Earthship: The Best Parts of The Ocean and Baroness Rolled Into One

When Robin Staps isn’t busy writing music for his most excellent band The Ocean or pontificating on whether or not metal vocalists are still relevant, he’s releasing myriad albums worldwide through his own German-based label Pelagic Records. And as you’d expect from the guy who’s behind everything The Ocean does, the albums he puts out through the label are all of top-notch quality. Right now we’re streaming Family’s debut album Portrait, coming out through Pelagic next week, and everyone seems to love it, for example!

Berlin sludge trio Earthship just released a new album through Pelagic this week… and holy shit, it’s a crusher and a half. Earthship remind me of The Ocean at their heaviest moments but a little more sludged up; giant-sized, burly riffs, a small amount of off-kilter time signature experimentation, catchy hooks, and crystal-clear, BIG sounding production that doesn’t neuter any of the band’s aggression. There’s even just a touch of early Baroness major key, psych-fuzz happening here. I just listened to “Brimstone,” currently streaming at Metal.de, four times in a row… and I would happily do so again.

Iron Chest is out now. Order it on CD here or download it via Amazon.