Earth – Full Upon Her Burning Lips

If one was to look up 'singularity' in a hypothetical music encyclopedia, one would see the image of Dylan Carlson and Adrienne Davies that gracefully adorns the front cover of Earth's ninth full-length record Full Upon Her Burning Lips. Incredibly, Earth are celebrating their 30th anniversary with their latest album – granted with a near-decade hiatus in there – and they remain, as ever, the dutiful arbiters of the end of the world through their sound.

Earth's beginnings as a drone/doom metal band mellowed after their hiatus, with the enlisting of Davies as a marked shift in the band's sound into an atmospheric, Morricone influenced music. In theory, Carlson's relentless path towards the repetitive; the explorations of light and dark; the subtle, glacial, tectonic plate speed at which his music progresses should have got tired long ago.

However, there's just something endlessly fascinating about the spell Carlson and Davies create time and time again with every release. Full Upon Her Burning Lips is perhaps their most minimal effort yet – which is a big statement for a band defined by their monolithic minimalism – but the hypnotic spell these two put the listener under is remarkable. One would expect Carlson will happily continue his Earth project for many years to come, and while everyone would know what to expect, it seems he still has tricks up his sleeve.

Listen to: Cats on the Briar, The Colour of Poison, A Wretched Country of Dusk