Veteran hardcore/DIY duo, Iron Lung (Jensen Ward and Jon Kortland), are currently preparing for the release of Adapting // Crawling, their first new album in 12 years. The full-length is due out on April 18th, through the band’s own Iron Lung Records. They have now shared a triptych of singles from the record – “Purgatory Dust,” “Virus,” and “Purgatory Dust (Finale)” – as one collective video. Check it out below and find out more.
Pre-order Adapting // Crawling here: https://ironlungrecords.bandcamp.com/album/adapting-crawling-lungs-300
Pre-save it here: https://orcd.co/wkbk9qj
The “song-infected-with-another-song” concept behind Adapting // Crawling’s centerpiece and triptych singles “Purgatory Dust” / “Virus” / “Purgatory Dust (Finale)” was one Iron Lung had always wanted to try. “At its core, “Purgatory Dust” is about people not taking any precautions during the pandemic, causing even more of a spread and way more of a stupid panic,” Jensen explains. “Then we introduce “Virus” in the middle of the tune and let it wreak havoc for almost too long. When ‘Dust’ comes back it deals with the fallout from infection be it death or long term illness. That behavior really freaked me out during Covid, probably because I have studied the Polio epidemic a ton over the course of this band and people behaved pretty much exactly the same way back in the 50s. The echoes of it are staggering really. Same idiocy. Same willful ignorance and hostility toward reason. Human nature is insane. I am surprised our species has lived this long.”
From the beginning, Iron Lung 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. Each record has been written around a concept. Adapting // Crawling acts as a sliced cadaver with each song 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.
Adapting // Crawling tracklisting:
01 Adapting
02 Internal Monologue
03 Lifeless Life
04 Shift Work
05 Poisoned Sand
06 Everything is a Void (Album Version)
07 A Veiled Eye
08 Perfect Ending
09 A Loving Act
10 Purgatory Dust
11 Virus
12 Purgatory Dust (Finale)
13 Acres of Skin
14 Hospital Tile
15 Cog II
16 HeLa Cells
17 Failure
18 Survived By…
In addition to the release and performances confirmed throughout 2025, Iron Lung celebrate their label’s 18th anniversary simultaneously with a three day fest – What We Like – which takes over Seattle April 18 – 20. The weekend includes 26 exceptional bands from all around the globe, most of them with releases in the Iron Lung Records fam, plus two films, an art show and local cuisine. The event takes over three venues – all shows, all ages. Tickets and more info are here: https://dice.fm/bundles/what-we-like-fest-2025-ad9x
Iron Lung Live Dates:
Mar 07: San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall #
Mar 15: Orlando, FL – Will’s Pub
Apr 18-20: Seattle, WA – The Vera Project * (WHAT WE LIKE Weekend)
Jun 13-15: Copenhagen DK – Ungdomshuset (K-Town Hardcore Fest)
Jul 11: Sydney, AU
Jul 12: Sydney, AU
Jul 13: Brisbane, AU
Jul 18: Melbourne, AU
Jul 19: Frankston, AU
Jul 20: Perth, AU
Jul 24: Sendai, JP
Jul 25: Tokyo, JP
Jul 26: Osaka, JP
Jul 27: Nagoya, JP
Jul 28: Yokohama, JP
Jul 29: Tokyo, JP
Sep 06: Los Angeles, CA – CY Fest
# w/ Ceremony
* w/ Slant, Bootlicker, Physique, Direct Threat and Crawl Space at
More from Iron Lung:
Early 1999, Iron Lung started life in Reno, NV, rising from the ashes of (the real and best) Gob, a prolific and bizarre punk band that was Jon’s primary creative outlet for a few years which Jensen also played in during its last few months of existence, and Kralizec, a one-off project band solely dedicated to the mythology of Frank Herbert’s Dune. Both of these groups played the now legendary series of extreme punk showcases, Fiesta Grande, Chris Dodge of Slap-A-Ham/SPAZZ fame used to put on at 924 Gilman in Berkeley during the last half of the 90’s. Those shows served as a basis for how Iron Lung would proceed as a unit: The “No Gods / No Masters” approach.
Both Jensen and Jon share a love for old medical practices and equipment. The intrigue of barber-surgeons bleeding people to treat their ill “humors” or full on performing limb amputations simply because they had a razor and the dexterity to wield it was just too exciting to ignore. They wondered if anyone had ever really considered the consequences of a lobotomy, electromyography, trepanation, xenotransplantation, maggot therapy or even using heroin as cough medicine? The real one that hit home was the sheer brutality of a machine invented for the sole purpose of using positive and negative air pressure to physically force a polio-paralyzed person to breathe was such a heavy concept that there was no denying their path. Iron Lung would like to take this moment to thank John Haven Emerson, who died mere weeks before the band was born, for inventing such a barbaric and inspiring piece of respiratory machinery.
Yes, they write songs about these literal subjects but they’ve always employed them as analogies for other issues as well. Their first album, Life. Iron Lung. Death., is about the life cycle of living with and eventually dying from terminal diseases that only manmade machines can painfully prolong. Their sophomore and most well known effort, Sexless // No Sex, is about the human condition with focus on life/love/gender with a lack of care. White Glove Test plays with double meanings but is centered around the Cold War and the science that almost cured the Earth of humans altogether. Plus, Iron Lung’s beloved polio epidemic, in which almost every song of their universe is set against, took place smack in the middle of that particular (pun intended!) conflict. All of these generally regard life as a short and sour time without much hope for improvement. So, not exactly a party band.