The legacy that bands create – especially when the group functions in disparate incarnations over a long period of time – is usually going to be understood in drastically different ways by each individual fan.

And while Earth might well remain best known for sporting guitarist Dylan Carslon since he’s the dude that bought Kurt Cobain that fateful shotgun, the different approaches that the band leader has taken to heavy musics is worth an investigation.

Generally lumped into the entire early ‘90s northwest thing, Earth doesn’t gain ample explanation from being included in that mass of bands. The ensemble was founded during a time when Nirvana, Peal Jam and those other groups were gaining a bit of momentum. And while all of those bands probably counted Black Sabbath as an influence – or at least a perennial favorite – Earth took the most disturbing aspects of the British group’s sound and elongated each to arrive at a metal wall of sound.

At this point, Earth is simply going to be referred to as a drone band – a metallic one to be sure – but a drone band nonetheless. And while that’s certainly true for a huge majority of its catalog, after Earth’s first three releases – the EP Extra-Capsular Extraction in ’91, a full length in ’93 called Special Low-Frequency Version and another, Phase 3: Thrones and Dominion, two years later – the band approached Pentastar: In the Style of Demons with pop song structure at least in its collective head.

Sporting some amalgam of scene people and new found acquaintances, Carlson churned out a Sub Pop disc that sports a cover displaying the fender of a neon green muscle car from the ‘70s. The image could certainly be accompanied by a soundtrack largely comprised of Sabbath material, but here Earth delivers songs just as befitting.

From the outset, and its slow, thrashy introduction, Pentastar appears to be a concerted effort on Carlson’s part to have a few songs under his belt that possess a melody that someone might not only recall, but become infatuated with. Even if that wasn’t the impetus for all of this, that’s what happened.

There’s a bit of Detroit flair to the recording that comes off best on “Tallahassee,” but is also present on the disc’s closer, “Coda Meastoso In F (Flat) Minor.” With an oddly voiced guitar backing Carlson up, the Stooges references could melt away, but the slow trod through the song’s caveman melody makes the Midwest an apparent touchstone.

These overt attempts at creating work that was more readily consumable – but not by too much – still finds Earth turning in a few tracks to obscure Pentastars’ assumed purpose. “Charioteer (Temple Song)” isn’t as dense or heavy as Earth’s previous work in minimal musics, but it does have the same sort of bare approach to composition that drew fans in on earlier releases. The song’s an eastern styled mediation – and again, a Stooges comparison might be in order. Take a listen to “We Will Fall” off of the self titled, John Cale produced disc.

Either way, Pentastar is generally dismissed as Earth working out a way to gain a bit more popularity. That might well be true, but who cares? These are actually rock songs that include the theoretical flair of the band’s other work.