Earth - Sunn Amps And Smashed Guitars (2001)

| Drone Metal | Doom Metal |

Sunn Amps And Smashed Guitars is a kind of compilation, featuring a live performance and a handful of early demos. Ripped On Facist Ideas (live) is probably Earth's most noisy and abstract performance registered so far. For 30 long minutes, Dylan, joined by Ian Dickson, leave their instruments ringing alone in order to literally PLAY the amplifiers. Stretching, bending, flowing feedback bounces on the walls and crashes through the eardrums. Violent waves of noise contrast with long passages of atmospheric humming. Some occasional guitar is thrown in, which just adds more tension to the sound.

After the Drone assault, the album enters into a more riff-oriented territory. Songs like Geometry Of Murder and German Dental Work are extremely slow and heavy versions of Black Sabbath's riffage. Divine And Bright is the most catchy tune on the disc: Some melancholic, yet massive, guitar strums its way through illumination, followed by guests Kurt Cobain and Kelly Canary on vocals. Dissolution 1 is another riff-drone track, but this time they play a little more with the amp's power and less with the instruments themselves.

The Album also features one of the firsts Earth's releases: two tracks extracted from the Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge VHS (the self-titled and Ouroboros Is Broken). Both tracks are heavier than the rest of the album together, and at the same time, lots atmospheric. Sunn amps at their maximum and smashed guitars closing this classic CD. Highly recommended.

Catalog: NQR001 (No Quarter)
On Last.fm
Download (192kbps)