II. Eternal Meditations of a Deathless Crown – Tracklisting
1.Decline 02:41
2.Machine Rising 06:59
3.Peaceseeker 04:19
4.Inoperable 04:12
5.The Empire Never Ended 07:51
6.Reclamation 07:55
Members
Erik Ebsen - Guitar
Raif Box - Bass / Vocals
Cody Martin - Drums / Vocals
1.Decline 02:41
2.Machine Rising 06:59
3.Peaceseeker 04:19
4.Inoperable 04:12
5.The Empire Never Ended 07:51
6.Reclamation 07:55
Members
Erik Ebsen - Guitar
Raif Box - Bass / Vocals
Cody Martin - Drums / Vocals
Review
II. Eternal Meditations of a Deathless Crown is the 2nd full length album from Progressive Sludge/Stoner Metallers Bones Of The Earth. Coming two years after their excellent debut, this release sees the band return with a more aggressive tone and even wilder ideas held within the lyrics and striking album artwork.
The band continue their “Hardcore” quest fusing Sludge/Stoner Metal grooves against a Progressive backdrop with influences diverse as EyeHateGod and Mastodon with the Hardcore Punk/Metal doing a fine job of holding everything together.
The album runs for under 35 minutes and this is a great running time for Bones Of The Earth to give your entire body a full “Sludge/Stoner Metal” workout. The first track Decline is a solid instrumental offering which moves at it’s own steady pace but it shows small signs of the aggression that awaits on the album.
Second song – Machine Rising – is where the album really comes alive with the hardcore vocals from Raif and Cody leading the way. They’re pissed off and remain firmly in the “growling” department but at least they’re easy to understand. The music has a slight early-Mastodon feel and Bones Of The Earth soon take hold of their own musical journey with epic “stop-start” progressive moments allowing a more Psychedelic flair to slowly creep in. There are some fantastic technical guitar solos towards the end of this song and this shows you how talented these guys really are.
Third song – Peaceseeker – keeps up the aggressive and volatile mood with a song that’s one of the darkest on the album and that’s down to the superb vocals and dark lyrics contained within this song. The “sonic” based riffs is another good thing that soon drifts into Psychedelic and Modern Hard Rock. This shouldn’t really work but Bones Of The Earth pull this off with great effect for one of the standout songs on the record.
The second half of the album continues with the Progressive Sludge momentum with flashes of Stoner Metal aggression allowing Bones Of The Earth bringing a more “Apocalyptic” vision to their music. The “Hardcore” vibe is perhaps the standout part of this album. As you know everything is going to be LOUD and HEAVY without a care in the world.
The final two songs – The Empire Never Ended and Reclamation – is where Bones Of The Earth earn their Sludge/Stoner Metal stripes with almost 16 minutes of finely played Post-Metallic and Progressive grooves with the band finding the time to try different styles of music on the final parts of the album.
The overall sound of the album is excellent. It’s not too polished with the album retaining a more “LIVE ATMOSPHERE” feel to it all.
II. Eternal Meditations of a Deathless Crown is a superbly entertaining and well-made record and should hopefully allow Bones Of The Earth to gain greater exposure within the Sludge/Stoner Metal scene.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Earsplit PR for the promo. II. Eternal Meditations of a Deathless Crown is available to buy now CD/DD/Cassette via Tape Dad.
Links:
Facebook | BandCamp
