Ben Dennison -
“Am I playing Doom right now?” That’s the first thought that entered my head as I listened to “Silicion,” the opening track from Lord Earth‘s debut album Napalm, Baby! For five and a half minutes the instrumental duo churns out an apocalyptic sound scape of heavy sludge metal guitar backed with drum fills and cymbal crashes.
In some ways “Silicion” feels like a misdirection, because the remainder of the album takes things in many different directions. “Jesus vs. the Easter Bunny with Light Sabers on My Front Lawn,” currently in the running for longest sacrilegious title in music, illustrates their formula nicely, starting off as a lighter, spacier jam before picking up speed and giving way to dense, scuzzy riffs. However, with only a few exceptions (“Jessica,” a minimal piece filled with beautiful sci-fi tones, and “Cocktails on the Lawn,” which is so mellow it could almost be muzak) each of the ten songs follows some variation of the same formula. At times it feels redundant (the title track in particular sounds too much like the opener) but there’s enough flexibility here to say that Lord Earth is onto something weird and entirely their own.
Kyle Gervais -
This instrumental full-length from Lord Death is much more entertaining than it has any right to be. Using stoner rock as its main starting point, there are enough cool guitar leads and air-drum worthy moments to get you through its entirety. The title track is particularly awesome and you can almost hear it as the background to a montage of car crashes or epic moments or, gosh, just about anything. It’s pretty freaking cool.
The record begins with “Silicion,” filled with pounding drums and nasty guitars, one of the heaviest things on here. “Zeus the Python” rides a dirty groove while taking liberal peeks into psychedelia. “Heavy Hand” hits hard and cranks back up the guitars while “Jesus vs. the Easter Bunny with Light Sabers on My Front Lawn” offers a bit of everything, starting with some nice, quiet guitar work before evolving into something much darker.
The latter portion of the record is lighter, but no less experimental, with the title track offering the loudest moments. It works as a bit of a cool down after the fairly intense first half and it’s also a good choice in grouping these tracks together rather than alternating loud, soft, repeat. As evidenced with “Jessica,” the third track here, and much spacier and mellow than its surroundings, placement is key. The track is not bad, it doesn’t pop like some others, but it completely slows down the opening half which, taken without “Jessica,” is dynamite. I’m not saying the track should have been excluded, but as sequencing and flow goes, it doesn’t really work.
If you happen to be in the market for something a little different that goes down pretty darn easy, Lord Earth is worth a spin. And if the instrumental thing turns you off, make up your own words!
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