Earthless - Rhythms From A Cosmic SkyTee Pee Records
Opening the first 'movement' (the 20:55 'Godspeed') with 3 minutes of phased-out, delay-soaked feedback and crashing drums seems like a promising precursor to a pummeling. I half expected a Church of Misery-style spanking, but instead this is an instrumental 'stoner rock' jam with too many goddamn leads and some organ here and there. I'm not hip to the more riffy 'stoner' style of heavy music, as it gets boring and doesn't pack the darkness that doom provides. There can be exceptions, but most of it just isn't as potent as Black Sabbath were and isn't slow enough to make me care. Leads galore can suck my balls and I'm SICK of instrumental bands. The rest of Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky is comprised of another 20+ minute song entitled 'Sonic Prayer', and a cover of 'Cherry Red' by The Groundhogs.
However, Earthless possesses several appealing qualities in that the the guitar tone sounds killer and recording quality is airy, yet captures every note/beat with the punch it was played, producing a very 'live' sound. Mario Rubalcaba (formerly of Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes, The Black Heart Procession) is the skin basher in Earthless, a point which I'm sure will pique the interest of many.
This album left me lukewarm, but there's potential here. The music is very well executed by a trio of excellent players. There's just too much going on and not enough 'song' to hold my attention.
