at mental health with specific emphasis on the exacting tolls that the past five years have taken on humanity.<

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Each song on Adapting // Crawling is a newly peeled layer exposing the corrosive effects of deep depression, a failed healthcare system, heavy grief from multiple friends/family deaths, paranoia and distrust of government, meaningless existence and loss. So much loss. When time disappeared between 2020 and 2023, the loss of function, of relation, of drive, of everything was incalculable. Life goes on but we lose a little more each day. To help cope with that crushing reality, IRON LUNG finally sat down and wrote about their pain.

In order to not be consumed by it, they built a wall around themselves utilizing an “us versus them” modality in the lyrics. All of the band’s points of view are from the “we” stance and are funneled through their long established lens of antiquated medical procedures and devices. The only times that mode breaks is when quoting an outsider view before rejecting and destroying it. The power belongs to IRON LUNG and by association, to the allied listener.