An honest review of Earth 2.
Part I – My apology:
I’ve made mistakes before; some more forgivable than others. One mistake though, however, that seemed to have a greater negative reaction than expected was my original review of Earth 2. I bashed the album in a way that only I could really understand or even find the slightest bit of humor in. I said the album was the equivalent to listening to a lawn mower endlessly run. So, to make up for my wrong doings I decided I would give Earth 2 a fair chance and give it the serious review it deserves.
It still sucks.
Part II – Actual reasoning:
Why? Why does Earth 2 still leave me feeling disappointed that I even spent time listening to it? Well, to put it simply Earth 2 just isn’t very good in general. Drone is a genre I’m not ignorant in. I do enjoy the genre and I do enjoy sitting down and letting an album's atmosphere immerse me to the point where I feel as if I’m in a whole new world. Plenty of drone artists are able to do this through their music. Earth’s latest outings have even done this. So I don’t hate drone. I don’t even hate Earth as a band. I just hate this album.
Everything starts off well enough with ‘Seven Angels.’ The riff is interesting enough and feedback from the bass adds a very primal sound to the overall song, but that’s where it all really ends for me. From this point the album does nothing but drag on the same idea that looping constant buzzing is enough to merit an actual song. In fact, that’s all the last of the three songs is. ‘Like Gold And Faceted’ is nothing more than thirty minutes of feedback with the guitar making an eerie noise every now and again. Like I said before, I’m all for building an atmosphere, but when the atmosphere is so mindbogglingly boring and uninteresting, it leaves a lot to be desired.
I can’t really think of much else to say about this album. It tries to be different, and for that I give it some credit, but the final product is just such a wasteful experience. Besides the first few minutes of ‘Seven Angels’ there really is nothing that stands out about this album.
Part III – An honest conclusion:
Earth has put out good material, excellent material in fact (i.e. The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull), but their debut doesn’t factor in with the rest of their discography. It’s overly minimalistic to the point where you question if anyone in the band even tried at all. Earth 2 might not be my cup of tea, but I see the appeal to it. It has an atmosphere that I’m sure catches the attention of many, but for me all I really feel when listening to this is regret and a sense that I could have spent time listening to something more rewarding in the end.
