Dylan Carlson
may best be remembered as
Kurt Cobain
's friend, probably not the way he would like to be seen in music history. But besides having that going for him, he was also the brains behind
Earth
, a Seattle combo that tried to recreate
Black Sabbath
, but much slower.
's early albums showed a lot of promise, but never quite delivered the epic sound that was hinted at. On
Pentastar
,
Carlson
tries to find the middle ground between the space rock of
Hawkwind
and the noisy guitar work of
the Melvins
. Unfortunately, he forgot to write any songs, instead letting the noise speak for itself. As an ambient noise project, the album actually works. It makes great background music, but very rarely does the music stand out. Songs blur together, and only on the
Jimi Hendrix
cover
"Peace in Mississippi"
does
sound like a rock band. The
Sabbath
influence rears its head on the noisy
"Tallahassee,"
but it seems like too little, too late -- since the long instrumentals may keep people from actually reaching that song. If
really wanted to make his mark, he should have just tried to rock instead of hinting at it. As it stands, open-minded fans of doom metal may want to check this out, but few others will be interested in what is going on here. ~ Bradley Torreano