Not so long ago, Earth were nowhere. Dylan Carlson was washed up, fucked up and it seemed like they would forever be known as either the progenitors of drone, courtesy of their seminal 1992 album ‘Earth 2’ or, less desirably, as the band with that guy who bought Kurt the gun.
Since their return, they’ve been going from strength to strength, and their latest album, last year’s ‘Primitive and Deadly’ represents a further evolution in their singular career. The fact that the Brudenell is packed out on a cold, wet February Sunday night is testament to their expanding fan-base.
Don McGreevy & Rogier Smal Duo get things going with some complex jazz drumming and atmospheric guitars. When they find some flow, they’re mesmeric but all too often their tracks feel a little shapeless. It’s easier to admire the technique than to get into their highly technical brand of instrumental avant-prog.
Black Spirituals are an altogether different proposition: it takes a while for the duo to warm up and at first the stuttering percussion seemed little more than a distraction, but as the smoke built in density, so did their sound. With quivering drones achieving some low-end frequencies that were close to bowel-bothering, they created an eye-watering wall of sound courtesy of a guitar, drum kit and some electronic voodoo in a flight case that had won us all over – or otherwise beaten us into submission – by the end of their set.
Don McGreevy is back on stage shortly after, this time shouldering a bass guitar and standing alongside Dylan Carlson and Adrienne Davis, Earth’s now-longstanding core duo. Carlson’s lost weight since the last time around, and he seems – the most fitting, if perhaps surprising, word I can think of is ‘perky’. He chats amiably at the start of the set and seems not only comfortable but happy to be back in England, particularly in ‘the north’, in Leeds, and at the Brudenell. In return, he’s given a suitably warm welcome. The trio begin by carving their way through two of their most recent tracks, ‘Badgers Bane’ (from the vinyl edition of ‘Primitive and Deadly’) and ‘Even Hell Has Its Heroes’.
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Carlson swings some mighty rock poses, wielding his guitar (which sports a ‘3 Lions’ England sticker) aloft while the chords hang in the air for an eternity, and the band collectively feel energised, toned and muscular.
The volume seems to creep up for ‘The Bees made Honey in the Lion’s Skull’, and Davis’ incredible drumming really comes to the fore as she plays graceful air beats before crashing down with punishing weight and total precision.
The doomy trudge of ‘There is a Serpent Coming’ still works without vocals, and the folky unfurling of ‘Old Black’ feels simultaneously ancient in its familiarity and fresh in its delivery. Plundering the farthest recesses of their back catalogue for ‘The Ouroboros is Broken’ proves to be a real highlight before the set concludes with ‘Torn by the Fox of the Crescent Moon’, which finds them immersing us in growling riffage played at a larval pace.
For all the weight of their material, for all of the darkness that lingers around their songs, Earth are not a dark or heavy band, and the experience of seeing them live is uplifting. This time around, it feels better than ever.
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