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Track Listing: Old Black Father Midnight Descent To The Zenith Hell's Winter Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light I

Seattle based, Dylan Carlson-led experimental rock group Earth are ready to unravel the mystique and anticipation surrounding their sixth studio album, part one of two albums titled "Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light". It's the first album of original material since the 2008 release "The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull", an album that dealt with the band's experimentation with Americana themes and new musical horizons. It's been a while since that album, and I'm just about to tell you about whether or not the band has indeed expanded further on their ever-growing repertoire of musicianship.

"Old Black" gives the album a very powerful start and after quite a few listens of the whole album, this song stands out as my favorite. The cello sound, a new dimension in Earth's music this time around, gives the song a classical sort of orientation. It somehow gives me that old Western feel, something I always get while watching those Cilnt Eastwood spaghetti Western classics. Perhaps that's why I find this song so endearing, the fact that it makes me think about something I'm really fond of.

"Father Midnight" takes the album towards a more doom-laden direction, probably justifying its title. The cello again augments the guitar beautifully, specially during the solo. "Descent To The Zenith" continues along the same vein, even though it sounds a little more improvised and less structured than the first two tracks, something which I'm sure was done on purpose by Carlson and co. "Hell's Winter" is also devoid of structure, but is the richest and most layered track on the album, with a very full-sounding aura to it. The album ends with the title song, the most melodic, drawn out and guitar driven tune out of the five.

As far as the music itself is concerned, delving further into the details is a pointless activity, as no amount of words can describe the impact of this style of music. The fact that there are no lyrics to contend with, leaves the meanings of the song titles very much open to interpretation, and I quite enjoyed trying to paint a picture in my mind relating to each of these songs, based on the music. This is far from being everybody's cup of tea, and you really have to be a fan of doom music to be able to appreciate this album.

A spellbinding piece of art.