Earth

A Bureaucratic Desire for Extra-Capsular Extraction

Southern Lord 2010

This disk introduces us to the embryonic utterings of one of doom's greatest spiritual leaders, Earth.  Compared to the clean, developed and transcendental material of their recent recordings, the song's found here are primitive and blunt, though their direction is evident, even behind the bludgeoning beat.  Up first is the two part A Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge with its lumbering riffs and fat drums.  Monstrous repetitive riffs stumble out of the speakers, crushing under the weight of the tar-thick reverb as the layered density grows.  Part 2 of A Bureaucratic Desire... picks up essentially where part 1 left off.  Ouroboros Is Broken slowly raises its gargantuan frame to full sludgy heights.  Megalithic riffs accompanied sparse beats club away for 18 minutes of methodical repetition, bordering on realms of focused drone.  Sinister ambience dwells within the fading notes of each guitar strum.  As geometry of Murder gets underway a bit of southern drawl can be heard in the riffs as a rock vibe permeates the track, lending a live jam-session feel to the proceedings.  The final three songs have a more industrial texture to them, mainly due to the electronic beat and wall of noise guitars.  They remind me somewhat of early Godflesh recordings.  German Dental Work pounds away with forceful beats and ashen, washed-out guitars.  The same is true for Divine and Bright and the final track, Dissolution 1.  If you are a huge fan of Earth and have a need to venture backwards towards their humble roots, to view the ugliness that came before the stark beauty of their recent albums, then this collection of early recordings is for you.  The dry beauty of their modern work is nowhere to be found as these tracks are buried beneath layers of creosote.