THE BEES MADE HONEY IN THE LION'S SKULL

Metal to sleep to.

Actually it's very debatable whether you can actually call this metal at all. Earth started out as a drone doom band, with a pretty high ranking in the musical world (or, high enough to have Kurt Cobain do guest vocals on quite a few songs), but I dont own any albums before Hibernaculum at the moment, so dont take my word for it. Anyways, now they play extremely slow paced stoner rock, with Krautrock, and obvious western theme influences, and "The bees made honey in the Lions Skull" is a testament to this clearly unique, and suprisingly soothing style of music.

With two Bass players, a piano/organ player, and the incredble melodies of Dylan Carlson on guitar, this album delivers slow, ambient songs to put you in a calmed trance-like state, feeling almost weightless. Unlike post rock, or ambient groups though, the music is not made off of layers of soundscapes, or multiple guitar tracks and effects, instead they use heavy distortion, and simple riffing to gently meander from passage to passage, with pianos to play with the guitars, and organs to set a backround. Acidic guitar lines are sometimes brought in to enhance the trippy effect the songs have on you, while the drums keep a thundering yet soft and slow tempo to bring the songs in. In the end, you have a collection of songs to gently nod your head to and peacefully enjoy. No song is particularly week, and though I wouldnt say any track is more intense than the other, "hung by the moon" is particularly beautiful, with some incredible piano, and a brilliant jazzy chord progression.

Normally I crave busier music, and Earth's contemporary bands such as Sunn O))) are a bit too ambient for me to get into. This album, however, relly hits the spot, a perfect chill out album! Havy, but in a serene way. Calm, but in a way that can keep my attention. So, whether you need some backround music while writing a review on progarchives, or crave some chilled out stuff to sleep to, or some music to space out and let your mind wander to during history calss (my personal favorite), dont let this album pass you up, a gem in the pantheon of sleepy stoner rock. 4 stars.

Man this really was a disappointment. Listed as Drone Metal, Stoner Rock, Post Rock whatever you want to call it, this particular album by this band is so pedestrian. The appeal for me was hearing that it was good driving music and I love to listen to music and go on long drives but no this isn't good driving music. The only other written review on this site subtitled his review with "Metal to sleep by". I agree. Every song sounds like the last, repetitive with out any variation with those down tuned guitars. Not heavy at all and so lazy sounding. Even if Bill Frisell guests on three tracks with his guitar it really doesn't matter there are no dynamics here, no contrasts. Anyway these guys have released a lot of albums but this one doesn't do much for me at all. A low 3 stars at best.