Customer Reviews

Rhythms from a Cosmic Sky

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You must have at least 21 minutes and preferrably 46 minutes of time to yourself, with the volume up, to fully appreciate the genius and skillfull endurance that is this Earthless release. It is not dinner music but I've got other music for that. This is just a sheer heavy guitar groove with a phenomenal rhythm section. The opening introductory feedback simply serves as a cacophonic appetizer to the classic and seemingly endless guitar/bass/drum assault that made me wonder what it would have been like if I had been exposed to something like this while in high school. I never would have come out of my room and my headphones would be dead.

As reference point, my music collection and taste is quite varied and pretty much spans the last four decades. Call Earthless whatever you want (stoner, jam...) but this is the best product of this genre I have ever heard.

Alright, so there's this cliche I've seen a couple times in shows and music videos from the 1980's where some dude plays an electric guitar and, presumably because he's rocking so hard, sets stuff on fire, causes buildings to collapse, deflects bullets and defeats giant space squids. It's one of those things that's so ridiculous that it's awesome.

Isaiah Mitchell, the guitarist on this recording is the closest I've heard to someone who could actually do that, who could be so insanely over-the-top that he could conquer the cosmos with the power of Rock. Don't picture some cheesy 80's rockstar dude, though. I envision this guy as more of a psychedelic space wizard, standing on top of a comet, careening through the abyss, knowing that nothing would ever dare to stand in his way.

What really makes Earthless extraordinary is their endurance. They just play. And play. And play. There are no slow bits, either. Both "Godspeed" and "Sonic Prayer" are 20 minutes of face-melting, spaced out, effects-heavy glory. It's like they're powered by nuclear fusion. I should also add that these are both instrumentals. While portions of the songs are often anchored by a mind-bending riff, there are no vocal cues. Just massive slabs of the most intense guitar workouts ever.

There are some who might dismiss this as slef-indulgence or just 'wanking' on the guitar. Well, here's what I've got to say to that: you're wrong. This is not open to debate. If that's really what you hear when you listen to this album, then you're missing the point of this kind of music.

This is one of the best new bands around right now. This is a power trio making a lot of noise, sounding big, jammy and hard-edged all at once. This has the riffs of Sabbath and the spawling improv genius of Hendrix. The guitar player was in Nebula (another great band) and he really smokes here, sounding tight and jammy at the same time. Get everything by this band, all of thier releases have been awesome so far. This one however has vocals on the last track, which is a Groundhogs cover.

This is such an amazing record!

Their previous record is also highly recommendable!

oh yeah. earthless are a phenominal band. absolutely phenominal. i picked up their live cd first and was blown away by the length and strength of their music. i wanted to know what their studio side sounded like, and i was not disappointed. a three piece power trio that produce long jams and great interplay between all the musicians. if you're a fan of power trios, look no further. most of their music is instrumental. they do a great version of the groundhogs "cherry red" as a last song on this cd. it is a great cover version and the vocals are "spot on". a band that plays groundhog covers, how great is that?