Wednesday 5 May 2021

Earth "Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version" (1993)

 

A recent revival of Hibernaculum and The Bees Made Honey had me curious about their pre-reformation works that had been heaped with praise. As a curious teenage enthusiast, this record had left me dumbfounded to what the fuss was about. Now, with open mind and ears I find myself with a similar sentiment, although context may play a roll given what this anomaly may have meant to listeners back in the nineties.

With three gargantuan songs totally seventy three minutes, Earth 2 strikes me as more of a singular experiment in tone than anything structured, planned or even designed. This is Drone Metal resembling very little of Metal and much of the drone one might associate with engine noises and electronic buzzing. The entire musical piece is a wash with the dense, drowning, fuzzy flood of guitar distortion cycled with amp feedback to muzzle anything that happens to wander across its bleak path.

Admittedly I can comment there is a strange charm and allure to the droning noise but is it a work of genius? I suspect not. As background or foreground music it is mostly grating and is best enjoyed when entirely distracted from its presence. Perhaps its just not my cup of tea. I understand the appeal but the particular aesthetic at play here is mostly a discomfort that feels pointless to endure its unsettling presence.

With Seven Angels, a lone guitar deploys burly riffs reminiscent of Black Sabbath on loop. Slowly chugging palm mutes and rising to chord slabs with slices of short melody, it stands aside for offering something to focus on yet feels unremarkable to me. The second track shifts aesthetics slightly, the guitar work goes in a moody direction but ultimately its emotions are smothered by the droning, dirty sludge.

 Its not until Like Gold And Faceted that we hear drums, slow, temporal and disappearing for tempo shattering duration's, they barely crash through the wall of brown sound. At the hour mark, a scream can be heard and before it, a little lead guitar but as mentioned, these events do little to conjure purpose or intent. I must say, it does sound like cryptic rumblings are woven beneath the drone at times where its consistency breaks and cracks of something else is heard, undecipherable.

The whole thing seems like an unplanned session hinged around the concept of smothering the listener in blistering feedback for an unreasonable amount of time. Its spontaneous blurts of additional sound seems disconnect and purposeless. If there is magic to be found here, it has certainly alluded me, although I suspect the aid of hallucinogenics might yield different results for those who use them.

Rating: 2/10