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Earth: Angels of darkness, demons of light I

13/04/11 || Khlysty

Dylan Carlson is a pretty-difficult-to-pinpoint mofo. A friend of the late Kurt Cobain, he started his musical career with the seemingly-demented goal of seeing how much can one stretch a proto-Black Sabbath riff into eternity, before it snapped, along with the listener’s patience. This resulted into the now-infamous “Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version”, the ur-text for every doom band that delves into drone, from Khanate and Sunn to Monarch! and Otesanek. Afterwards, Carlson tried a few different configurations of Earth that didn’t really worked. Was it the burden of the legacy of “Earth 2”? Was it the drugs? Was it the pain from Cobain’s self-immolation? Don’t really know; what I know is that Earth slowly became a non-entity in the world of the slow-and-heavy.

That is, until 2005, when the knighthood-deserving guys at Southern Lord put out “Hex: or printing in the infernal method”, Earth’s then-newest recording and a revelatory experience, if there ever was one. Instead of oversaturating everything with downtuned guitars, feedback howls, amorphous-ness and amp hiss-and-crackle, that new version of Earth turned the heaviness inwards. Drawing inspiration from classic Americana –think Ennio Moriccone and Robert Johnson on ‘luudes jamming together- this new approach displayed a terrible heaviness, derived solely from the starkness of the music: barely- tweaked Teles, somnambulant drumming, hints of bass and an expansiveness that hinted of steppes which hid underground cursed injun cemeteries, or the bodies of the dead of some battle too bloody and horrifying to be mentioned in the history textbooks.

If “Hex” was the revelation, “The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull” was the definition of the Earth v. 2.0: sporting guitar work from the legendary Bill Frisell and subliminal keyboard washes from Steve Moore, the record was like watching a rainbow, after a heavy –and possibly destructive- thunderstorm, unfold itself. “Hex”’s darkness was replaced in “The Bees…” with a wonderful relaxed mellowness that showed Carlson’s more intimate and “soft” side. In interviews the band members talked about being influenced by gospel and careful listens of the record revealed a soulful approach that was totally new. So, what the fuck was going on? Did Carlson had gone all soft and mushy? Did love fill him with optimism? Where the hell the world’s going to?

Well, the world’s going to its end and Carlson is ready to show us a preview of it. “Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light I” is Earth’s return to the darkest corners of Americana and nary a ray of sunlight penetrates the record’s surly and sometimes downright scary mood. The five behemoths that comprise the record’s length –the shortest one lasts seven-and-a-half minutes, the longest overpasses the twenty-minute mark- all seem to be exercises in terror-by-repetition. Each track is at best made of two or three minor chords, tops, played excruciatingly slowly, with Carlson’s Tele front-and-center dragging the cart, Adrienne Davies’ lethargic drumming barely hinting at pacing and rhythm and Karl Blau’s bass and Lori Goldston’s cello adding brittle layers of drone underneath the stark foreground of the music.

I think it’s useless to tell you that every fucking track in here sounds like a mass funeral, and only during its lightest moments. But that’s not all. In the Wonderful and Frightening World of Earth circa 2011, there are a couple of surprises that add heaps to the sinister ambiance of “Angels…”. First off, there’s Carlson’s tendency of working some variation to the whole funereal proceedings: he sometimes plays with the notes that comprise the “riffs”. Sometimes, he adds a bit of slide. Sometimes he makes the guitar totally disappear, leaving in the forefront only the drone of the cello, or a lonesome beat. Maybe all this seems too minimal to you, but, goddamit, it’s VARIATION and hints towards DYNAMICS! Oh, yeah, dynamics of a glacial pace, to be sure, but dynamics, nonetheless.

Which brings us to the second surprise: interfuckenplay!!! Yes, by Nyarlathotep, instrumental interplay and a sense of orchestration that was present only as an amorphous idea in “Hex” or “The Bees…”. Every single instrument works its separate way, but at the same time seems tethered with the others, following their leads, expanding upon them, creating its own niche inside the gargantuan lengths but also working in tandem with the others. Look, folks, there’s a richness here; it’s not obvious, neither is it easily found. But it’s fucking there and it makes things all the more dark and menacing, because it hints at calculation. At creative process. At –shall I utter the unutterable?- musical genius.

The production is stark and lets the music expand itself to infinity, creating sonic vistas of unspeakable beauty and menace. Look, the bottom line here is that Earth’s “Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light I” is the first bona fide masterpiece of 2011. What it reminds me the most is the terror-lounge-jazz of Bohren & Der Club Of Gore’s “Black Earth”, in that it derives its excruciating heaviness, not from distortion, but from the inherent bleakness of the black heart of the music. This is sonic nightmare at its best and you better bow down in front of it… or be annihilated by its majestically slothlike wrath.

9,5

Information
Released: 2011
Label: Southern Lord Records
Website: www.thronesanddominions.com
Band
Dylan Carlson: guitar, devices
Karl Blau: bass
Lori Goldston: cello, devices
Adrienne Davies: drums, trap kit

Tracklist
01. Old Black
02. Father Midnight
03. Descent to the Zenith
04. Hell’s Winter
05. Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I

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