Chapel of Distortion: How Sunn O))) Created A Sonic Soundscape
Very few bands have left an impact in not only creating a genre, but creating a niche genre that some may have trouble liking or getting into. Artists like Merzbow and Masonna were innovators and popular names in the noise genre. Creating almost unlistenable, harsh, distorted noises that could go on from several minutes to hours. The band Sunn O))) (pronounced Sun) is a band that were innovators that took the sonic, minimalistic soundscapes of fellow pacific northwest act Earth, but added tons of distortion, dirge like pacing and an atmosphere that would make their live performances entrancing and intoxicating. With some comparing it like you are going into a trance of walls of feedback and distortion soaked in fog and dark lighting. And if the band has vocalist, it adds a more unhinged and otherworldly effect to their “music”. With an Eldritch-horror like feel to their already simplistic but powerful sound.
But how did this drone metal project become the sonic devastation that it is today? How did they dabble from instrumental walls of feedback, to including black metal vocalists from bands like Striborg, Mayhem, Leviathan and Xasthur? And how the band evolved to include pipe organs, synthesizers and orchestral instrumentation like saxophones and cellos?
The band’s main members, guitarists Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson, formed the project in 1998. Originally called Mars, the band would eventually change their name to Sunn O))) after the brand of amplifiers. The band also thought it was a clever play on the drone band Earth, which many cite that band as the originators of the drone genre in the 1990’s. While Earth would veer towards a more instrumental, post-rock sound following their debut, Sunn O))) would take their sound into a heavier, sonically punishing sound.
In 1998, the band would release their demo album The Grimmrobe Demos. Considered by many as the band’s most Earth-worshipping record, with a song even named after Earth’s main front man Dylan Carlson. The song is even an interpretation of the Earth song “Ouroboros is Broken” from Earth’s debut EP Extra-Capsular Extraction. At three songs, with the shortest song being just under fifteen minutes, it created buzz with the band’s sound and unique stage show of no vocals, feedback walls of distortion and reverb, and a unique sound that many bands weren’t doing live. The demo album would be released through Hydra Head Records, the label owned by Aaron Turner, frontman for post-metal act Isis. The band founded their own label Southern Lord Recordings. The band would release their own music and side projects through, along with releases from bands like Power Trip, Crypt Rot, and All Pigs Must Die.
The band would release their official debut album with ØØ Void in 2000. A more refined, heavier and bass-laden sound, the album showed the band truly begin to establish their sound upon release. ØØ Void also featured guest appearances from Anderson’s past band Goatsnake with Pete Stahl and Petra Haden on the album. Sunn O))) would also feature the band covering the Melvins’ song “Rabbits’ Revenge”. Though the band’s “cover” is unconventional and bears no resemblance to the original. A trait that the band would be known for when they would cover another band’s music. More of a re-arrangement than a cover. With elements of drone, funeral doom and noise, the album received positive reviews on the band’s intensified vision for their music.
Two years later, the band would release their second album Flight of The Behemoth. The band would collaborate with Japanese noise legend Merzbow on two songs on the album, “O)))Bow 1” & “O)))Bow 2”. Bridging the gap of harshness, jagged and pummeling noise with the low-and-slow pacing of Sunn O)))’s sound. Musically, the band would incorporate a drum machine on the closing track of the album "F.W.T.B.T.". The song is another “cover” of the Metallica song “For Whom The Bell Tolls”. That track would also have an underlying, dark humor subtitle to it, with the full song title with subtitle being “F.W.T.B.T (I Dream of Lars Ulrich Being Thrown Through the Bus Window Instead of My Mystikal Master Kliff Burton)”. A reference to the passing of Metallica bassist Cliff Burton in a bus accident in 1986 while the band was on tour promoting Master of Puppets. Legendary funk bassist Bootsy Collins would play bass on the track.
White1 would be released in 2003. The band’s third album, it would feature vocals on two of the tracks. The first being Julian Cope, of the band The Teardrop Explodes, who would recite a spoken-word poem on the track “My Wall”. With a haunting, ominous and theatrical delivery in his performance, it would become one of the band’s most well-known songs. The other song with vocals, “The Gates of Ballard“, would be performed by former Thorr’s Hammer vocalist Runhild Gammelsæter. A band that both Anderson and O’Malley were both in before forming Sunn O))).
One year later, the band would release the follow-up White2. On this release, it would mark the debut of guest vocalist, who would become on again/off again member Attila Csihar of Mayhem on the album. Appearing on the track “Decay2 [Nihils' Maw]". He would go on to appear on future releases, perform with the band live, as well as the band’s side projects like Grave Temple and Burial Chamber Trio. The song “bassAliens” would be considered a more classic Sunn O))) sound in its performance. The band even took inspiration from Melvins again by using a pedal used by Buzz Osborne to mimic the bass effects they wanted to create that sound on the track. Featuring Csihar on vocals, adding a demonic and dark aesthetic to the sound, and with black metal vocals adding to the underlying darkness to their sound, the band would incorporate more black metal homage on the band’s next album.
Hitting the studio again and releasing the album one year later, Black One was an album that was a beautiful and evil combination of black metal, drone, harsh noise, ambience and avant-garde into the band’s already ominous and booming sound. Another consistent and ongoing collaborator would appear on the album, multi-instrumentalist Oren Ambarchi. A black-metal themed album, done in the funeral dirge pacing that only Sunn O))) can deliver, the album would feature a guest appearance by Wrest of Leviathan on the song “It Took The Night To Believe”. Malefic of the band Xasthur would appear on multiple tracks on the album, including the band’s cover of Immortal’s “Cursed Realms (of The Winterdemons)”. There is even the story that Malefic, who suffers from claustrophobia, was allegedly locked in a casket during the recording of the song’s final track "Báthory Erzsébet". The song being a tribute to late Bathory front man and founder Quorthon. Upon release and the collaborations, the band would do with many black metal vocalists, as well as having Malefic and Csihar performing live with the band on occasion. The band’s name recognition began to grow in the underground scene. Establishing the band’s entrancing, chaotic and complex but simple sound live.
After pursuing side projects, the band would return four years later with Monoliths & Dimensions in 2009. A more elaborate and larger scale album compared to previous releases, the album would include more symphonic instrumentation like cellos, upright bass, horns and winds sections on the album. Adding dark ambient and classical infusions into the band’s droning but impactful sound. The band would constantly stress that the album is not “Sunn O))) with strings” and that the music would speak for itself and deliver an impactful audio journey with the album. Upon release, the album received positive reviews from a lot of mainstream critics. 2015 would show the release of the band’s seventh album Kannon, with the band returning to the sound of Black One with elements of earlier releases.
In 2019, the band would show the band release two albums in the same year. In April, the band released Life Metal. A term that the band would later describe their music following the album’s release. The title was also decided as the band’s musical tone was shifting into a more positive and uplifting direction compared to the band’s darker, doom and gloom releases of old. Anderson would justify the reasoning for the band’s new sound in an interview with New Noise Magazine:
"[Life Metal is] sort of a personal reflection of my life as well. Having children and being a father has really changed me in a lot of ways—and for the better in some ways—but I have a different outlook on things now. Trying to be selfless in my life is important, and that's changed me and changed my mood and how I'm thinking about music and how I'm writing at the moment."
When Life Metal came out, the album was praised by critics as a new mindset and a perfectly new and diverse direction for the band’s sound. Production quality, the larger scale of the album’s sound and the diverse musical instrumentation was praised in the press. The fanbase also agreed and liked the new ideology and musical path the band was taking their sound into a more positive sound.
Six months later, and the band’s most recent album, Pyroclasts would be released. Considered a sister album to Life Metal, the album was recorded at the same time as Life Metal. Fans would continue the sonic transformation of Life Metal and fans would give a positive response to the continuation of the uplifting sound that Sunn O))) is taking their music. Though the album didn’t have the same amount of praise as Life Metal. Some critics griped that the songs were just B-sides to Life Metal released as an album, and not necessary. I disagree with this since they are different versions and unique albums, though recorded at the same time.
Sunn O)))’s legacy can be felt in metal. A band that took simplicity and cranked the volume to eleven and broke the knob off. A laundry list of collaborators from the black metal scene, to the avant-garde, and symphonic and classical field. Collaborating and releasing full albums like with Boris (2006’s Altar), Ulver (2014’s Terrestrials) and singer/songwriter Scott Walker (2014’s Soused). They are a band that is hard to pin down what the band truly is. Unable to describe or give a comparable band. A whole original, unique, and unmatchable sound that only they can deliver. Pushing what drone and metal can be. How a beautiful marriage in the chapel of sound can be a dark, twisted and unholy marriage unlike anything that can be described or heard. Encapsulating a dark and otherworldly experience that can make you feel multiple ways. How it impacts you differently listening to their albums, then how you would feel seeing them live and feeling the full impact of the band’s sound. Sunn O)))’s legacy and impact in metal is deep in the darkness of the psyche of music and the emotional and physiological depth with the power of every strum of their heavily reverbed guitars.
