"[4] At the time of Earth's formation, bandleader Dylan Carlson was conceptually influenced by minimalist composers such as La Monte Young as well the rock bands King Crimson and Slayer.

"[5] Celebrated as a "milestone" by Terrorizer's Dayal Patterson, he described it as "a three-track, 75 minute deluge of feedback and distorted guitars that marked the blueprint for what lead singer/guitarist Dylan Carlson at the time coined 'ambient metal'".

[6] AllMusic's John Bush called the album a "glacial, monolithic exercise" which "virtually created the drone and ambient metal subgenres.

"[7] Critic Ned Raggett of Allmusic gave the album a positive review, stating: "If Carlson and his bassist du jour, in this case Dave Harwell, weren't quite Sub Pop's answer to the ranges of UK guitar extremism from the likes of Godflesh, Main, and Skullflower, Earth still came pretty darn close to it, creating a record even the Melvins would find weird."

"[1] Alan Licht, in his third list of minimalist classics, wrote "Unlike a lot of more recent noise underground stuff, which (to me) is relatively factorable, this is technically boggling drone music—the sustain is achieved not just with distortion but through overdubbing, and there's clean guitars in there too—even on headphones it's hard to tell what the fuck they're really doing.