Staff Reviews

Dylan Carlson - Conquistador

Review by Conor McCaffrey

Even in Carlson’s calmer moments, you’re never too far from the storm»

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Debut solo album from Dylan Carlson, drone metal pioneer and founding member of the iconic band Earth. For his first full-length as the solo artist Dylan Carlson, the guitarist returns west. In many ways, Conquistador harkens back to Hex. Whereas the Earth album set out to score the historical fiction of Cormac McCarthy’s examination of white settlers’ horrific campaign against Native Americans in Blood Meridian, Conquistador bypasses the intermediary narrative of a novelist. There is an analogous timbre, pace, and pentatonic aura between Carlson’s latest offering and Hex. But the reductionist principles that have always driven Carlson’s work play an even larger role on Conquistador, with his expansive drones and austere guitar work saturating the sonic field while freed from the lock step of a rhythm section. Carlson has long been heralded as a master of minimalism, and this full-length demonstrates his ability to craft compelling symphonic compositions while exercising extreme musical frugality. Conquistador was recorded at God City Studios with Kurt Ballou during a weeklong break in Carlson’s solo tour 2016.
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