Earth
Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I
Southern Lord

Ever since they returned from their nine year hiatus with Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method in 2005, Earth’s patented drone doom has shown significant trending toward a dark, apocalyptic, Americana sound; they’ve long since replaced the fuzz and feedback of earlier albums with clean, mournful rhythms of a dusty and desolate gothic Western landscape. Their latest, Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I, follows the conceptual blueprint laid out by Hex, Hibernaculum, and The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull, laying its soul bare, like an old man at the end of his days embracing death beautifully and without any fanfare. It pours (slowly, of course, like molasses) an hour’s worth of rich, hypnotic sustain — thanks in large part to the abundance of soft cello and bass — into five songs (best appreciated as a whole, as usual), punctuated perfectly by weary harmonics that you might swear are crying out to you. While not entirely memorable or new, this album is still good, and Earth’s main man, Dylan Carlson, continues to prove he’s a master craftsman, a man capable of mesmerizing and enlightening us, even when we’ve heard it all before. And yes, Earth fans, that I in the title means that II is on the way.

Listen to “Descent to the Zenith” from Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I!

Quest for Fire
Lights From Paradise
Tee Pee

Quest for Fire teased us earlier this year by releasing a split with Nebula, but have returned with a proper full-length, Lights From Paradise, a dose of dazed and confused feedback frenzy, each one of the songs out on their feet, sleepwalkers of red light drone and fuzz n’ roll. The best thing about Quest for Fire is that their electric haze, which includes the use of strings and acoustic guitars this time around, exudes a real mess of cool. The Toronto band injects enough garage rock into their psychedelic vibes for a little extra hip-shake at the black light party, which is to say it manages to make stoner rock sound a bit sexy and somewhat dangerous. Musically speaking, this album puts ‘em somewhere between country contemporaries Black Mountain and Burning Love, making them equally freaky and hectic, but they can at any moment also remind you of The Kills, The Black Angels, The Stooges, Witch, and Pink Floyd. Stepping into the void has never been this bad-ass, man.

Listen to “Hinterland Who’s Who” from Lights From Paradise!