What exactly is the definition of “metal?” I’ve heard many categorize the Seattle-based band Earth as “drone metal,” but (at least on their latest album The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull) I think that is pushing it. There is certainly no argument (however) from anyone about the behemoth dronescapes that Earth creates. They are simply epic.
Rooted in the blues and psychedelic Americana, fuzzy reverbed guitars ring out and hang hypnotically in the air while the bass rumbles and writhes into drawn-out lumbering grooves. Maybe a little like Early Day Miners’ Offshore but slower and heavier. That’s the real conundrum with The Bees Made Honey…; it is dense and heavy but not really all that metallic. It is more like a landscape in sound than a song; it is mountainous. Like huge clouds on the horizon rising thousands of feet from the wide-open plains of middle America; warning of the impending thunder storm.
The Bees Made Honey… is glacial in pace but not icy for this also sounds of the red and dusty West. Imagine brightly colored rays of sunshine bursting through thickly clouded skies (not unlike many Ansel Adams prints) or explosions of lightning in the night sky. Yeah, The Bees Made honey… is kinda like that and out now via Southern Lord.
MP3 | Earth – Omens And Portents I: The Driver The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull
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