Search - Earth :: Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method

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Floyd Pinkinson | 09/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If Jonah Hex were to bash John Wayne's head open with a rock after shooting him in the neck and then slowly drag the body across the desert this would be the soundtrack heard within the harsh sandstorms and echoing across jagged red rocky valleys.



Ennio Morricone has become a heroin addict. Merle Haggard slits his wrists in the back of a pick-up truck while White2 tears apart the speakers.



Horses hang their heads so low their necks snap. Tumbleweeds turn into dust. Cacti needles invert and blood flows...



1. Mirage



The album opens with blowing wind and minimalist reverbed clean guitar strumming setting the tone for what's to come. A short and ominous introduction.



2. Land of Some Other Order



This track begins with more clean guitars but now accompanied with slow drums and what seems to sound like a droning bass guitar or possibly the baritone guitar. Trombone is actually used in this song also. The various tones melt into each other and slide along smoothly and perfectly. Picture an outlaw on horseback approaching a ghost town up on the horizen. You'd hear this.



3. The Dire and Ever Circling Wolves



Tubular bells create the sound of wind chimes here. More plodding clean guitars and drums.There's a, dare I say, distinct country-western aura within this track and throughout most of the album. Imagine every score you've ever heard in a television or movie scene involving cowboys served a large dose of darkness and compacted into about eight minutes. It has been done here.



4. Left in the Desert



More wind and wind chimes with guitar ambience creeping in the background. A very short "intro in the middle of the album" type of track.



5. Lens of Unrectified Night



Yes, clean guitars again. Slow twanging over slow drumming. The difference between this track and the others is that seems to let a little "hope" creep it's way into the notes. But when I say a little, I mean it.



6. An Inquest Concerning Teeth



This song features banjo from what I can hear. It's rather hard to tell which of the various instruments are being used at certain points because they are sort of drenched in a clean, harmonial feedback.It's kind of amazing after listened to numerous times.



7. Raiford (The Felon Wind)



It sounds like there's going to be a standoff in front of the old saloon or some such place. Cymbals are used to create the sound of spurs over slow war drums. There's banjo and trombone with clean and distorted guitar coming up with a wild atmosphere up front while producing another layer of atmosphere with feedback below everything.



8. The Dry Lake



If you've ever heard the wind instrument used in Buddhist temples when reciting the Mahakala Tantra you'd recognize the sound the trombone carries over from Raiford.Underneath this sound is something reminiscent of the avant-jazz scores to films like The Salton Sea or Naked Lunch. Also includes tonal droning and samples of neighing horses. Short and haunting.



9. Tethered to the Polestar



Minimalist clean guitars signaling the end. Like Michael Hedges with one hundred pound weights on his arms. This continues over the drums and varied guitar sounds until the disc, unfortunately, stops spinning...





Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method spawns a dark, spacious, slithering, post-country doomscape. Like one giant song divided into nine tracks. It's a concept album without words. An audial framework for "something" so massive it couldn't possibly exist simultaneously with mere human beings. Earth are providing the score while forcing the listener to provide the imagery. Just be sure not to get stuck there..."

If fungus was tumbleweed

Scott Riley | San Francisco, CA United States | 05/19/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Being familiar with Earth is only mildly useful in hearing "Hex" for the first time. While "Hex" normally refers to Pennsylvania Dutch symbolism used on buildings (barns) to ward off bad or encourage good, this record is just as easily the backdrop to a desert you can't even dream of.



If you've traveled (or live in) southern parts of UT, AZ, NM, and CA, the pull that one feels towards the desert is perfectly embodied in the simple and harsh notes of a single guitar. Imagine Clint Eastwood sharing a world with Stephen King's gunslinger Roland in a land that is between world's but most certainly bleak."

Slooooooow down there cowboy

R. Solomon | New Zealand | 03/13/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Hex: Or Priniting in the Infernal Method is the first studio Earth album in nearly a decade, and as most reviews will agree, a departure from the previous four. it's an instrumental album (not to be confused with instru-metal) and comes complete with a drummer. it's released on southern lord (sun o))) and stephen o'malley). I haven't heard any other earth albums but i think pentastar also had a drummer.



Firstly it's slow and i mean slooooow. There's acres of space between notes and, i haven't counted, but some tunes clock in at like 15bpm.



Secondly it's heavy but this must certainly not be confused with dark. The album draws on influences from the american midwest in particular the German Lutheran and Swiss settlers of Pennsylvania. The midwest influence is most strongly heard on "an inquest concerning teeth".



The slowness and space between notes make some songs sound like your stuck out in the middle of some open plane with nothing but endless space. Or there's "left in the desert" with the howling wind complete with chimes.



The heaviest tune "Rainford (the fellow wind)" starts of with a single drum beat for about 1 minute then a two cord repition for another minute then both are superimposed with a distorted, elongated couple of notes that become progressively more central by the time it wraps up after about 7 minutes. The reviewer above is entirely accurate to suggest this could be the song to a slow motioned shoot out in the ok carol.



This album is wicked. I wouldn't necessarily call it a metal album...in that screaming and/or anrgy sense. i'm not even sure purists would call this drone metal. But however you classify it this album really is something. you just need some patience and an empty living room to be rewarded. Do yourself a favour and at least listen to it @ your favourite store."