Just to preface, Earth is possibly the heaviest live band I have ever experienced. I’m not necessarily using the word “heaviest” like most passionate metal fans would in terms of their favorite “heavy” bands. There was no thrashing. There were no mosh pits. To be honest, there wasn’t much of anything, and that’s precisely my point. Their brutal control of a void, of an empty space, of a lack of sound, is it what so supremely separates them from almost any “metal” band I’ve ever experienced. Their self-awareness and commitment to pronouncing silence, simultaneously using it as a weapon, sets them leagues beyond their peers.
A tempo equivalent to that of a recently set adrift iceberg, the band weaved through a retrospective set of their expansive career highlights. Butterflies occurred as main-man Dylan Carson introduced Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1 stand-out “Old Black,” as well as any of the number of songs from The Bees Made Honey In the Lions Skull. The majority of the crowd, with their heads down, stood in silent prayer to the meditations provided at behemoth volume. Carson swayed comfortably through most of the set, guitar slightly raised towards the sky. A thick wall of chorus and compression surrounded each note he so consciously tied to the rest of the song. Drum and bass, passing through like a short breath at the highest altitude, brought a sweltering heat to the room. Chests rattled and tightened with the low-end pulse, and the drums lightly filled out Earth’s 15-minute, mountain moving mantra.
With patience and muscle both their calling cards, Earth pressured the sold-out audience to go inside themselves, find something deeper than a shallow 16-ounce Lone Star, or $6 well liquor. Over the course of their 20-year career, Earth has taken a more textural, ambient approach to the typical doom metal tropes, but Tuesday night proved that their sonic mastery resides beyond an adjective or a description, but in a more spiritual realm designated for true wisdom. Order their new album Primitive & Deadly now via Southern Lord.
All photographs by Lukas R. Truckenbrod & Pop Press International; all rights reserved. Click any image to open in slideshow viewer.
