Sunn O)))

From their humble roots as a tribute to Earth — symbolically reflected in a name that points both to the Seattle band and the legendary amplifier brand — the entity formed by Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley has reached a sphere of influence that far transcends those boundaries drawn at the end of the last century. From the doom genealogy reinvented in earlier bands such as Burning Witch or Goatsnake, to the altar erected to Earth 2: Special Low-Frequency Version in Grimmrobe Demos and ØØ VOID, Anderson and O’Malley put forward a maxim — “Maximum Volume Yields Maximum Results” — that has since been continuously extrapolated into new dimensions, dragging along in its riffing a whole horde of followers from the most diverse backgrounds and sensibilities: metalheads, noiseniks, scholars of experimental music, potheads in league with the dark side, and rootless wanderers generally drawn to music of transcendence and hypnosis.

Approaching three decades of activity and having counted a diverse cast of collaborators over that time — from the regular presence of Attila Csihar (Mayhem) and Oren Ambarchi to more occasional contributions from figures such as Julian Cope, Eyvind Kang, John Wiese or Hildur Guðnadóttir — Sunn O))) have given life to a kind of theatre. The robes, the extreme volume and the curtains of smoke on stage are nothing less than the theatrical embodiment of an entire occult folklore — forged in their own language with Flight of the Behemoth in 2002. Into this language flow currents of metal, drone, noise, contemporary composition and a constant minimal/maximal duality within a slow-motion stream that regenerates itself with every new incursion. From the feedback-forged rituals and invocations of the White diptych, to the suspended icy fury of Scandinavian black metal in Black One, to the almost orchestral arrangements of Monoliths & Dimensions and its later, stripped-down and more metal-driven reaffirmation with Kannon, through to the most recent statement of all this — clearly expressed in the title — in Life Metal, not to mention symbiotic collaborative records with Boris, Ulver and Scott Walker — R.I.P. — Sunn O))) continue to rewrite their own nature at the deliberate pace that belongs to them by right.

Now they open a new chapter with an appropriately self-titled record on the legendary Sub Pop — the very label that released Earth 2 back in 1993, as if completing a cycle — where, for the first time, all the music was created solely by the duo of Anderson and O’Malley, reportedly in a relaxed environment free from pressure. As if rediscovering their Essence. A key word for a sound that is as primordial in its origins as it is infinite in its ambition.