Earth
The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull
.
.date 2008
.style Instrumental
.label Southern Lord
.cat.no. SUNN90
.source Vinyl
.type Limited Edition
.quality VBRkbps 44.1hz Joint-Stereo
.size 11,1 MB
.
*Deluxe double vinyl version of the latest recording from Earth: "the
Bees Made Honey In The Lions Skull". Featuring the exclusive vinyl only
bonus track: "Junkyard Priest" (featuring Milky Burgess on slide!). The
audio was specifically mastered for vinyl and the LP lacquers were cut
by Bob Weston (Shellac). Complimenting the audio is the supreme
packaging presentation. These 180 gram vinyl lps come housed in a over
the top bible-esque triple gatefold jacket. Outside is faux leatherette
with gold embossing. Think CSNY "Deja Vu" lp meets the Holy Bible!.
Inside is the amazing artwork and photography from Arik Roper.* Earth's
Hex album, despite transgressing doom genre boundaries, turned out to be
something of a touchstone for many artists in the field; its American
gothic landscapes were quickly swallowed up as a new fixture in the
death ambient vocabulary, and countless records seem to have been made
since that have tapped into its stately Western gloom. The Bees Made
Honey In The Lion's Skull is a natural progression from Hex, taking the
same template of slow, simplistic progressions and low-end riffing
whilst adding liberal smatterings of keyboard instrumentation - hardly
the sort of thing you'd expect from Dylan Carson and co. Some of this
material is actually rather... pretty. 'Hung On The Moon' is augmented
by Steve Moore's Hammond textures and jazzy piano, transforming the
repetitive doom structure into a far more interesting, matured sound,
loaded with a harmonic ambiguity. Another key additional musician is
Bill Frisell, who clearly spent some time looking for his distortion
pedal for his stint on this album. In amongst the riff-mongering
belligerence guitar passages break loose to open up the narratives.
'Engine Of Ruin' is a particularly fine example of this trend, with an
end passage decked out with arcs of vibrant string bends and expressive,
melodic phrasing. A considerable evolutionary shift for the band, this
album sounds like the work of a very different group from the more
ominous, monochromatic work of their droning past. ESSENTIAL PURCHASE.
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01 Junkyard Priest 07:13
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07:13 min
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