Earth's phenomenal 2008 album The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull is at last back in print on vinyl, repressed by Southern Lord for a new 2014 edition that looks pretty much identical to the first pressing: bound in a super-thick textured leather-like cover with embossed metallic gold ink, the double LP package looks like nothing less than an antique oversized Bible, a perfect design for the gorgeous, Gospel-hued glacial rock embedded in these grooves. Inside of this massive jacket are two full color sleeves that have been bound into the spine like the pages of a book, with the artwork for Bees printed on huge interior panels. Still one of the most breathtaking vinyl releases that Southern Lord has produced so far. This double LP also has an additional bonus track that is only available here, a gorgeous dose of glacial blues with horns and slide guitar drifting over languorous slowcore guitars titled "Junkyard Priest". Here's the original review for this album from back when it first came out:

It's always a big deal with a new Earth record rolls around, but for one reason or another, I never got around to listing Earth's latest album The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull when it came out earlier this year. The disc is finally making it in here now since the new deluxe vinyl set for Bees is now in stock, and it's hardly a chore to sit here and tell you why I love this album so much, so here ya go in case you've missed out so far on this amazing new album of steel-cloud majesty from the legendary, influential Earth.

Ever since Earth made their big comeback in 2005 with Hex, Dylan Carlson and company have shifted ever further from the seminal dronesludge of their early albums and have moved deeper into a realm of grim, gorgeous Morricone-tinged slowcore that is arguably as heavy as anything that the band has done before. In the same way that Earth's drone-metal classic Earth 2 inspired a legion of amp worshippers to nod out against their Marshall stacks, Hex too was influential on the new crop of sludgy metal bands that have been incorporating twangy Western guitars and desolate dust-bowl atmosphere into their sound. Now with The Bees Made Honey In The Lions Skull, Earth has once again brought us an album of sun-bleached and slow-burning glacial twang, but this time around the music feels more mystical and joyous than Earth's Hex or Hibernaculum. And the album looks glorious as well, accompanied by beautifully artwork hidden behind a black textured slipcase that has the band name and the album title embossed in gold, the album cover itself bearing a gorgeous psychedelic painting from Erik Roper, with the booklet printed on thick, super-glossy paper stock. The whole thing looks fantastic and fully compliments the warm, mystical music contained on the disc.

Opening track "Omens And Portents I: The Driver" is a nine minute blast of sunlight breaking through blackness as Carlson lays down a twangy riff that cops part of the Blaster's "Dark Night" and turns it into a spacious, reverb heavy mantra, laced with the ringing colors of guest guitarist and jazz legend Bill Frisell. Slowly drifting wah tones float over the heavy, metronomic drums and gorgeous Wurlitzer keys sparkle over top; restrained feedback wells up and low amp drone rushes through the background like a river of earthquake tones. A brighter tone appears with the following song "Rise To Glory" though; a huge simple riff blossoms into tendrils of country twang and droning feedback, the piano playing that gradually joins in adding additional colors to the sound. The rest of the album is just as great, just as slow, and just as meditative. Each song, from "Engine Of Ruin" through to the title track that closes the album, evokes a stately Western gloom, the hope of daybreak over dusty, gothic American landscapes. Earth's guitars are rich and thick, their tones free of distortion but they still carry weight, filling the air alongside the stately piano and organ, sun-baked harmonics riding on thick reverberant bass lines, the instruments leaving lots of open space through which the drums move in a hypnotic, almost jazzy shuffle. Like on the previous albums, the sound of Bees is like hearing a countrified Codeine, dark and spare and massive, laced with pedal steel twang and the Gospel hues of the Hammond.

Obviously essential if you are a fan of Earth's current sound, this album is also a perfect place to begin if you haven't had a chance yet to hear their monumental, cinematic Western slowcore, It's easily turned into one of my favorite Earth albums. Highly recommended.