About.com Rating

Drone giants Earth have been operating at the periphery of metal since their reformation in 2003. The albums released since that time largely moved away from the band’s early form of abrasive doom metal, a sound that immediately inspired similarly minded bands such as Burning Witch (still one of the hardest hitting funeral doom acts ever) and Sunn O))), who currently reside at the top of the drone heap.

Starting with HEX: Or Printing In The Infernal Method in 2006 right up through the two-part releases of Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light Parts 1 and II, Earth had lightened their sound to revolve around a simple riff with the distortion excised, a glacially slow pace, and minimalist vocals, if any.

The approach resulted in a mesmerizing form of somnambulistic psychedelics that were all the more enhanced by band founder Dylan Carlson’s tendency to incorporate traces of alt/country and even gospel music into Earth’s sound. The results were excellent, but provoked a fierce debate within the metal community (especially around the time of the release of The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull in 2008) as to whether Earth could even be considered metal anymore.

The argument doesn’t really matter, in my opinion, as metal has always had an interconnection with psychedelic rock since the early days of Jimi Hendrix, the Yardbirds, and what have you. Earth are merely playing with a certain angle of that sound, and are perfecting it.

That perfection arises to the forefront with Primitive and Deadly, easily the best album that Earth have released since The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull.

Immediately, two things about Primitive and Deadly leap out. First, the guitars and bass are much more distorted than those on the last four records, resulting in a heavier sound that hearkens back a bit to Earth’s early days. Second, lo and behold, there are a few vocals, courtesy of Mark Lanegan, known for his work in Screaming Trees and Queens Of  The Stone Age, and female singer Rabi Shabeen Qazi of Seattle psychedelic rock band Rose Windows.

Though decidedly more metallic than the last few albums, a sound that’s especially present in the album opener, “Torn By The Fox Of The Crescent Moon,” which is the heaviest thing that Earth has done in twenty years. Primitive And Deadly still revolves around Carlson’s psychedelic riffs and a glacial pace. The result is an album that is an amalgam of Earth’s two eras, but is a natural progression from their sound of late.  

Lanegan appears on two songs with his gravelly vocals enhanced by some great bluesy solos from Carlson. Qazi appears on one song, “From The Zodiacal Light,” a beautifully written, quiet track that showcases Qazi’s soaring style, which is similar to that of Dorthia Cottrell of Windhand.

The last song on the album, “Badger’s Bane,” which, incidentally, is only available on the vinyl release of Primitive and Deadly, shows Earth coming full circle and returning to the heaviness of the first track with a few weird moments of harmonics and fuzz sprawled out over nearly thirteen minutes.

Needless to say, Primitive and Deadly is a fantastic album that will quickly takes its place in the pantheon of great releases in the drone genre.

(released September 2, 2014 on Southern Lord Recordings)