Earth 2 (album)

The recent advent of compact discs allowed for playing times up to 74 minutes, which encouraged the group to "fill up an entire CD with one song in three parts." However, recording tape only allowed for 30 minutes max at the time, so that the band needed to "sort of splice it or fade it in and fade up, stuff like that" to achieve the longer recording. The group were signed to grunge label Sub Pop, but Carlson explained that "what we did was not grunge and not part of that whole thing. A lot of people I think that bought the records saying Sub Pop expecting something were disappointed." He noted that "luckily I wore a Morbid Angel t-shirt on the back of the album and so metal fans were sort of the first to really embrace what we were doing." == Music ==

Earth 2 contains almost no drums or percussion instruments. There are some cymbal crashes within Like Gold And Faceted. The album makes use of excessive guitar distortion, feedback and delay. The album's riffs are highly repetitious and droning, drawing comparisons to Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath. Ned Ragget of AllMusic described the album's sound as "ambient music completely and totally suffused with threat and fuzz." Jonathan Horsley of Guitar World wrote, "Earth 2 is a massage chair for the inner ear, and over an unhurried 70-minute-plus running time it inveigles its way through the rest of the body, shaking your timber. What falls out are ideas, inspiration, and perhaps even the promise of an epiphany." In his book Gimme Indie Rock, music journalist Andrew Earles wrote "If any of the early Earth albums perfected the marriage of Brian Eno|[Brian] Eno's ambient works and the almighty doom metal riff, this was it." Earth guitarist Dylan Carlson gave the following assessment regarding the album's sound: "It very much represents my age. At that time, I was young and full of vigor as they say. It represents contrariness and willingness to be unpopular." == Artwork ==

The font used on the cover and the subtitle are a nod to Environments 2: Tintinnabulation (Special Low Frequency Version) (1987). According to Ned Raggett of AllMusic: "If one opens up the CD, the reverse of the booklet shows a wide selection of pills -- arguably Earth and its stoned and droned appeal in a nutshell." ==Reception and legacy==

Celebrated as a "milestone" by Terrorizers Dayal Patterson, he described it as "a three-track, 75 minute deluge of feedback and distorted guitars that marked the blueprint for what lead singer/guitarist Dylan Carlson at the time coined 'ambient metal. Jonathan Horsley of Guitar World wrote: "Metal needed [it] then, as now." Critic Ned Raggett of AllMusic gave the album a positive review, stating: "If Carlson and his bassist du jour, in this case Dave Harwell, weren't quite Sub Pop's answer to the ranges of UK guitar extremism from the likes of Godflesh, Main, and Skullflower, Earth still came pretty darn close to it, creating a record even the Melvins would find weird." Earth Guitarist Dylan Carlson said in 2018: "To me, a lot of people talk about how huge this record sounds. I think this record sounds very claustrophobic. Knowing what I know now, I would’ve definitely recorded it differently, but then it would be a different album, huh? I’m very glad that people responded to it though, eventually. It’s very gratifying to know that this record has had a small effect and achieved some sort of notice. To know it’s inspired people to do stuff is really cool." ==Track listing==

• Dylan Carlson – guitar • Dave Harwell – bass guitar • Joe Burns – percussion on "Like Gold and Faceted" ==References==