Dylan Carlson for Psych/Space Rock - Progressive Rock Music Forum

Dylan Carlson (b: March 12, 1968), is the guitarist and main songwriter for the Seattle-based band Earth. Known for his slow, droning, and psychedelic compositions, Dylan Carlson was a pioneer in both the drone rock and drone metal genres. He was heavily influenced from both the slow and heavy sludge metal of Melvins and the minimalism of La Monte Young.

As the roommate and a good friend of Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Carlson had reportedly stayed up late and played heroin-fueled guitar noise with Cobain into the early hours of the morning in the late 80s and early 90s in their apartment. This would eventually evolve into the drone metal genre in the early 90s. While Cobain would frequently play these drones at Nirvana concerts, his fans would often be confused at what exactly they were doing; however, after Melvins had released their drone metal album, "Lysol," in 1992, and Earth followed with "Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version" in 1993, the drone metal genre would prove to be a successful niche in the sludge metal underground and Earth had quickly recorded the follow-up album, "Phase 3: Thrones and Dominions." The Seattle-based grunge scene commercially peaked in the mid-1990s, and due to his debilitating heroin addiction, Cobain had killed himself with a twelve-gauge shotgun. This was particularly concerning for Carlson as Carlson was the person who purchased Cobain the shotgun he used in his suicide, unbeknownst to him that Cobain would use the shotgun for this purpose. Carlson had also struggled with heroin addiction issues during this time frame, and was known to use abuse the drug with Cobain.

Earth released "Phase 3" in 1995, and recorded and and released "Pentastar: In the Style of Demons" in 1996, which utilized more conventional song structures in a more stoner rock form. After the suicide of Cobain, Carlson (and therefore Earth) took a hiatus from music for nine years due to a combination of guilt regarding his connection with Cobain's death, as well as his heroin addiction, incarceration, and rehabilitation.

Earth emerged again in 2005 with the album "Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method," which took more of a drone/post-rock route and incorporated elements of country and Americana music. The sound that Earth created here would be the sound they continued with until 2014, when they released the album "Primitive and Deadly," which once again utilized more conventional song structures but emulating a more heavy psych this time around, after which they would play more traditional drone rock.

In 2012, Carlson would also launch a solo career under the alias "drcarlsonalbion" debuting with the album "Edward Kelley's Blues." In 2014, he released the album "La strega and the Cunning Man in the Smoke," and in 2014 released the score for the German movie "Gold," a Western film set in Canada. Later in 2014 he retired the alias "drcarlsonalbion," thus releasing albums under his real name "Dylan Carlson," and released the collaboration album "Elephanto Bianco" with Rogier Smal. In 2016, he released another collaboration album, this time with Coleman Grey, entitled "Falling with a 1000 Stars and other wonders from the House of Albion."

In 2018, he released the album "Conquistador," marking his debut solo album under his real name. In 2023, a film documenting Earth and the Seattle music scene of the early 90s was released entitled "Even Hell Has Its Heroes." Earth themselves performed the eponymous soundtrack for this documentary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dylan_Carlson_(musician)

https://www.evenhellhasitsheroes.com/screenings/

https://evenhellhasitsheroes.bandcamp.com/album/even-hell-has-its-heroes-original-motion-picture-soundtrack

https://www.instagram.com/drcarlsonalbion/?hl=en

https://www.facebook.com/drcarlsonalbion/

https://drcarlson.bandcamp.com/album/conquistador

Edited by bardberic - September 07 2023 at 08:23