A tidal wave heading towards shore in slow motion. Polar ice caps collapsing in colossal chunks into icy water. Enormous ancient trees being felled in unison. It’s easy to drift into dreaming (nightmaring?) visual metaphors from the most furiously destructive ends of the natural world for SUNN O)))’s monolithic, pulverising sound when delving deeper into the drone metal cult heroes’ tenth album (13th, if you count collaborative albums with Boris, Ulver and late cult legend Scott Walker).
The vision of trees crashing down seems particularly apt. Working with producer Brad Wood at Bear Creek Studio in Washington State, sessions for SUNN O))) found band founders Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson tracking these six colossal tracks in a room with a view of neighbouring woodland, where they would venture for hikes during breaks from recording (presumably without the band’s trademark cloaks).
Remnants of the great outdoors have found their way to the album. 18-minute opener “XXANN” roars into life with a howling, sustained wall of densely layered feedback. As the track gradually drifts into SUNN O)))’s trademark slow motion deconstruction of Metal dynamics, an unexpected element can be detected underneath the ear-shattering screech from the juncture where a riff is decelerated until it becomes an insistent subterranean drone: a trickle of spring water. Similar traces of woodland field recordings can be found underneath similarly gargantuan and mercilessly heavy rumble of “Mindrolling”, whilst the roaring wall of sound that propels closer “Glory Black” gradually dissolves into minimalist touches of piano.
These are the only diversions from the band’s core mission. Whereas past SUNN O))) albums have included shade and colour provided by horns, harp, synths and guest musicians such as Hungarian extreme Metal vocal stylist Attila Csihar and Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, the band’s Sub Pop debut is performed in its entirety by O’Malley and Anderson. SUNN O)))’s MO remains an uncompromising proposition: essentially, SUNN O))) will thrill anyone who loves, say, the early drone records by Earth or Sleep’s heroically heavy and relentlessly repetitive stoner metal landmark Dopesmoker but finds both unnecessarily hurried and riddled with uncalled-for chord changes.
Stripped of any additional ingredients, SUNN O))) offers a particularly pure take on the band’s quest to decelerate a Black Sabbath-esque down-tuned riff to the point where times stands still, and the heaviness accumulates to a wild howl of sound that you can physically feel in your bones even in the relatively moderate decibel levels of considerate home listening. Far from monotonous, the band’s seemingly relentless pummelling rewards a patient listener with plenty of hypnotic texture and enriching detail that is far easier to simply feel and become immersed in than do justice to with words.
