Earth is an American

experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with ...

band based in

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. Europea ...

, formed in 1989 and led by the guitarist Dylan Carlson. Earth's music is nearly all

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

, and can be divided into two distinct stages. Their early work is characterized by

distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signa ...

, droning,

minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

, and lengthy, repetitive song structures. Owing to their 1993 debut album '' Earth 2'', Earth is recognized as a pioneer of

drone metal Drone metal or drone doom is a style of heavy metal that melds the slow tempos and heaviness of doom metal with the long-duration tones of drone music. Drone metal is sometimes associated with post-metal or experimental metal. Characteristics ...

. The band resurfaced in the early 2000s, with their later output reducing the distortion and incorporating elements of

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

jazz rock Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and keyb ...

, and

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...

Biography

Dylan Carlson founded the band in 1989 along with

Slim Moon Matthew "Slim" Moon (born October 15, 1967) is an American musician and the founder of the American independent music label Kill Rock Stars (KRS). He also started its sister label, 5 Rue Christine. Slim ran KRS from 1991 to 2006, during which t ...

and Greg Babior, taking the title "Earth" from

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

's prior name. Carlson has remained the core of the band's line-up throughout its changes. Carlson was a close friend of Kurt Cobain, who sang lead vocals in the song "Divine and Bright", from a demo included on the re-release of the live album '' Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars''. Because police had twice confiscated guns from Cobain inside a single year, Cobain had Carlson purchase a shotgun for him on March 30, 1994. Cobain told Carlson the gun was for protection. Cobain would use the shotgun to kill himself six days later. '' Earth 2'' was described as a "milestone" by ''

Terrorizer Terrorizer is an American grindcore band formed in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. After disbanding, its members gained recognition by playing in influential extreme metal bands, such as Morbid Angel ( David Vincent, Pete Sandoval), Napalm ...

''s

Dayal Patterson Dayal Patterson is a British author. Patterson has written several non-fiction books about heavy metal music and has contributed to a number of metal magazines, such as ''Decibel'', ''Terrorizer'' and ''Metal Hammer''. His trilogy of books on b ...

, which he described as "a three-track, 75 minute deluge of feedback and distorted guitars that marked the blueprint for what Carlson at the time coined 'ambient metal'". The band went on hiatus after the release of '' Pentastar: In the Style of Demons'' due to Carlson's personal problems, including heroin addiction, rehabilitation, his connection to Kurt Cobain's death, and incarceration. Carlson attributed the break primarily to his heroin addiction: Earth reappeared around 2000 with a markedly different sound. Its music was still drone based, slow-paced, and lengthy, but it now included a drummer and featured strong elements of

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

. Remarking on the stylistic change, Carlson was quick to point to the continuity with Earth's previous sound: The press release for '' Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method'' (2005) stated the band's music shows "the influence of country guitarists/songwriters such as:

Duane Eddy Duane Eddy (born April 26, 1938) is an American rock and roll guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had a string of hit records produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including " Rebel ...

Merle Haggard Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler. Haggard was born in Oildale, California, toward the end of the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled a ...

Roy Buchanan Leroy "Roy" Buchanan (September 23, 1939 – August 14, 1988) was an American guitarist and blues musician. A pioneer of the Telecaster sound, Buchanan worked as a sideman and as a solo artist, with two gold albums early in his career and two lat ...

and fuses it with the vibe of epic visionary composer: Ennio Morricone." The press release for '' The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull'' (2008) declares "Earth shows it's icaffinity with a nod to the best elements of the more adventurous San Francisco bands of the late 1960s and 1970s, and the more spiritually aware and exciting forms of Jazz-Rock from the same era". The press release for '' Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I'' describes "inspiration from both British Folk-Rock bands the Pentangle and

Fairport Convention Fairport Convention are an English folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Martin Lamble after their first gig.) They started o ...

Members

Current * Dylan Carlson – guitar *

Adrienne Davies Adrienne Davies is the current drummer and percussionist of the drone metal band Earth. Davies is credited as drummer on several of Earth's albums. They range from '' Living in the Gleam of an Unsheathed Sword'' (2005) and for drums, percussi ...

– drums Former *

– vocals * Greg Babior – guitar * Joe Preston – bass guitar, percussion * Ian Dickson – guitar, bass guitar * Dave Harwell – bass guitar * John Schuller – bass * Sean McElligot – guitar * Michael McDaniel – drums *

Jonas Haskins Jonas Haskins is the former bass player for the drone metal band Earth. Prior to playing in Earth, he was a part of numerous obscure Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of Ki ...

– baritone guitar * Steve "Stebmo" Moore – electric piano, trombone, acoustic grand piano,

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

Wurlitzer electric piano The Wurlitzer electronic piano is an electric piano manufactured and marketed by Wurlitzer from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s. Sound is generated by striking a metal reed with a hammer, which induces an electric current in a pickup. It is concept ...

Lori Goldston Lori Goldston is an American cellist and composer. Accomplished in a wide variety of styles, including classical, world music, rock and free improvisation, she came to prominence as the touring cellist for Nirvana from 1993–1994 and appears on ...

– cello *

Karl Blau Karl Blau is an American indie rock and country vocalist, producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but originally from Anacortes, Washington. A member of the Knw-Yr-Own/K Records collective, he is know ...

– bass guitar * Angelina Baldoz – bass guitar (tour only) *Don McGreevy – bass guitar * Bill Herzog – bass guitar * Brett Netson – guitar

Timeline

Discography

Studio albums * '' Earth 2: Special Low-Frequency Version'' (1993) * '' Phase 3: Thrones and Dominions'' (1995) * '' Pentastar: In the Style of Demons'' (1996) * '' Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method'' (2005) * '' The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull'' (2008) * '' Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I'' (2011) * '' Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II'' (2012) * '' Primitive and Deadly'' (2014) * '' Full upon Her Burning Lips'' (2019) Collaborations *

The Bug "The Bug" is a song written by Mark Knopfler and originally performed by Dire Straits on the final studio album by the band, '' On Every Street'' (1991). It was covered by Mary Chapin Carpenter in 1992, and also recorded on the albums ''Blues B ...

& Earth: ''Concrete Desert'' (2017)

References

External links