Earth are the thinking person’s Doom act. There is not the scuzzy riffs of sludge or the deep depressing tones of trad doom. They produce a wonderfully thoughtful, partially optimistic and slow variant on the whole thing. This is the blues but at half or even quarter speed, in fact the whole pace is measured, drawn out and unhurried. But before I pontificate further on the utter under-rated genius of Dylan Carlson, I need to first deal with opener Helen Money.

Now, avid ROCKFLESH readers, you will already know I have been bowled over by what Jo Quail does with a Cello, well Helen Money takes that and runs as far down the rabbit hole as you can go. This is essentially twisted gothic punk but played on a Cello (with backing tracks, lots of back tracks). It’s dark, haunting and in quite a number of places deeply disturbing. Helen takes the Cello and drags it far far out of its comfort zone. She adds distortion, delay, fuzz and turns what is usually a conventional instrument into a searing vessel of contorted noise. This is not pretty music but it is deeply emotive and full of dark forbidden passion. To be honest I am a little shell shocked by the whole experience, as it didn’t expect one single Cello to push, prod and positively destroy so many boundaries and preconceptions. Hard work but god it was stunning.

But on to Earth and a packed Gorilla is here to worship at the feet of avant-garde metal’s forgotten genius. This is the man that realised that faster was not always better and you could create really disturbing and challenging music if you went far far the other way. He took Sabbath’s blueprint, slowed everything down to a crawl and drone was born. Tonight is predominately a celebration of “Full Upon Her Burning Lips”, their first record in five years, a wonderfully warm and immersive collection of subtle slow burning blues. We get seven of the albums ten tracks (and also a newly written track thrown in for good measure). Each and every one is simply divine.

Time just decelerates, nothing is rushed. What we get are protracted and gradual riffs that proceed at a glacial speed. They are utterly unstoppable and fill the whole room. You can hear a pin drop as the audience stand in silent reverence and wonder. Every note is a thing of divine beauty. Strung out slowly to be precisely brought into the world. This is doom but not the ugly primal kind. This is refined, elegant and utterly transfixing. They may be a band but tonight is about Dylan Carson and the magic that he weave with a six strings. He is a highly minimalistic guitarist. No chord is wasted, every note is given majestic care and attention. Tonight Earth are nothing short of mesmerising.