A great collection of Earth’s first recording session from 1990. Experimental doom/grunge/drone metal that sounds fresh even by today’s standards.
Rating: 
Earth – A Bureaucratic Desire for Extra Capsular Extraction
Southern Lord
Before Earth became the masters of drone, they spent the beginning of their career with a different lineup (guitarist/founder Dylan Carlson has been the mainstay since the band’s inception) and a bit of a different sound too. The early version of Earth put out a pair of EPs that were recorded in the same session back in 1990. This album takes that entire session and puts it together in once concise place.
At the beginning stage of their musical career, Earth played an interesting experimental metal that was more doom than drone. The band built their songs on drop-tuned repetitive riffs with guitars that had doom and grunge elements. Most of the songs are instrumentals though a few feature some evil sounding vocals, and one also features a small vocal appearance by Kurt Cobain of Nirvana. The music is very heavy and even the somewhat muddy/primitive production doesn’t detract from the heaviness contained in these compositions. There are hints of what Earth would become in a few of these songs and it is a great document of a very influential band that still sounds fresh even in today’s world where countless bands are now playing this style of music. The album contains seven tracks, all rather lengthy, with the longest one clocking in at over 15 minutes and will keep you entertained and will beat you into submission for countless listens.
It is great that Southern Lord went back and cleaned up these tapes and released them to the pubic again. Many bands tend to ignore their earliest output once they get comfortable into their modern sound, not wanting to look back. Kudos to Earth and Southern Lord for embracing the past, and presenting it in an extremely attractive package.
Related links:
Southern Lord Records (where you can get this on vinyl!)
