Earth

No riff is too slow for Earth, the glacial Seattle rockers who helped pioneer the genre we now know and love as drone doom. Led by guitarist Dylan Carlson, the group synthesised the distorted sludge of The Melvins with the work of minimalist composers like La Monte Young, creating a dense, lumbering music that was like heavy metal for whales. Their 1993 album Earth 2 was an influence for subsequent acts including Sunn 0))) and Boris, but Carlson's 'legal and drug problems' derailed the group's career, leading to a lengthy hiatus that only ended with 2005's Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method. That album marked the start of a new phase in Earth's life, where the songs were no faster, but their textures recalled country and folk more often than they did metal. Now onto their seventh album – this year's Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II – Earth will finally make their Japan debut this September, on a bill with fellow minimalists Mamiffer (aka pianist Faith Coloccia and Isis frontman Aaron Turner) and Boris themselves.

Earth also play at Earthdom on September 19