Album Review: Twistin' The Knife Away by Heart & Lung

Red Scare Industries continue their trend for only releasing bangers. Towards the end of last year, they released the brand new full length from Cleveland, Ohio’s Heart & Lung. I first heard of Heart & Lung thanks to a lot of listening to bands playing The Fest 2021 in Gainesville. I immediately knew they were a band for me and, knowing their sound, it was no surprise that Red Scare ended up releasing Twistin’ The Knife Away. The album is eleven tracks of superb punk rock and features three different lead singers and plenty of harmonies. What’s not to love!

Twistin’ The Knife Away begins with Watch You Suffer. After a short audio clip, we’re greeted with a high energy introduction. The guitars buzz and the vocals have a hint of urgency that ensures that the album kicks off in the right way. The track is also plenty catchy with a chorus that you will be singing from your first listen and for days to come afterwards. I felt that it was pretty gutsy of the band to take on religion on the first track but seriously enjoyed it. The next track, I’m Fine, has more of a mid-tempo style with Heart & Lung immediately showing off their different vocalists and influences. The switch in style may take the listener a bit by surprise but will also help retain attention throughout the entire album. I’m Fine is about trying to convince people that you’re okay, when in truth you’re just lying to yourself and everyone else. This is something I’m sure we’ve all done and can really relate too. The band return to the poppier side of their sound on Punk Posters. This is another real earworm of a track. The opening harmonies of “putting up all my old punk posters” puts a smile on my face every time hear it. The track is about getting over a break up by going back to the things you found love and comfort in before the relationship. In this case, it’s punk rock music.

Die Alone is a forty-four second song that is simply about dying alone. It’s short, catchy and has a shreddy solo to finish the track. I’m not sure there’s much more to say about it other than I bet it’s great fun to sing live. The fifth song is titled Headache. Headache is another of the slower tracks on Twistin’ The Knife Away and offers a bit of a rest after the high tempo nature of the previous two songs. It’s a masterclass in writing a catchy song but also being extremely melancholic. The song eases in gently and sets out the scene of what life suffering with depression can be like. As the song progresses, the whole band comes in and gives the song a fuller sound. I can imagine this song also being extremely well received in a live setting and it being super cathartic. Up next is Shit Together. Starting out with some dual vocalists trading off lines was something I really liked. I’m assuming that the band are all in their late twenties and/or early thirties as they question where their lives are going and wonder when “they will get their shit together.” Another hugely relatable song that will be super fun to sing along to. The song structure is pretty simple, making it really accessible for the folk listening. I particularly liked the verse where the band essentially lists all the things going wrong in their life – I thought that was some quite creative lyric writing. Never Come Home is a song about dealing with loss and coming to terms with the finality of death. It’s definitely the saddest and most emotional song on the album and displays a different style of songwriting from the band. The “whoa-oh” shouts throughout the track really add some extra atmosphere to Never Come Home and you can hear some heartbreak as they are bellowed out.

Caveman is another short song – this time it’s just thirty-four seconds. Heart & Lung do an impressive job of packing a lot into this high octane pop punk song about starting again and going back to when times seemed simpler. Track nine is named Drunk And Right. On my first listen through of Twistin’ The Knife Away, Drunk And Right was one of the stand out songs for me. In particular, it was the lyric “shit don’t change if you don’t push back” that really caught my ear. Given the amount of gang vocals and harmonies that Heart & Lung use, it makes sense for them to have a song that rallies people to fight back against injustices. The jangly guitar sound that introduces the song and leads into the opening “whoa-oh” is masterful – the song does a magnificent job in subtly building up. It’s one where you get hooked in without even realising that they have caught you. The penultimate song is titled Control. This is a shorter song that feels as if it’s been split into two parts. The first part is just one of the band’s vocalists and a guitar along with a simple drumbeat welcoming you into the song before the whole band gradually comes in and the song explodes into a huge sound. As the whole band does come in, the song also becomes more urgent and it eventually feels like it’s a race to the finish. Last up is Earth, Wind, And Water. What a wonderfully raucous way to finish the album! Once again, the track starts out at a slower tempo but it’s not long before the chaos begins. There’s so much going on throughout the song with tempo and melody shifts, key changes and vocals galore. It’s what I love to see in a punk rock song. It’s nice not knowing what’s going to happen next. I think it’s important for an album to finish with a bang and Heart & Lung certainly accomplished this. Great stuff!

The list of bands that have released amazing records on Red Scare and then gone on to do some amazing things is massive and I can fully see Heart & Lung following on in the footsteps of those bands.

Stream and download Twistin' The Knife Away on Bandcamp here.

Like Heart & Lung on Facebook here.

This review was written by Colin Clark.