Earth; the name itself gives off a sense of wonder, weight and gravity. There’s just something about the word and, when used for the name of a band, you have a sense of what’s going to unfurl from the first time you play the music. In this case, the band Earth has been around since 1990 and was originally made up of Dylan Carlson, Slim Moon, and Greg Babior. Carlson is now the only original member and is perhaps best known for having been the best friend of Kurt Cobain, who purchased the gun that Cobain later used to commit suicide. The Bees Made Honey in the Lions Skull is their seventh album and sees them almost completely move away from their original template of drone, doom metal to create music more akin to the sunrise than the sunset of previous works.The basic premise of their work is still the same. Slow, melodic and repetitive pieces of music stretch out towards a distant, and sometimes impossible, horizon. In fact, this whole album reminds me of dustbowl-era America. There’s a brown, dusty and lost feel to it. The title track feels like a meandering convoy of people on a journey that they’re not sure they’re going to finish. A quiet desperation in not knowing what the future might hold. This is, by far, Earth’s most accessible work to date. There’s even the feeling, especially on ‘Engine of Ruin’, of something that could be akin to a straight forward song. Sure, there’s no lyrics as usual, but the twinkling guitar riff that hangs around a solitary piano sounds improbably like a ballad. Once again there’s a haunting 30’s Americana feel to the whole track, and the guitar does sound, in places at least, like something David Gilmour would have wanted to use on a Pink Floyd album.The major strengths of this album are also its main drawback however. The heavily monotonous nature of the rhythms and music can make the entire seven songs feel like one. There’s a hypnotic element to their approach that just slowly lulls you to sleep. Rarely does it pick itself up, shake itself down and re-gather its thoughts. You’re left a little bemused by the fact that half an hour of your life has past and you’ve no memory of what’s happened. But then, knowing Earth, that’s probably the idea.Let’s not dwell on the negatives though. This is an album full of weird and wonderful beauty that’s not instantly appreciable. It’s an work of music that needs investment. You need to set aside time to listen to it, let it wrap around you and bathe you in its arcing and thunderous riffs. Just be careful not to operate heavy machinery whilst you do so. 78%Links Earth [official site] [myspace] [buy it]