SilentScream213 Aimless and monotonous without creating any effective atmosphere. Guitar can be used to great effect to build atmosphere (see Doom, Post or Black Metal for that) but here it is just noise. The best this could serve is white noise in the background if you’re the kind of person who needs that, and I imagine it would actually be quite effective at that job. For a focused listen it is beyond boring, and for supplementing any other sort of activity, it is useless due to its lack of any mood or emotion. The only thing depressing about the music is how mind numbingly dull it is. One track is literally a short loop of wind and noise repeated for 12 and a half minutes.

A few of the songs like the opening track have “riffs” akin to very lethargic traditional Metal, a bit Stoner tinged or psychedelic, but just the guitar on its own is very boring for that. Even when percussion does show up, it’s almost Avant-Garde in nature, striking at seemingly random intervals with no plan or purpose. Still, the short tracks more akin to traditional music are a bit more enjoyable than the aimless droning.

Unitron After taking doom to its droning breaking point, Earth joined in with the likes of Fu Manchu and Kyuss in perfecting the art of desert rock. The whole album just bathes in warm, raw, and gravely riffs, and it's no better on display than on the classic Tallahasse.

This album couldn't have had a more fitting cover. It sounds like a roaring motor, one that's old and worn, yet never gives up and with care lasts you through any blazing heat. All I see when I listen to this album is driving this sweet green ride across the desert, but it breaks down every so often. I have to keep getting out to get the engine purring again, but it's all worth it for the experience and the sound.

SilentScream213 Maybe the first /true/ Drone Metal album, although there’s really nothing metal about it unless metal just means “distorted guitars.” The last track has some bass and drums backing it to sound more metallic and lifelike, the rest is just very simple and slow guitar “riffs” with a ton of distortion.

Earth’s first demos actually had a slightly doomy feel to them, with a full instrument ensemble and even vocals at times. This is, for all intents and purposes, just Ambient Drone. It’s fuzz and noise that is inoffensive and stagnant for over an hour. I can see how it could be relaxing, at the best of times. Problem is, even if I want to relax with some Ambient music, I still want the music to do something. This is essentially background noise, if you lived in an amp warehouse, or a Guitar Center underwater.

Maybe there is some genius in the exact frequencies or textures here, maybe there was some grand blueprint for these no less than 15-minute tracks, or maybe there’s absolutely nothing special to it at all. Either way, it’s not for me.

siLLy puPPy One of the benefits of grunge toppling the ever stagnating dominance of the glam pop metal scene was that formerly totally underground strains of music suddenly found an audience. Heavily influenced by The Melvins, the Olympia, WA based group EARTH released their debut album in 1993 and created some of the very first ambient metal that would pretty much kick off a whole new subgenre called drone metal. EARTH's music totally bucked the trend for metal to be heavier and faster with ever more complex compositions and impossibly fast solos. EARTH took the most extreme opposite approach and created a type of music that metalheads and punk rockers might listen to while they do yoga or soak in a hot tub or just want to chill out without leaving their favorite distorted music far behind.

This is an album that I find intriguing. The distortion is a satisfying way cool fuzz that feels as if the shadow of the underworld has cast itself in the light and and an impending dread that is simultaneously ominous and relaxing lurks about on every repetitiously decelerated musical motif. I find myself liking this on rare occasion but it is certainly a rare listen that demands the right mood. My main complaint is that if you want to endure the entire album it is quite lengthy with a running time of over 73 minutes. Of course, there is no law that dictates you must absolutely listen to the entire album. I find this kind of ambient metal most effective as a backdrop to other activities but it is entertaining in its own right, however as a nascent stage of drone metal I find EARTH 2: SPECIAL LOW FREQUENCY VERSION lacks enough diverse elements to keep me coming back to it on a regular basis. It is influential for sure but when the mood strikes to listen to this type of music I prefer the later albums by Sunn O))) or Boris. Still though, a must for aficionados of cutting edge ideas in the constant diversifying world of metal music.

SKwid

This is the start of my review of the Earth album Hibernaculum. I thought I heard a cellphone ring, maybe not. The slow mulling cloth of sound is softly rubbing the skin of my ears. The droning beat pushes your body through a rhythmic pulse as it would be having a massage. I almost feel as though I'm in the American south.. In a vast dead ghost town. The notes, the cries, call to you as bringer of hopeful news of things that can be achieved. And with that the song fades onto the back of my skull and the next song takes my attention. Pointy fangs of a large wolf emerge from my wall. The poster on the wall hangs as a skull, a token to those lost. I increase the volume to increase the sensation and pump more experience into my head. But country Western has come to save the day. But he has been infected with the virus too. A card flickers on the wall but the wall itself vibrates on its own. And the surprise? It has started. About halfway now, I'll make this journey yet. In the tree is a friendly monster waving at me, desperately vying for my attention. My eyelids fly off like flaps. My face is playing racecar while my hand melts into my thighs. I can't believe this isn't a cure for something already, it's so pure and raw. The barbarians prepare for an epic battle and I remember that as a kid I used to call a lot of things reinforcements. But whats he going to do, cats already got the second floor, nothing he can do about it now. So long as it stays over there and we say over here, we will be fine. The windows open their wings to hope and the forking if hopeful escape. And then I fell asleep.

I Reviewed this in the same way that i set out to review other drone albums, because i think that drone is more about the experience of listening to the music than musicianship or technical prowess.

I really enjoyed this album and would recommend it to anyone interested in some great drone.