Earth
Pentastar: In the Style of Demons

We are in the post-grunge era, Kurt Cobain has been dead for 2 years now, when in 1996 this album by Earth is released. And drone becomes something less and less unknown and less difficult.

How to start an album if not with an introduction? Indeed, Dylan Carlson & co. kick off this album with "Introduction", slow and enchanting in its melodic resonance, a splendid opening that slowly leads to the following tracks like, for example, "High Command" where the voice also accompanies the leading riff of the song in an almost melancholic way...

Dirty distortions, which in my opinion owe much to the Seattle sound of those years, and it is shown by the fact that the further you move forward with this group's discography, the more you move away from these almost crackling guitars. There are a thousand ways to make a song magnetic, but the fact is that Earth manages perfectly, and not just with one song but with an entire album.

This "Pentastar: In the Style of Demons" is a magnetic album, that is the adjective I directly associate every time the album gets its almost daily play in my stereo. The liquid notes that introduce us to "Crooked Axis for String Quartet" leave the listener immersed in a sort of primordial womb where one can almost perceive the essence of Earth's sound, an absolute research in structuring with few notes a melody that leads towards a calm and almost unreal world.

But not everything is sweet in this album, as I mentioned earlier, the guitars often tend to screech, accompanied by a warm and monotonous voice almost like in "Tallahassee" where the influence of the dear old "Black Sabbath" is felt... and not only in the band's name (Earth was supposed to be the name of the band later known worldwide as Black Sabbath) but also in the riffs and vocal melodies.

The album continues with always excellent melodic cues, Drone becomes a well-structured genre, not boring at all but surely obsessive and peculiar. Not an easy listen in my opinion, but simply because perhaps one is not so used to the repetitiveness of the guitar chords.

"Peace in Missisipi" is an ancient blues re-evaluated in a new key and absolutely compliant with the year of the album's release, the guitar is almost virtuosic in some aspects, and surely it is not a typical rhythm of Earth, here the drum beats from the very beginning, giving a crescendo rhythm to the piece, which entertains the listener, a sort of warm place to take refuge after all the cold that Earth usually gets us used to, and indeed, continuing with the listening we discover how it is possible to close an album in the best way...

"Coda Maestoso in F (flat) Minor" is in my opinion a little masterpiece, the idea of taking up the melody of the introduction and bringing it forward in the last track gives that sense of circularity to which Earth is so attached.

Ultimately, this album moves, warms the heart, and chills it at the same time. A high rating for this work, and to Earth who, in my personal opinion, have never missed a beat in their now long career.

Track List:

1. Introduction

2. High Command

3. Crooked Axis for String Quartet

4. Tallahassee

5. Charioteer (Temple Song)

6. Peace in Missisipi

7. Sonar and Depth Charge

8. Coda Maestoso in F(flat)Minor