专辑简介From Earth 2 to the Angels of Darkness series, Earth‘s music has progressed quite a bit. The drone titans have gone from cataclysmic drone (Earth 2, etc), to fuzzy, rock-oriented doom (Pentastar), to dismal interpretations of folk and behemoth-sized blues rock (Hex and The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull), to monolithic, snail-paced Ennio Morricone-style western soundscapes (Angels of Darkness). But through all of these stylistic changes, Earth remains Earth. The hypnotic repetition, the worshiping of the riff and the sheer massiveness of their sound have remained intact. The band never loses its identity with any path they decide to take. But that doesn’t mean the end result is not without its surprises. That’s where their eighth studio album, Primitive and Deadly, comes in. After the cello-driven, western waltzes of the Angels of Darkness albums, the sound and atmosphere Earth opted for may surprise some listeners and make fans of their heavier material hot and bothered.

As hinted at above, Primitive and Deadly is quite heavy for an Earth record. On the whole, the band take the most rock-oriented, psychedelic elements of their past work and beef them up with anabolic steroids used by Greek gods. The first track on the record, “Torn by the Fox of the Crescent Moon”, is probably the heaviest Earth song since “A Bureaucratic Desire for Revenge”. The nine minute track is wrought with amplifier-shaking, chugging riffs and steady, seismic drumming. The chugging riffs bleed into layers of psychedelic blues and harmonic bliss. The track trudges along with a sense of purpose, and that purpose is to collapse everything around it with its sheer massive sound. This towering sound is, thankfully, carried over into the remainder the 60 minute opus. But the band manages to subtly experiment among the Titanic-sized tracks, adding new dimensions to an already heavy record. The closing track, “Badgers Bane”, revolves around a standard, revolving Earth riff that eventually fades out into a swelling mass of synths before returning again. The little nuances are what give Earth records flavor, and this one is no exception. Primitive and Deadly is also the first Earth record to feature vocals since 1996’s Pentastar: In the Style of Demons. Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age fame lends his voice to the tracks “There is a Serpent Coming” and “Rooks Across the Gates”. The tracks’ slowed-down blues/western approach and Lanegan’s slightly gruff, bluesy vocals work so extremely well together that it should be a crime. Rose Windows frontwoman Rabia Shaheen Qazi’s vocals soar over the top of “From The Zodiacal Light”; the album’s most psychedelic and drug-induced track. The effect-laden riffs and Wah-pedal sorcery compliment Qazi’s slow and deliberate delivery, ultimately crafting an enthralling experience that the mind will have a hard time processing.

The Angels of Darkness albums were some of the most dense and ambitious material Earth had ever crafted, and Primitive and Deadly is just as ambitious. The album is without a doubt one of the heaviest they have written a long time, but that’s not why it excels. It’s intelligently heavy. The thick, elephantine guitars are always on the brink of melody and always on the brink of change, subtle as they may be. Each song’s main groove is only enhanced by extra layers of instrumentation and the occasional vocal accompaniment. The record is a captivating, hypnotic experience that should be had by all. It’s just another great Earth record, enough said.