Earth Announce New Zealand Tour

Hugely respected Seattle drone collective Earth have announced their first ever New Zealand tour, set to play two dates in September. Formed in the late 80s, they took up Black Sabbaths original name and proceeded to forge the drone/doom metal genres and have established a rich and interesting history in the  Seattle music scene. Recently Earth released concept albums Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light I and II - both beautifully cinematic with the later coming out earlier in the year and still available to stream in full over here (thanks to P4k) if you missed it.  

Earth are legends and will no doubt put on an unforgettable show - don't miss them...

Earth

Friday 7th September, San Francisco Bath House, Wellington
Saturday 8th September, The Kings Arms Tavern, Auckland

Tickets on sale tomorrow (Friday 7th June) next Friday (15th June) from here at UTR, Real Groovy in Auckland and Slow Boat in Wellington.

Here's a live clip from 2009...

Press Release:

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, Earth's 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, Earth's 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!