Quiet Earth

Quiet Earth is a curious name for an album loud enough to kill people. Bison b.c. is a doom metal/skate thrash quartet comprising members from the hip and heavy Vancouver band S.T.R.E.E.T.S. (an acronym for Skating Totally Rules Everything Else Totally Sucks). Jesse Gander of Subhumans and 3 Inches of Blood mixed this, its sophomore album for Metal Blade Records. It contains only eight songs, though all but one go over the five-minute mark with the longest playing for nearly ten minutes. "Primal Emptiness of Outer Space" introduces Quiet Earth with punching rhythms and ham-fisted guitar chops that unfold into aural assaults pulling from an influential well founded on early Black Sabbath riffs, the progressive arrangements of Mastodon, and the aggressive speed-metal thrashings of Cliff Burton-era Metallica. James Farwell sings like he's barfing blood, especially on the sludgy "Slow Hand of Death," where dueling guitars battle it out. "Wendigo Pt. 1 (Quest for Fire)" opens with a string ensemble before unraveling into an epic that would well accompany Viking battles in the snow. "Wendigo Pt. 2 (Cursed to Roam)" builds on dynamic double leads that make Thin Lizzy sound like The Byrds.