It can be said that looking back can lead to regression. A sickening bathing in nostalgia. With the whole world and our daily lives constantly in a state of acceleration then when do we have time to take stock and allow for reflection? Is a going-back-to-your-roots a surrender, an awkward backwards step, a sign of diminishing artistic ideas?
This is a question presented when listening to the new album from iconic doom metal sound warriors SUNN O)), for this album sees the duo of Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson return to their bass roots of being a duo, eschewing the collaborative tendencies to instead hone in on new avenues which had revealed themselves during recent tours. SUNN O))) also finds the band signed to a new label, the iconic Sub Pop, which is famous for helping birth and expose the world to new languages in rock music. This helps make this album feel like a real defining moment in the band’s career.
Recorded in a rural studio in Washington (where the band could look at the trees through the window and enjoy hikes through the forest), SUNN O))) is an album soaked in the conflict between technology and nature. Its six tracks contain the band’s infamous squall and clout however this time you are given moments of calming spaces where you are allowed to catch your breath. The finest example of this is on the monstrous heart of the album, ‘Butch’s Guns’.
Here is a song that suddenly stops a couple of times during the beginning, where you can feel the wind blowing around the studio and hear the creaking of the trees, before it embarks on what is a truly visionary slice of psychedelic doom. Little motifs come and go, the pace changes subtly, before it heightens its intensity bit by bit. This is a masterclass into how a seemingly formless kind of music can be moulded into a variety of aural shapes and how even when your head is drowning in feedback, you can find beautiful melodies and flourishes to hold on to.
Another highlight is track ‘Everett Moses’ which opens with a sharp, harsh tone not unlike you would hear on a post-punk album, before wild feedback suddenly starts to form into a cyclical tide of riff and sustain.
Balance is a core theme that runs throughout the album and it is one that presents itself in a myriad of ways. It is found underneath the signature slab of feedback on album opener ‘XXANN’ where you can pick out the sound of running water, or even when the piano appears on the brilliant closing track ‘Glory Black’. Opposing influences are consistently clashing yet somehow this all seems to coalesce into a weird symbiosis that really does work.
Listening to SUNN O))) feels the same as when listening to the Damo-era Can. That same framework of pure avant-garde and deep routed connection are present here like they are on Tago Mago. Throughout the album you are firmly in the grip of O’Malley and Anderson’s unlimited thirst for experimentation and their unique gift in helping beauty reveal itself under pure chaos. By returning to their core, SUNN O))) have paved a beautiful path for their next direction. Here is an album that is overwhelming, beautiful, brutal, hypnotic and soothing making it the most perfect album for these times.
All words by Simon Tucker
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