Dylan Carlson, mastermind of drone demigods Earth and hero to that weird guy in your Russian Civ class who wears a hooded cloak on chilly days, ain’t afraid to pull a sacrilege or two for the sake of his art. Like his heroes Black Sabbath before him, Carlson loves sticking it to the Christian ascendancy, filling their nightmares with scores of Beelzebubs thrashing baby Jesus with skyscraper-sized hell guitars. Unfortunately, the moral majority has no idea who Dylan Carlson is and probably never will since Christians tend to avoid people in hooded cloaks who aren’t monks. Such is their nature, and Satan bless ‘em for it!
Like so many other doom metal artists, Carlson’s brand of blasphemy is more sacrilege for sacrilege’s sake, with the latest addition in this demonstration of desecration being the limited-edition deluxe “biblical” reissue of Earth’s early ’08 album The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull (TMT Review). What makes it so scriptural, you ask? According to the vile beasties at Southern Lord Records, the gold-colored, 180-gram records come in an “over the top bible-esque tripe gatefold jacket” with a faux leatherette cover and gold embossed lettering. You know, because only one version of the Bible has ever been published, and it is leather-bound and lined with gold-leaf. Dammit, Southern Lord, I know the Christian Bible isn’t exactly your thing, but you should at least realize that fake leather and gold embossing does not a Bible look-alike make. At least include some fan-fictionalized version of Acts of the Apostles or something!
Despite a disappointing score on the sacrilege scale, the rest of this package seems pretty cool. Bob Weston of Shellac remastered the audio specifically for vinyl, and the inside pages include art and photographs from dragon and skull painter extraordinaire Arik Roper . The deluxe vinyl release also includes a bonus track, “Junkyard Priest,” and if the rest of the album is any indication, this song will most likely rock considerably. Get this album for the music, not the blasphemy.