No more waiting

Murder Earth has been working on this for a long time. The Des Moines metal four-piece is set to

Murder Earth CD release show is at Lefty’s on Friday, Sept. 11 at 8 p.m.

release its debut album, “Waiting for the End of Man,” this week at Lefty’s. It is the culmination of three years’ worth of work that has included tweaks, re-tweaks, countless live performances and a rotating door of drummers that would make Spinal Tap envious. The band had gone through five different drummers, each of whom had tinkered with the songs in order to put his own stamp on the low end. It was a wash-rinse-repeat process that had the rest of the band frustrated and tired of its own music.

So it should come as no surprise when everyone in the band agrees that things started to change the moment that door closed and Jared Albertson took over drumming duties. Now, for the first time in the band’s history, guitarist Tim Flor, bassist Rick Stuber and vocalist Ben Murphy feel like they have a lineup they can work with long-term.

“We finally got Jared about a year-and-a-half ago,” Murphy said. “That’s when the push to finish the album really started.”

“When I joined the band, these guys already had a lot of amazing material,” Albertson added. “My biggest thing was, I told these guys, ‘Let’s not play these songs the way five other drummers have played them. Let’s take these songs back to when you guys first fell in love with them.’ ”

That change has made all the difference.

“We’d gone through so many changes,” Flor said. “We’d been through so many changes, for a bunch of different reasons. Now, through all the good and the band, we’re able to see this album come to fruition.”

Now that Murder Earth feels like its lineup is finally set, none of the members expect to make fans wait nearly as long for the second installment.

“We’re already working on the next (album),” Stuber said.

“Now, we’ve got too many songs,” Albertson added. “That’s a good problem to have. With the first album, it felt like it took so long to get done. Now, we’ve got to weed through all our songs to decide which ones to record next. That’s a great place to be in, man.”

“This lineup works really well together,” Flor said. “A lot of the new songs just came out of us jamming. I’m excited to see what we do with them.” CV