The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull

Earth’s fifth studio album sounds less like a hive of bees buzzing inside the skull of a lion and more like a band of giant mountain wizards playing heavy instrumental drone-rock to accompany the shifting of tectonic plates. The ending title-track is one of the most strangely beautiful compositions here — it starts with Eastern drones that give way to melodic arpeggios picked on the low strings of an electric guitar before slowly building on layers of noise while maintaining head-nodding tempos. Then, one-by-one, the sonic layers are reduced until we’re left with the opening drones. Six-string luminary Bill Frisell joins Earth on the first cut, “Omens and Portents I: The Driver,” a nine-minute epic that begins with a wah-wah pedal bending notes in slow motion over death-march rhythms. “Hung from the Moon” nicely contrasts doomy distortion with lilting piano.