Earth - "The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull"

Earth - Hung From the Moon (Southern Lord 2008)

Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull / Southern Lord

Duh nuh nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh. If there were ever three words to describe Dylan Carlson's ongoing doom-drone archetype, those would be something pretty close. The Seattle native has been helming this planet of ours for nearly two decades now, but after bursting out with a few fresh releases at the turn of the 1990s, Carlson retreated quietly while Earth went on the backburner, standing still as the world turned around it. Last year's welcomed Hibernaculum arose a slumbering beast, but it wasn't quite as fresh a return as you might've expected; after all, three of the four tracks were staples of the group's live show and the fourth was from a Sunn0))) split.

The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull, Earth's sixth proper full-length, is thus the true milemarker of what's happened to this band in 18 years, or at least since the dawn of the millennium. The results are interesting; this turn of light has revealed a band that sounded very dark and withdrawn just one year ago. The cover art says it all in a round-about way: Though there is still the theme of decay, traces of color hint at something else, from purple to red to that eternal speck of hope: green.

Oh sure, it starts with "Omens and Portents I: The Driver." What better way to kill the hope of that colorful album art than by making the opening track the most foreboding on the record? Carlson's sense of humor is there, but in addition to his usual cronies, there is added guitar texture from an unlikely source: Jazz guitar great Bill Frisell. The chicken-and-egg scenario of which came first - Carlson's decision to try something a little different or Frisell's presence adding an extra head to come up with something creative - doesn't really have an effect on this opening track. It is most like Old Earth in its unrelenting brutality. It may be my favorite track, but not by much. I've heard it before, so naturally I am comfortable with its familiarity.

Duh nuh nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh. That's what you'd expect spelled out from "Rise to Glory," just like you'd expect it from the rest of their expansive, post-apocalyptic onslaught. But hear those skewed guitars? Sounds a little like Japancakes, doesn't it? And maybe "Rise to Glory" isn't exactly an overt nod to the country-tinged drone-rockers from Georgia, but even through the discordant heap of thundering guitar downstrokes, a faint trail of slide guitar and tinkling piano breathe a straw of life into what would otherwise feel like "I Am Legend" without Will Smith: At once horrifying and relieving. It's just fiction, right? Relax.

And so the great transition of the band - from duh nuh nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh to nuh nuh nuuuuueeeeeeeuuuuw - occurs right from the get-go of the second song. Frisell only played on three of the album's seven songs ("Engine of Ruin" and "Omens and Portents II: Carrion Crow" are the others), and he can be heard when he is present, but Carlson has taken a new direction and it involves a few new tricks for an old dog.

Oh, and piano. Earth is traditionally all about guitar heaviness disintegrating your eardrums at a tenth of the speed of normal bands. But what the hell is this? Zombi man Steve Moore's piano playing on "Hung From the Moon"? Are you hearing a Radiohead ballad-to-be like I am? (Correction: Maybe it sounds like a ballad, but Steve Moore from Zombi it is not. - Ed.) At a still-respectable 7m43s, "Hung From the Moon" is one of the glimmering highlights of an album of otherwise intriguing new heights. The pace is still as glacial as ever, but those cymbals and that grand piano dominating the spotlight push the mammoth guitar tones to the back. It won't be for the last time either, because Carlson uses the piano to his great benefit for the title-track that closes the record out on a very different note from where we started.

And where we thought we'd be, for that matter. Doom-drone says Wikipedia, but I am no longer wont to agree. This is a brave new world, planet, earth that is. This is the sound of resurrection, of coming out of the caves of doom and into the brave new world of post-ambient post-metal post-rock post-thinking about how heavy it can be and making something beautiful instead. There is a deep-rooted beauty in The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull that no hex could ever prevent blossoming. The bees are making honey in the mouth of the beast. The lion is dead; long live the king. I expect Rafiki knew all along.