Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 2

Like Part 1 of *Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light*, Part 2 swaps drone metal for tone metal. Bored with speaker-blowing distortion, Earth’s Dylan Carlson has taken on the challenge of reinterpreting his doomy, sprawled-out soundscapes with a guitar tone that has more in common with Link Wray than Tony Iommi. And with new members Karl Blau on bass and Lori Goldston on cello, he pulls it off in spades. Those who listened to Part 1 are rewarded with the opening “Sigil of Brass,” where the improvisation between Carlson’s guitar and Goldston’s cello create third overtones between them. This is expanded in “His Teeth Did Brightly Shine,” where a similarly sporadic interplay between Carlson and Blau gets punctuated with peripheral percussion. And while Carlson’s guitar doesn’t distort, Goldston’s cello hits deep notes that crumble in “A Multiplicity of Doors,” where her roomy resonance and Adrienne Davies’ drums take the lead. In “The Corascene Dog,” Carlson plays panoramic leads that bend and twang, like Mark Kozelek’s obsession with Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer.” In the closing “The Rakehell,” Carlson dares to get groovy.