Full Upon Her Burning Lips

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As far as Earth founder and guitarist Dylan Carlson is concerned, any riff worth playing is worth playing again and again. Five years after <i>Primitive and Deadly</i>, their first album to feature vocals since the mid-'90s, the pioneering Seattle drone band has stripped itself back to the barest of minimums: just Carlson and percussionist Adrienne Davies remain in the room for their ninth offering, <i>Full Upon Her Burning Lips</i>. And, proving that less really is more, it's austere, expansive, and one of their best since returning from hiatus in 2005. Despite forming a coherent and bewitching 63-minute journey, these 10 tracks came together in completely different ways, over a number of years. The slow-burning, Hendrix-inspired opening track “Datura's Crimson Veils” was written over the course of a month. “Descending Belladonna,” which focuses on a single warbling riff, first came into existence during a 2016 live soundtrack performance to accompany a screening of the film <i>Belladonna of Sadness</i>. “Maidens Catafalque” and “Exaltation of Larks” were completely improvised in the studio. “An Unnatural Carousel” is unusually intricate, but even the album's most complex song creeps along like a commanding, slow-rolling fog. Thirty years into their career, this is Earth at their truest, most meditative Black Sabbath-worshipping best.

via Apple Music