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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tighter, fuller and more powerful than ever before!, 25 Feb 2008
On 'The Bees Made Honey In The Lions Skull' Earth is no longer one mans vision. This is a band record, the instruments are no longer there to colour the guitar lines. With this new attitude comes a new level of resonance and depth to the sound. Where Hex was stark, bare and spacious this album is full, rich and warm. The songs now have BIG hooks and are full of emotion whilst also seeming (to me) to go back more towards the big drone (this is especially helped by the move from having Baritone Guitar to Bass Guitar). Where Hex was loose and occasionally more unpredictable this album is tight and hypnotic, in a similar way to some of the songs from Pentastar but sounding nothing like that album.
As with all Earth releases it does not do the live band justice, but that is the nature of what they do. Seeing them live in November last year and more recently this month in Camden they managed to bring more looseness and spontaneity to the songs, whereas on CD it is tight and concise.
Still none of these changes or differences are unwelcome and the more complex interweaving sound of a band coagulating together is perfect for the melodic sound Dylan Carlson has been storming towards ever since Earth2.
Essential.
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7 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspired and essential , 12 Jan 2008
After 'Hex' and the subsequent tours supporting that album, Earth reveled in the continuing musical evolution of the band, emerging in the dark satanic twang and austere American beauty produced on said record and the illuminating 'Hibernaculum' release . The 'Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull' discovers an even more darker template for Dylan Carlson and the band to grow into . A psychodelic production with some crisp inviting guitar sounds, an album that ebbs and flows and is throughly inspired throughout .
Carlson is joined on this album by legendary guitarist Bill Frisell which adds texture and counterpoint to Dylans playing .
'From strength, sweetness . From darkness, light . The bees made honey in the lion's skull'
Being a fan of the band and having witnessed them on the tour with Sunn O))) back in Feb ' 06, i was looking forward to hearing this new album with bated breath and it doesn't disappoint . Hugely rewarding and expansive, the album gets better with each listen . If 'Hex' was a rewarding listen, this album will be too . Get it !!!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Yeah, It really is very, very good, 23 Feb 2008
I guess this sits alongside, or is a continuation of the tangent that earth began to explore with Hex (or Printing in the Infernal Method). This is a considerable expansion on that record though. The band sound huge in every way, both epic in the sweep of the songs, and huge in ambition, this is a record that has at its heart not just country music, but American music.
The vistas conjured here are not just the epic filmic panoramas of some classic, eternal western movie, but a broader palette. Alt.country might be a scene without parameters, but this leaves the Alt.country flock so far behind, this is a music as vast as the continent its self. True, this is a drone record, at least insofar as I can classify it, but it is the use of the scope of American music that makes it so much more, here you can hear gospel, soul, rock, metal, country, folk. Some of the greatest records ever made, echo here.
Like most fans I guess, I got on board with Earth2. This record is of that lineage, but whilst Earth may have set a doom/drone template, they have far exceeded it. This record is heavy. Of course it is, and in a way no one else can touch. Live the band are so deeply heavy, you feel shaken on a molecular level. This isn't a doom record in the way so many of their more limited peers might understand, because this is a record that leaves you buoyed, ultimately euphoric. And maybe you have to reach somewhere deep down to achieve that.
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