EARTH: FOR THE FIRST TIME IN New Zealand & AUSTRALIA!
Heathen Skulls are proud to present the legendary Seattle drone doom ensemble EARTH, for the very first time on New Zealand and Australian shores, see them this September.
Founded in Seattle in 1989 by guitarist Dylan Carlson, and originally signed to the Sub Pop records label, Earth’s early career came to a grinding halt in late 90’s when Dylan with drew from music and placed Earth on hiatus. Since resurrecting Earth in the early 2000’s as a full touring band, to critical acclaim, Earth have finally been recognized as the undisputed legends of their genre, now cited as a hugely influential and important contribution to the genre of experimental drone and doom metal.
Mainly instrumental, Earths early sound grew out of the Seattle grunge scene, along side their friends and contemporaries The Melvins and Nirvana, Kurt Cobain featured on some of Earth’s early recordings together with The Melvins bassist Joe Preston. It was through these early recordings that helped Earth establish and be credited for spearheading the highly regarded genre of drone metal, which is an experimental offshoot of doom metal, characterized by droning, minimalist, lengthy and repetitive structures.
Drone / doom metal is a form of heavy weighted experimental music that’s become popularized by the likes of fellow Southern Lord recording artists Sunn O)).
When compared to the feedback drenched drone metal sounds of their early to mid 90’s Sub Pop era releases, Earths current sound, as depicted on their Southern Lord records releases from 2005 and beyond, is a completely different beast altogether. The future sounds of Earth these days is far slower paced progression of drone doom that’s structured around highly textured pieces of music that feature heavy elements of country, folk, and minimalist and ambient percussion.
Released earlier this year, “Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light II” is an unanticipated direction for Earth, it’s a forward thinking, textured, and lush sounding album that takes the approach of their previous few album, most notable 2005’s HEX, to the next logical level, sonically speaking.
Well respected by their musical peers, Earth were invited by Portishead to be apart of their curated All Tomorrows Parties festival in 2011, and were subsequently asked to perform at ATP 2012, curated by Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel).
Earth are heartfelt, haunting, and deliver slow cinematic moving music that stretches into other worlds beyond the imagination of your average sonic sphere. This is one tour that’s not to be missed, see them this September!
New Zealand shows:
Friday 7th September, San Francisco Bath House, Wellington
Saturday 8th September, The Kings Arms Tavern, Auckland
