SUNN O))) 00 Void (Dirter Promotions) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Out of the blue, this slab of heaviness is now available on vinyl! A real swank package with new artwork courtesy of the UK's Dirter. Here's our review of the original cd release from 2001:
The world's first, best, only, (and last?) EARTH tribute band oozes forth with their second album. Some might question if there was more to be accomplished in their emulation of the glacial "power ambient drone" metal practiced by Earth, but this album should quell any skeptics -- it's slower and lower and sets yet another standard for heaviness. Thus, probably an essential addition to the collections of AQ's extreme doom fanatic patrons! And this time the boys in Sunn go beyond their obvious Earth worship to acknowledge another influence: one of the four lengthy tracks found here is a cover (or, an interpretation, anyway) of a Melvins tune! Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Richard"

SUNN O))) 00Void (Japanese Version) (Daymare) 2cd 36.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The final installment in Daymare's comprehensive SUNNO))) reissue campaign, and probably the most eagerly anticipated, not just because 00 Void is one of their best, but because the extra bonus disc features the original record reimagined and recontextualized by dadaist sound sculptors Nurse With Wound.
00Void is in fact, SUNNO)))'s first proper album, the preceding Grimmrobe Demos, being just that, demos, but sonically, it picks up right where Grimmrobe left off, huge undulating slow motion riffscapes, epic, majestic, glacial, ominous and black hole heavy. Although it hardly seems necessary at this point, for those who have managed to somehow avoid SUNNO)))'s sonic influence, SUNNO))) began life as the world's first, best, only, (and last?) EARTH tribute band, emulating and bowing before the glacial "power ambient drone" metal of Earth, creating a little cult of the dronedoomdirge faithful, long before the hipster set caught on, but this record, as much as Grimmrobe before it made a case for SUNNO))) as their own entity, sure they owed every aspect of their sound to the band they were birthed to honor (still do really), but they managed to subtly imbue that same sound with their own influences and experience, creating something even more slow and low if that were even possible, setting yet another standard for heaviness.
So on 00Void, SUNNO))) indulge in pure unfettered doom, loosed from any sort of rhythmic constrictions, unmoored from traditional song structures, letting riffs and tones and pure vibrations emanate from their wall of speakers, like some monstrous black tuning fork, almost more a physical sensation than an aural one, but those movements of blackdrone infused with a musicality that blossoms slowly the deeper you allow yourself to sink. Suffocating, pummeling, crushing, oozing, but also soothing and beautiful. Maybe one of our favorite SUNNO))) records for sure. And if the pure grim heaviness of the three originals wasn't enough, 00Void also includes a cover (or, an interpretation, anyway) of a Melvins tune! Another band who were dabbling in slow motion heaviness long before it was cool...
This deluxe Japanese reissue is gorgeously packaged as always, swank matte finished textured paper gatefold, printed inner sleeves, insert with liner notes (all in Japanese), but most importantly of all, a whole extra disc, a complete reworking of 00Void by Nurse With Wound. Most folks probably never even made it this far in the review anyway, the mention of NWW remixing SUNNO))) in the first paragraph probably had most people scrambling for the add to cart button, but for folks who stuck it out, it's well worth rebuying 00Void again for the extra disc, as it's a fantastic disc of haunting drones and abstract soundscaping, constructed using the glacial doom of SUNNO))) as the building blocks, which is surprising considering how shimmery and serene much of this is.
The opening track is one long slow billow of sound, gentle clouds of muted metallic reverberations, deep resonant chiming tones, soft smeared bass notes, all blurred into a creeping drift, that is more Chalk or Coleclough than SUNNO))). The second track is evenmore abstract, isolating, or adding voices, peppering the dreamy drone with strange metallic clang, moaning horn like bleats, sprays of hiss and buzz, all over a warbly wandering bassline, the vocals driving the song at points, a nasally croon entangled in the tracks gauzy gurgle, the bass getting thicker and thicker, coated in grit and grime and hiss, the vocals effected and almost demonic, breaking glass, weird industrial clatter, and lots and lots of hisssssssss.
The final track, another gorgeously minimal drone, the sound of SUNNO))) smeared and blurred and muted into a hushed thrum, soft subtle layers shifting and blending, warm and rich and textured but simple and spare, near the end, voices and radio static surface, but still barely audible, another whispered layer beneath a sea of tranquil hushed whir. Pretty dang cool, even if it's fairly far removed from the sound of the original, but then again, that's sort of the mark of a good remix as far as we're concerned.
Be warned, we got a bunch but they'll probably go quick, so when we run out, be prepared to wait for us to get more from Japan.
MPEG Stream: "NN 0)))"
MPEG Stream: "Ra At Dusk"

SUNN O))) 00VOID (Reissue) (Southern Lord) 2lp 22.00
Now reissued on vinyl!!
First released way back in 2001, SUNNO)))'s 00Void was later re-released on Japanese label Daymare, which included a bonus disc, on which Nurse With Wound remixed and re-envisioned the record, and transformed it into something haunting and surprisingly lovely. That bonus disc was recently reissued on vinyl (with some slight alterations, apparently), as was the double cd version, but for folks who got the remix disc vinyl, and need 00Void to complete the set, your prayers have been answered, as now Southern Lord has re-released 00Void on vinyl once more (the previous vinyl edition years ago was on Dirter).
00Void was in fact, SUNNO)))'s first proper album, the preceding Grimmrobe Demos, being just that, demos, but sonically, it picked up right where Grimmrobe left off, huge undulating slow motion riffscapes, epic, majestic, glacial, ominous and black hole heavy. Although it hardly seems necessary at this point, for those who have managed to somehow avoid SUNNO)))'s sonic influence, SUNNO))) began life as the world's first, best, only, (and last?) EARTH tribute band, emulating and bowing before the glacial "power ambient drone" metal of Earth, creating a little cult of the dronedoomdirge faithful, long before the hipster set caught on, but this record, as much as Grimmrobe before it made a case for SUNNO))) as their own entity, sure they owed every aspect of their sound to the band they were birthed to honor (still do really), but they managed to subtly imbue that same sound with their own influences and experience, creating something even more slow and low if that were even possible, setting yet another standard for heaviness.
So on 00Void, SUNNO))) indulge in pure unfettered doom, loosed from any sort of rhythmic constrictions, unmoored from traditional song structures, letting riffs and tones and pure vibrations emanate from their wall of speakers, like some monstrous black tuning fork, almost more a physical sensation than an aural one, but those movements of blackdrone infused with a musicality that blossoms slowly the deeper you allow yourself to sink. Suffocating, pummeling, crushing, oozing, but also soothing and beautiful. Maybe one of our favorite SUNNO))) records for sure. And if the pure grim heaviness of the three originals wasn't enough, 00Void also includes a cover (or, an interpretation, anyway) of a Melvins tune! Another band who were dabbling in slow motion heaviness long before it was cool...
MPEG Stream: "NN 0)))"
MPEG Stream: "Ra At Dusk"

SUNN O))) 3: Flight Of The Behemoth (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
The third (duh) album from the lower-than-low doom duo of Stephen O'Malley (Burning Witch, Khanate) and Greg Anderson (Goatsnake, ex-Engine Kid). SUNN O))), formed in tribute to defunct Sub Pop heavies Earth, never fails to warm our doom-drone lovin' hearts, even as SUNN's thick, sludgy wall of bass-heavy guitar distortion utterly numbs our bodies. We loved their last album "OO Void" so much that we were both eager to hear this new one, and a bit apprehensive 'cause we heard it had a bunch of remixes on it, which sometimes means throw-away BS. But as it turns out, not in this case, thankfully!
The first two tracks, totalling 22 minutes, constitute a new SUNN original, with dark waves of Earth-worthy droneriff rolling relentlessly ever onward. (Track one is called "Mocking Solemnity" and track two is called "Death Becomes You", but there's no discernable break between them, it's really all one piece.)
Then come the two mixes, and the surprise is that they're even better than the SUNN-alone tracks!
Maybe that's 'cause they were produced by Masami Akita, aka the notorious Japanese noise artist Merzbow! His first mix (5 mins) drops some atonal piano into the dronezone of Sunn, while mix number 2 (13 mins) really goes for a grinding godhead experience. He really takes it to another level.
After the Merzbow tracks, "Flight" closes out with another original track called "F.W.T.B.T.", and it's another good 'un, featuring guests "Bootsy Kronos" on bass, and, uh, "Aspirin Feast" on drums. Drums!
Steve O'Malley did a great job with the album design, too, somehow emulating the graphics of Earth's "2" with nicely colored picture of a hunting dog, a shot of the SUNN boys looking like long haired, black clad twins, and -- get this -- what appears to be a certain rock star's Klonopin perscription from a Beverly Hills pharmacy!
Southern Lord recommends this to fans of Earth, Melvins, Thrones, Thomas Koner...and we do too!! Add to that list Boris, Corrupted, Fushitsusha, and Loop (the last two are SUNN fan Julian Cope's comparisons)... "Flight of the Behemoth" is truly a massive, rumbling, varied, experimental DRONEDOOM ESSENTIAL!
RealAudio clip: "O)))bow1"
RealAudio clip: "Mocking Solemnity"

SUNN O))) 3: Flight Of The Behemoth (bisect.bleep) 2lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
vinyl...We've got three of these

The third (duh) album from the lower-than-low doom duo of Stephen O'Malley (Burning Witch, Khanate) and Greg Anderson (Goatsnake, ex-Engine Kid). SUNN O))), formed in tribute to defunct Sub Pop heavies Earth, never fails to warm our doom-drone lovin' hearts, even as SUNN's thick, sludgy wall of bass-heavy guitar distortion utterly numbs our bodies. We loved their last album "OO Void" so much that we were both eager to hear this new one, and a bit apprehensive 'cause we heard it had a bunch of remixes on it, which sometimes means throw-away BS. But as it turns out, not in this case, thankfully!
The first two tracks, totalling 22 minutes, constitute a new SUNN original, with dark waves of Earth-worthy droneriff rolling relentlessly ever onward. (Track one is called "Mocking Solemnity" and track two is called "Death Becomes You", but there's no discernable break between them, it's really all one piece.)
Then come the two mixes, and the surprise is that they're even better than the SUNN-alone tracks!
Maybe that's 'cause they were produced by Masami Akita, aka the notorious Japanese noise artist Merzbow! His first mix (5 mins) drops some atonal piano into the dronezone of Sunn, while mix number 2 (13 mins) really goes for a grinding godhead experience. He really takes it to another level.
After the Merzbow tracks, "Flight" closes out with another original track called "F.W.T.B.T.", and it's another good 'un, featuring guests "Bootsy Kronos" on bass, and, uh, "Aspirin Feast" on drums. Drums!
Steve O'Malley did a great job with the album design, too, somehow emulating the graphics of Earth's "2" with nicely colored picture of a hunting dog, a shot of the SUNN boys looking like long haired, black clad twins, and -- get this -- what appears to be a certain rock star's Klonopin perscription from a Beverly Hills pharmacy!
Southern Lord recommends this to fans of Earth, Melvins, Thrones, Thomas Koner...and we do too!! Add to that list Boris, Corrupted, Fushitsusha, and Loop (the last two are SUNN fan Julian Cope's comparisons)... "Flight of the Behemoth" is truly a massive, rumbling, varied, experimental DRONEDOOM ESSENTIAL!
RealAudio clip: "O)))bow1"
RealAudio clip: "Mocking Solemnity"

SUNN O))) 3: Flight Of The Behemoth (Expanded Edition) (Daymare) 2cd 38.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet again, proving that you haven't really owned a Sunn 0))) record until you've bought it at least twice, preferably three times, comes two more blasts from the dark side of the doom, what many consider to be Sunn 0)))'s finest moments, their debut, The GrimmRobe Demos, and Flight Of The Behemoth! Both expanded with over the top new packaging, gorgeous Japanese style mini lp gatefold style cd sleeves, inserts, printed inner sleeves and Japanese style obi's, but most importantly a whole disc of unreleased material!!
The third Sunn 0))) disc (still waiting on record number two, 00 Void, to get reissued), Flight Of The Behemoth, is packaged in an amazing metallic gold on black mini gatefold sleeve, printed inside and out, the various images from the old version reproduced on the printed inner sleeves, a fold out poster with liner notes and track listing and a discography on the other side. The first disc is discussed in great detail below, but the new, extra disc is a live recording from earlier this year, featuring Sunn 0))) and Merzbow performing together, and engineered by Masami Akita, Mr. Merzbow himself. Which makes sense since the second half of Flight Of The Behemoth was actually Akita remixing Sunn 0))) anyway. So you probably know what you're in store for, some seriously noisy business, which is of course what you get, two massive slabs of Sunn 0)))-y sludge, caked in blown out sheets of Merzbowic grit, shrieking feedback, malfunctioning electronics, high end shrieks, thick chunks of crumbling distortion, blasts of spaced out FX, while beneath it all, the sound of Sunn 0))) continues to grind and churn like some subterranean sonic lava flow. Pretty awesome, and much like when he performs with Boris, Akita knows how to make his noise compliment, instead of overwhelm. So yeah, Sunn freeks and Merzbow obsessives will absolutely need this, and if you somehow never managed to pick up Flight Of The Behemoth, now is as good a time as any. So here's what we had to say about Sunn 0))) 3: Flight Of The Behemoth, when we first reviewed it way back in 2002:
The third (duh) album from the lower-than-low doom duo of Stephen O'Malley (Burning Witch, Khanate) and Greg Anderson (Goatsnake, ex-Engine Kid). SUNN O))), formed in tribute to defunct Sub Pop heavies Earth, never fails to warm our doom-drone lovin' hearts, even as SUNN's thick, sludgy wall of bass-heavy guitar distortion utterly numbs our bodies. We loved their last album "OO Void" so much that we were both eager to hear this new one, and a bit apprehensive 'cause we heard it had a bunch of remixes on it, which sometimes means throw-away BS. But as it turns out, not in this case, thankfully!
The first two tracks, totaling 22 minutes, constitute a new SUNN original, with dark waves of Earth-worthy droneriff rolling relentlessly ever onward. (Track one is called "Mocking Solemnity" and track two is called "Death Becomes You", but there's no discernible break between them, it's really all one piece.)
Then come the two mixes, and the surprise is that they're even better than the SUNN-alone tracks!
Maybe that's 'cause they were produced by Masami Akita, aka the notorious Japanese noise artist Merzbow! His first mix (5 mins) drops some atonal piano into the dronezone of Sunn, while mix number 2 (13 mins) really goes for a grinding godhead experience. He really takes it to another level.
After the Merzbow tracks, "Flight" closes out with another original track called "F.W.T.B.T.", and it's another good 'un, featuring guests "Bootsy Kronos" on bass, and, uh, "Aspirin Feast" on drums. Drums!
Steve O'Malley did a great job with the album design, too, somehow emulating the graphics of Earth's "2" with nicely colored picture of a hunting dog, a shot of the SUNN boys looking like long haired, black clad twins, and -- get this -- what appears to be a certain rock star's Klonopin perscription from a Beverly Hills pharmacy!
Southern Lord recommends this to fans of Earth, Melvins, Thrones, Thomas Koner...and we do too!! Add to that list Boris, Corrupted, Fushitsusha, and Loop (the last two are SUNN fan Julian Cope's comparisons)... "Flight of the Behemoth" is truly a massive, rumbling, varied, experimental DRONEDOOM ESSENTIAL!
MPEG Stream: "O)))bow1"
MPEG Stream: "Mocking Solemnity"

SUNN O))) Black One (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
As you may have noticed, theÊaQ speakers have been quite clogged of late with the black sonic tar of glacial doom and slow motion sludge, molten flows of downtuned guitars, rumbling bowel churning drones, impossibly slow and primordially plodding drumming, all tangled up in huge squirming, blackened riffs, like mammoths struggling to loose themselves from pits of black tar. We've also been quite obsessed with the more virulent strains of buzzing, bizarre black metal. Leviathan, Xasthur, Benighted Leams, Blackdeath, Deathspell Omega, Furze, Lurker Of Chalice and the like. But just imagine for a moment, if that river of sludge we love so much ran right through the darkened Nordic forest, or if you took all that buzz and fuzz and held it under a thick layer of black pitch, while it struggled desperately for breath, or if you took the bombinating blur of Burzum and slowed it waaaaay doooooooown, or better yet, what if Dylan Carlson of Earth grew up listening to Darkthrone and Mayhem instead of Hendrix and the Mentors. Well you'd probably get something like Black One. To be honest, what forms the basis of Black One is really not all that different than other SUNNO))) records. It's still a series of 16 rpm metal riffs, morphed beautifully into plodding hypnotic smears of metallic ambience. The blackness here comes from several sources: the art and the imagery for one, a very metal looking cover drawing, olde English fonts, O'Malley and Anderson have adopted properly metal monickers for the instruments used: axe subs, icy inverted crosswinds upon four string zamboni, grail, glacial winds, calls from beyond the grave! Then there is the presence of two current BM legends, Malefic from Xasthur and Wrest from Leviathan. That said, there are moments, where SUNNO)))'s immediately recognizable sludge does twist itself into more black metal shapes, and it's those moments that Black One truly taps into a direct line to the fiery abyss. Imagine listening to Immortal through some sort of time warp, where Blizzard Beasts is stretched into a single icy contrail spread out over 666 years, a hazy black cloud swallowing everything in its path. Add some truly frosty and fucked up vocals and ghostly guitars from Wrest and Malefic, all manner of gorgeous sonic filigree from Australian experimental guitarist Oren Ambarchi and noise guru John Weise, some text by Seldon Hunt, and that oh so familiar Sunn-y O'MalleyÊartwork, lyrics via Dead (from Mayhem), Malefic, Wrest and Abbath (of Immortal) and you might just be looking at a truly and utterly black one indeed.
MPEG Stream: "It Took The Night To Believe"
MPEG Stream: "Cursed Realms (Of The Winterdemons)"
MPEG Stream: "Orthodox Caveman"

SUNN O))) Black One (Southern Lord) 2lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally on vinyl, and what a chunk of vinyl! Two thick slabs of grey vinyl, housed in full color inner sleeves, housed in an incredibly thick gatefold, the kind that creaks and groan as you open it, on gorgeous textured paper. Wow! And as always SUPER LIMITED. We were able to get 50 copies on colored vinyl so act fast. Here's what we had to say about the music inside:
As you may have noticed, theÊaQ speakers have been quite clogged of late with the black sonic tar of glacial doom and slow motion sludge, molten flows of downtuned guitars, rumbling bowel churning drones, impossibly slow and primordially plodding drumming, all tangled up in huge squirming, blackened riffs, like mammoths struggling to loose themselves from pits of black tar. We've also been quite obsessed with the more virulent strains of buzzing, bizarre black metal. Leviathan, Xasthur, Benighted Leams, Blackdeath, Deathspell Omega, Furze, Lurker Of Chalice and the like. But just imagine for a moment, if that river of sludge we love so much ran right through the darkened Nordic forest, or if you took all that buzz and fuzz and held it under a thick layer of black pitch, while it struggled desperately for breath, or if you took the bombinating blur of Burzum and slowed it waaaaay doooooooown, or better yet, what if Dylan Carlson of Earth grew up listening to Darkthrone and Mayhem instead of Hendrix and the Mentors. Well you'd probably get something like Black One. To be honest, what forms the basis of Black One is really not all that different than other SUNNO))) records. It's still a series of 16 rpm metal riffs, morphed beautifully into plodding hypnotic smears of metallic ambience. The blackness here comes from several sources: the art and the imagery for one, a very metal looking cover drawing, olde English fonts, O'Malley and Anderson have adopted properly metal monickers for the instruments used: axe subs, icy inverted crosswinds upon four string zamboni, grail, glacial winds, calls from beyond the grave! Then there is the presence of two current BM legends, Malefic from Xasthur and Wrest from Leviathan. That said, there are moments, where SUNNO)))'s immediately recognizable sludge does twist itself into more black metal shapes, and it's those moments that Black One truly taps into a direct line to the fiery abyss. Imagine listening to Immortal through some sort of time warp, where Blizzard Beasts is stretched into a single icy contrail spread out over 666 years, a hazy black cloud swallowing everything in its path. Add some truly frosty and fucked up vocals and ghostly guitars from Wrest and Malefic, all manner of gorgeous sonic filigree from Australian experimental guitarist Oren Ambarchi and noise guru John Weise, some text by Seldon Hunt, and that oh so familiar Sunn-y O'MalleyÊartwork, lyrics via Dead (from Mayhem), Malefic, Wrest and Abbath (of Immortal) and you might just be looking at a truly and utterly black one indeed.
MPEG Stream: "It Took The Night To Believe"
MPEG Stream: "Cursed Realms (Of The Winterdemons)"
MPEG Stream: "Orthodox Caveman"

SUNN O))) Black One (Japanese Version) (Daymare) 2cd 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Besides Boris, SUNNO))) are the undisputed masters of the limited, the repackaged, the-must-buy-for-a-single-track, the must-have-every-color-vinyl, a crazy cult of completism. Almost every release by both bands, has seemingly been offered in multiple limited releases, slightly altered versions for Japan and the US, ridiculously limited runs, and impossible to get tour only editions. We put up with it, cuz, well, both bands rule, and continually kick our asses. And it's kinda fun chasing down weird hard to find releases and super limited editions. To a point.
We're happy to report, that unless you are one of the very lucky ones, saw the band on tour, or spent a fortune on eBay, then these three Japanese reissues are absolutely worth rebuying, as each one includes a bonus disc (or discs) that most folks probably never got their hands on. In fact, we were never able to get any of them for the store. So we'd wager lots of you will be super psyched to pick these up, even if you already have the Southern Lord version. Especially since buying the original versions on eBay would probably cost as much as these multiple disc Daymare versions, and they look amazing, re-designed packaging by Stephen O'Malley, printed inner sleeves, cool miniature lp style gatefold jackets, Japanese liner notes, obi's, really really nice. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES too, so these will probably not be around for long...
Black one includes La Mort Noir dans Esch/Alzette, a super limited (1000 copies) tour only cd, gone in a flash, within the first few dates of the tour, so even folks who made it out probably never even saw it. We never managed to get ANY copies at all, and it's been a super expensive eBay item ever since. The thing about La Mort Noir dans Esch/Alzette, is it might be even better than Black One proper! Recorded live in Luxembourg, the core duo of O'Malley and Anderson is augmented by Malefic of Xasthur on vocals, Dylan Carlson from Earth, the guy from Beaver on synths and Steve Moore on trombone (who also plays horns for Earth), and the set is monstrous, a dark and oppressive black dronescape, guitars are thick and glacial, the horns add another layer of buzz and throb as do the synths, Malefic shrieks and howls atop the din, it's pretty heavy and intense. And it sounds good enough that it we find ourselves digging it more than the album, and it sounds like it could very well have just been a second disc of a Black One double cd. Which, well, it is now!
And just in case you need the scoop on Black One, here's our review from when we first listed it:
As you may have noticed, theÊaQ speakers have been quite clogged of late with the black sonic tar of glacial doom and slow motion sludge, molten flows of downtuned guitars, rumbling bowel churning drones, impossibly slow and primordially plodding drumming, all tangled up in huge squirming, blackened riffs, like mammoths struggling to loose themselves from pits of black tar. We've also been quite obsessed with the more virulent strains of buzzing, bizarre black metal. Leviathan, Xasthur, Benighted Leams, Blackdeath, Deathspell Omega, Furze, Lurker Of Chalice and the like. But just imagine for a moment, if that river of sludge we love so much ran right through the darkened Nordic forest, or if you took all that buzz and fuzz and held it under a thick layer of black pitch, while it struggled desperately for breath, or if you took the bombinating blur of Burzum and slowed it waaaaay doooooooown, or better yet, what if Dylan Carlson of Earth grew up listening to Darkthrone and Mayhem instead of Hendrix and the Mentors. Well you'd probably get something like Black One. To be honest, what forms the basis of Black One is really not all that different than other SUNNO))) records. It's still a series of 16 rpm metal riffs, morphed beautifully into plodding hypnotic smears of metallic ambience. The blackness here comes from several sources: the art and the imagery for one, a very metal looking cover drawing, olde English fonts, O'Malley and Anderson have adopted properly metal monickers for the instruments used: axe subs, icy inverted crosswinds upon four string zamboni, grail, glacial winds, calls from beyond the grave! Then there is the presence of two current BM legends, Malefic from Xasthur and Wrest from Leviathan. That said, there are moments, where SUNNO)))'s immediately recognizable sludge does twist itself into more black metal shapes, and it's those moments that Black One truly taps into a direct line to the fiery abyss. Imagine listening to Immortal through some sort of time warp, where Blizzard Beasts is stretched into a single icy contrail spread out over 666 years, a hazy black cloud swallowing everything in its path. Add some truly frosty and fucked up vocals and ghostly guitars from Wrest and Malefic, all manner of gorgeous sonic filigree from Australian experimental guitarist Oren Ambarchi and noise guru John Weise, some text by Seldon Hunt, and that oh so familiar Sunn-y O'MalleyÊartwork, lyrics via Dead (from Mayhem), Malefic, Wrest and Abbath (of Immortal) and you might just be looking at a truly and utterly black one indeed.
MPEG Stream: "It Took The Night To Believe"
MPEG Stream: "Cursed Realms (Of The Winterdemons)"
MPEG Stream: "Orthodox Caveman"

SUNN O))) Domkirke (Live In Bergen Cathedral 031807) (Southern Lord) 2lp 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Recorded live, in an ancient cathedral in Bergen, Norway, Domkirke is pretty impressive slab of avant heaviness, and continues to display SUNNO))), the duo of Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson (and usually any number of auxiliary members), moving further and further away from their Earth worshipping roots. Having become a bona fide ART band, you're now more likely to catch SUNNO))) in a gallery, or a cathedral, than on a metal bill, which is fine, as their sound is the rare beast that does manage to bridge that gap, and most appealingly, manages to alienate and piss off folks on both sides of the divide.
So for this performance, the band chose to create a piece that reflected the history of the cathedral, creating something much more ritualistic sonically, vocal based, incorporating chants, Gregorian hymns of the Middle Ages, evoking the despair of a time of plague and death, a truly medieval sound, woven into SUNNO))'s more modern minimal glacial dronemusic. The two most noticeable additions to the SUNNO))) sound for this performance are Attila's powerful operatic vocals, and the gorgeous buzz of the cathedral's massive pipe organ. And the opening track is just that, ditching the guitars entirely, letting the organ unfurl massive minor key whirs and shimmering rich harmonies, while Attila moans and croons, sometimes adding another layer of low rumbles, other times, wailing dramatically. The organ so rich and lustrous and majestic and powerful. Reminds you that no matter how many amps you have and how much distortion you use, some things are inherently heavier than guitars. But that doesn't keep the Sunn boys from trying, as the second track returns to more familiar territory, offering up a glacial slow motion flow of crumbling super distorted guitars, more melodic than usual, churning over a back drop of shimmering organ drones, and again Attila's vocals slipping from hissed whisper, to rich mellifluous chant. Add to that a bit of electronic filigree from noisemaker Lasse Marhaug, and you've got a pretty ominous and intense slab of medieval murk. The guitars do unwind into surprisingly melodic figures now and again, but always return find their way back to that main, heaving tarpit riff.
The third side (movement), begins as more of the same, although this time the track sprawls into some almost free noise, the vocals demonic and intense, the guitars spilling out of the amps in noxious black clouds, squalls of electronics, sheets of feedback, sounds almost like SUNNO))) free jazz, unhinged and frenzied, but still bleak and black and heavy. The final movement might be the heaviest of the bunch, those oh so familiar slow motion riffs, wash over that swirling sea of whirring organ, a massive organic, almost fluid sound, alive with energy, black, yet glowing from within, building to a suffocatingly intense climax, the guitars crumbling and blown out, the organ at fever pitch, the vocals another layer of buzz and howl, the whole thing threatening to bring down the ancient stone walls, before dropping out completely, leaving Attila's rumbling low end growl, and then finally leaving just the organ, to play out mournfully and mysteriously.
Pretty fantastic. It almost makes us wish SUNNO))) would just get a pipe organ in the band, permanently. Might make touring a bit tough, but heck, it might just be worth it!
Incredible packaging, one of the thickest gatefold sleeves we've ever seen, adorned with gorgeous abstract oil paintings on the outside, and photos of the performance on the inside, full color printed sleeves, with more performance photos, pressed on black vinyl, limited to 5000 copies, never to be released as a cd or a digital download.

SUNN O))) Monoliths and Dimensions (Southern Lord) cd 15.98
The first thing we thought when we threw this on, was, man, it's gonna be pretty tough to top Domkirke. The last SUNNO))) release, vinyl only, found the duo of Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley recording their low end Earth worshipping drone symphonies in an actual cathedral, incorporating the cathedral's church organ. Hard to imagine anything heavier.
For Monoliths and Dimensions, the duo drafted in all sorts of extra help. The usual suspects sure, Attila Csihar on vocals, guitarist Oren Ambarchi, but also, a veritable orchestra, French horns, violas, piano, hydrophone, English Horn, Conch Shell, double bass, and that's just on album opener "Aghartha", which on first listen sounds like the SUNNO))) of old, all churning low end, slow motion glacial riffage, but as the track progresses, the heavy riffage peels back, revealing, a sea of moaning horns, Csihar's haunting intoned vocals, creaks and groans, and the actual sound of water (the hydrophone?), eventually getting super abstract and minimal, before fading out completely.
"Big Church" features four guitarists (Ambarchi, O'Malley, Anderson and Earth's Dylan Carlson) as well as trombone, trumpet, organ, tubular bells and a choir!!! The choir giving the track a definite Arvo Part vibe, haunting and choral, drifting ethereally over the slow burning rumble of the multiple guitars, before locking into a strangely melodic almost slowcore creep.
"Hunting & Gathering (Cydonia)" features yet another expanded lineup, this time including a "Man choir", the track begins all standard doom, crushing lugubrious riffage, growled gurgled vokills, but the man choir's deep haunting chant adds a whole other dimension, creating a sort of choral doom hybrid, much like the other track, but this one remains much darker and heavier.
Finally, the record closes with Alice, this time with horns AND strings, and the song that probably is most responsible for describing this record as "SUNNO))) with strings". It starts out all woozy and twangy like some nineties slowcore jam, except for the Morricone-ish horn swells, the guitar crunches few and far between, the sound quite spare and skeletal, and weirdly enough, downright pretty, a shuffling slow motion drift, the whole thing surprisingly melodic, and spacious, quite possibly one of the loveliest (and most unlikely) SUNNO))) tracks yet.
SUNNO))) have done wonders with their limited sonic palette, who would have thought a one time Earth cover band would have survived this long, and resulted in such an impressive body of original work, but the group have grown and expanded and explored, they manage to incorporate all manner of sounds and textures and guest players, to realize their ultimate vision, while somehow keeping the core sound intact. We only just got this in, and we've been listening to it like crazy (which should tell you something), and the more we hear it, the more we dig it, especially that last track. Quickly becoming one of our fave SUNNO))) discs...
Incredible packaging as always. Deluxe booklet, exquisitely designed, with lyrics, lineups, diagrams, photos, illustrations, some of the pages vellum, all housed in a transparent printed vellum slipcover.
MPEG Stream: "Aghartha"
MPEG Stream: "Big Church"

SUNN O))) Monoliths and Dimensions (Southern Lord) 2lp 30.00
NOW ON VINYL!!! And holy crap is this some gorgeous over the top packaging, thick vinyl, insanely heavy gatefold jackets, all housed in a printed vellum slipcover to emulate the cd design. Here's what we had to say about Monoliths and Dimensions when we first got it in...
The first thing we thought when we threw this on, was, man, it's gonna be pretty tough to top Domkirke. The last SUNNO))) release, vinyl only, found the duo of Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley recording their low end Earth worshipping drone symphonies in an actual cathedral, incorporating the cathedral's church organ. Hard to imagine anything heavier.
For Monoliths and Dimensions, the duo drafted in all sorts of extra help. The usual suspects sure, Attila Csihar on vocals, guitarist Oren Ambarchi, but also, a veritable orchestra, French horns, violas, piano, hydrophone, English Horn, Conch Shell, double bass, and that's just on album opener "Aghartha", which on first listen sounds like the SUNNO))) of old, all churning low end, slow motion glacial riffage, but as the track progresses, the heavy riffage peels back, revealing, a sea of moaning horns, Csihar's haunting intoned vocals, creaks and groans, and the actual sound of water (the hydrophone?), eventually getting super abstract and minimal, before fading out completely.
"Big Church" features four guitarists (Ambarchi, O'Malley, Anderson and Earth's Dylan Carlson) as well as trombone, trumpet, organ, tubular bells and a choir!!! The choir giving the track a definite Arvo Part vibe, haunting and choral, drifting ethereally over the slow burning rumble of the multiple guitars, before locking into a strangely melodic almost slowcore creep.
"Hunting & Gathering (Cydonia)" features yet another expanded lineup, this time including a "Man choir", the track begins all standard doom, crushing lugubrious riffage, growled gurgled vokills, but the man choir's deep haunting chant adds a whole other dimension, creating a sort of choral doom hybrid, much like the other track, but this one remains much darker and heavier.
Finally, the record closes with Alice, this time with horns AND strings, and the song that probably is most responsible for describing this record as "SUNNO))) with strings". It starts out all woozy and twangy like some nineties slowcore jam, except for the Morricone-ish horn swells, the guitar crunches few and far between, the sound quite spare and skeletal, and weirdly enough, downright pretty, a shuffling slow motion drift, the whole thing surprisingly melodic, and spacious, quite possibly one of the loveliest (and most unlikely) SUNNO))) tracks yet.
SUNNO))) have done wonders with their limited sonic palette, who would have thought a one time Earth cover band would have survived this long, and resulted in such an impressive body of original work, but the group have grown and expanded and explored, they manage to incorporate all manner of sounds and textures and guest players, to realize their ultimate vision, while somehow keeping the core sound intact. We only just got this in, and we've been listening to it like crazy (which should tell you something), and the more we hear it, the more we dig it, especially that last track. Quickly becoming one of our fave SUNNO))) discs...
MPEG Stream: "Aghartha"
MPEG Stream: "Big Church"

SUNN O))) s/t (Hydra Head) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Whoa, an Earth tribute band! Y'know, Earth, the slower than slow, heavier than heavy Sub Pop combo from a few years back, the band that took the Melvins molasses drone riffing over the edge. They're not around anymore (and weren't that great toward the end anyway) but this project (featuring members of Burning Witch/Goatsnake/Engine Kid) revisits Earth's genius genesis (back when Kurt Cobain used to play with 'em), for some long long tracks of primordial dirge. One track is even named after Earth leader Dylan Carlson. And of course the band name Sunn is derived from the amps of choice for both outfits, appropriately so 'cause it's the amps more than the guitars that you hear here. They're not covering Earth tunes, but are essentially following the same formula towards drone metal godhead. Essential for all devotees of the ultra-heavy! Each disc, with a handsome paper sleeve cover, comes sealed in its own spray painted hefty bag!

SUNN O))) The GrimmRobe demos (aka s/t) (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
Now all serious connoisseurs of depression, death, doom and utter grimness have reason to celebrate. No, we're certainly not talking about G.W. Bush's second-term inauguration! It's music we're going on about, and for fans of that brand of heavy, doomful drone that we know so many of you AQ-customers are, this IS good news: the re-release of the debut album from not-so-dynamic doom duo SUNNO)))! Yes! So log off of eBay, save your ninety bucks (that's what Southern Lord says the original cd was going for) and thank 'em for at last reissuing this disc, previously out on Hydrahead subsidary HH Noise Industries back in 2000. Now this classic comes packaged in a jewel case, instead of a spray painted hefty bag sleeve. And yes, there's a BONUS TRACK. Sixteen minutes and forty seconds of bonus track entitled "Grimm & Bear It"...those jokers. That brings this album to over 72 minutes in length, perfect for enjoying your own mini-coma in its ambient embrace. Of all the SUNNO))) cds since, this remains perhaps the closest to the original template of worshipping Earth II to a T.
For some "historical" perspective (and for any who are puzzled, to explain that last comment), let's revist our original review of this disc, upon its first release:
"Whoa, an Earth tribute band! Y'know, Earth, the slower than slow, heavier than heavy Sub Pop combo from a few years back, the band that took the Melvins molasses drone riffing over the edge. They're not around anymore (and weren't that great toward the end anyway) but this project (featuring members of Burning Witch/Goatsnake/Engine Kid) revisits Earth's genius genesis (back when Kurt Cobain used to play with 'em), for some long long tracks of primordial dirge. One track is even named after Earth leader Dylan Carlson. And of course the band name Sunn is derived from the amps of choice for both outfits, appropriately so 'cause it's the amps more than the guitars that you hear here. They're not covering Earth tunes, but are essentially following the same formula towards drone metal godhead. Essential for all devotees of the ultra-heavy!"
MPEG Stream: "Defeating: Earth's Gravity"

SUNN O))) The GrimmRobe Demos (aka s/t) (Southern Lord) 2lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We know lots of you SunnO))) fanatics missed out on the various versions of the GrimmRobe Demos 2lp. So we're happy to report that we finally got a bunch more of these in. Supposedly the LAST pressing, on good old black vinyl (the best sounding BTW). Not sure how long they'll last, so act fast.
Now all serious connoisseurs of depression, death, doom and utter grimness have reason to celebrate. No, we're certainly not talking about G.W. Bush's second-term inauguration! It's music we're going on about, and for fans of that brand of heavy, doomful drone that we know so many of you AQ-customers are, this IS good news: the re-release of the debut album from not-so-dynamic doom duo SUNNO)))! Yes! So log off of eBay, save your ninety bucks (that's what Southern Lord says the original cd was going for) and thank 'em for at last reissuing this disc, previously out on Hydrahead subsidary HH Noise Industries back in 2000. And yes, there's a BONUS TRACK. Sixteen minutes and forty seconds of bonus track entitled "Grimm & Bear It"...those jokers. That brings this album to over 72 minutes in length, perfect for enjoying your own mini-coma in its ambient embrace. Of all the SUNNO))) cds since, this remains perhaps the closest to the original template of worshipping Earth II to a T.
For some "historical" perspective (and for any who are puzzled, to explain that last comment), let's revist our original review of this disc, upon its first release:
"Whoa, an Earth tribute band! Y'know, Earth, the slower than slow, heavier than heavy Sub Pop combo from a few years back, the band that took the Melvins molasses drone riffing over the edge. They're not around anymore (and weren't that great toward the end anyway) but this project (featuring members of Burning Witch/Goatsnake/Engine Kid) revisits Earth's genius genesis (back when Kurt Cobain used to play with 'em), for some long long tracks of primordial dirge. One track is even named after Earth leader Dylan Carlson. And of course the band name Sunn is derived from the amps of choice for both outfits, appropriately so 'cause it's the amps more than the guitars that you hear here. They're not covering Earth tunes, but are essentially following the same formula towards drone metal godhead. Essential for all devotees of the ultra-heavy!"
And as some of you have mentioned to us, the Southern Lord website lists a super limited purple vinyl version, but those are available only via direct mailorder from Southern Lord and are most likely gone already anyway.
MPEG Stream: "Defeating: Earth's Gravity"

SUNN O))) The GrimmRobe Demos (Expanded Edition) (Daymare) 2cd 38.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet again, proving that you haven't really owned a Sunn 0))) record until you've bought it at least twice, preferably three times, here comes two more blasts from the dark side of the doom, what many consider to be Sunn 0)))'s finest moments, their debut, The GrimmRobe Demos, and record number three, Flight Of The Behemoth! Both expanded with over the top new packaging, gorgeous Japanese style mini lp gatefold style cd sleeves, inserts, printed inner sleeves, but most importantly a whole disc of unreleased material!!
The GrimmRobe Demos was the first most of us had ever heard of this supposed Earth tribute band, their debut disc in a cardboard sleeve, wrapped in a black trash bag silkscreened with the Sunn 0))) logo in metallic gold, the sound a filthier, sludgier version of Earth's classic 2 album. We were in doomdirgedeathdrone nirvana. And still are. After a million Sunn 0))) wannabes, the GrimmRobe Demos still sound as heavy and sludge-y and as gloriously grim as ever.
The packaging is of course fantastic, a super thick gatefold mini lp style sleeve, printed in that deep blue and silver, inside a HUGE booklet affixed to the front, with extensive liner notes, in English and Japanese, including a looooong essay, Ode To The Grimmrobe, by Seldon Hunt. Each disc is in a plastic sleeve housed in a full color printed sleeve, the disc proper has more images like those inside the gatefold, while the bonus disc has a flyer and photos from the live show within. So yeah, Sunn 0))) performing live, back in 1999, when they were still an opening act (opening for Angel Rot, who?), 25 + minutes of crumbling low end destruction, gritty and grimy and filthy, a massive roiling morass of downtuned guitar rumble and shimmering feedback, gorgeous and of course brutal, and capturing Sunn 0))) near the beginning. Fans will of course want this, the packaging, the essay, the killer live show, but just like Flight Of The Behemoth, folks who missed out on the GrimmRobe Demos the first time around, should must definitely rectify that situation RIGHT NOW.
Of all the SUNNO))) cds, and there have been a LOT, this remains perhaps the closest to the original template of worshipping Earth II to a T. Which as far as we're concerned, at least sonically, is a very very good thing. Earth tribute band? Sunn? Huh? For those confused, or new to the world of Sunn 0))), let's elaborate.
Once upon a time, there was Earth, a slower than slow, heavier than heavy Sub Pop combo that took the Melvins molasses drone riffing over the edge. Turning sound into something so slow and physical you could almost feel it more than hear it. They disbanded, disappeared, and since then they've resurfaced, albeit with a new, WAY less sludgey sound, so it was and IS up to the dudes in Sunn 0))) (get it, Earth, Sunn, there's also a Sunn tribute band called Moon) to revisit, and resuscitate Earth's genius genesis (back when Kurt Cobain used to play with 'em!), and thus, Sunn 0))) deliver what could be a part two to Earth 2, loooooong tracks of primordial dirge, humming and rumbling and crumbling and moving like a blackened glacier, riffs sprawled out over minutes instead of seconds, a slowly churning propulsive murky low end beast. One track is even named after Earth leader Dylan Carlson. And of course, as we mentioned above, the band name Sunn is derived from the proximity in the solar system to Earth, but also, and maybe moreso, the amps of choice for both outfits, appropriately so 'cause it's the amps more than the guitars that you hear here. They're not covering Earth tunes here, but are basically following the same formula towards drone metal godhead. Essential for all devotees of the ultra-heavy!
MPEG Stream: "Defeating: Earth's Gravity"

SUNN O))) White1 (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
Rumbing distortion. Doom. Drone. The vibrations have begun, another SUNNO))) disc is upon us!
As you probably know, the shorthand description for this band is that they're the SUNN that orbits Earth (the band). But actually this release from Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson's heavier-than-thou SUNNO))) proves that (as we knew all along) they exert their own gravity in the universe of dark heavy drone musicks. Previous efforts like "Flight Of The Behemoth" have been faves round here, and they also made a fan out of pagan psych-rock maven / monolith expert Julian Cope, who appears here on the 25 minute opening track "My Wall" reading an epic poem! It's a bit like Current 93 but of course waaaay heavier. SUNNO))) has some other heavy friends involved with this recording too, among them the mighty Joe Preston (Thrones, ex-Melvins, ex-Earth!) who brings in some of the fucked up programmed drumming that makes his Thrones project so special. Meanwhile, Jessamine/Fontanelle's Rex Ritter not only plays on the disc, but took care of the recording and mixing too. And the doom-folk direction that Cope's presence suggests is furthered by vocal contributions from Nordic ice witch doom vocalist Runhild Gammelsaeter (whom some will know from her band with Greg Anderson, Thorr's Hammer). The final, spacey track with her and Preston dueting is a dronefolk dream. Holy Wotan! Space rockers, drone fiends, pagans, and doom heads alike all should worship this dark SUNN... And we're told the recording session apparently yielded enough material for more than one album, thus there should be a White2 to look forward to someday!
MPEG Stream: "The Gates Of Ballard"
MPEG Stream: "A Shaving Of The Horn That Speared You"

SUNN O))) White1 (Southern Lord) 2lp 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For a limited time, now briefly available on swank double vinyl!!
Rumbing distortion. Doom. Drone. The vibrations have begun, another SUNNO))) disc is upon us!
As you probably know, the shorthand description for this band is that they're the SUNN that orbits Earth (the band). But actually this release from Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson's heavier-than-thou SUNNO))) proves that (as we knew all along) they exert their own gravity in the universe of dark heavy drone musicks. Previous efforts like "Flight Of The Behemoth" have been faves round here, and they also made a fan out of pagan psych-rock maven / monolith expert Julian Cope, who appears here on the 25 minute opening track "My Wall" reading an epic poem! It's a bit like Current 93 but of course waaaay heavier. SUNNO))) has some other heavy friends involved with this recording too, among them the mighty Joe Preston (Thrones, ex-Melvins, ex-Earth!) who brings in some of the fucked up programmed drumming that makes his Thrones project so special. Meanwhile, Jessamine/Fontanelle's Rex Ritter not only plays on the disc, but took care of the recording and mixing too. And the doom-folk direction that Cope's presence suggests is furthered by vocal contributions from Nordic ice witch doom vocalist Runhild Gammelsaeter (whom some will know from her band with Greg Anderson, Thor's Hammer). The final, spacey track with her and Preston dueting is a dronefolk dream. Holy Wotan! Space rockers, drone fiends, pagans, and doom heads alike all should worship this dark SUNN... And we're told the recording session apparently yielded enough material for more than one album, thus there should be a White2 to look forward to someday!
MPEG Stream: "The Gates Of Ballard"
MPEG Stream: "A Shaving Of The Horn That Speared You"

SUNN O))) White1 (Japanese Version) (Daymare) 2cd 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Besides Boris, SUNNO))) are the undisputed masters of the limited, the repackaged, the-must-buy-for-a-single-track, the must-have-every-color-vinyl, a crazy cult of completism. Almost every release by both bands, has seemingly been offered in multiple limited releases, slightly altered versions for Japan and the US, ridiculously limited runs, and impossible to get tour only editions. We put up with it, cuz, well, both bands rule, and continually kick our asses. And it's kinda fun chasing down weird hard to find releases and super limited editions. To a point.
We're happy to report, that unless you are one of the very lucky ones, saw the band on tour, or spent a fortune on eBay, then these three Japanese reissues are absolutely worth rebuying, as each one includes a bonus disc (or discs) that most folks probably never got their hands on. In fact, we were never able to get any of them for the store. So we'd wager lots of you will be super psyched to pick these up, even if you already have the Southern Lord version. Especially since buying the original versions on eBay would probably cost as much as these multiple disc Daymare versions, and they look amazing, re-designed packaging by Stephen O'Malley, printed inner sleeves, cool miniature lp style gatefold jackets, obi's, really really nice. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES too, so these will probably not be around for long...
White One is bundled with the very rare LXNDXN Subcamden Underworld Hallo'ween 2003 (The Libations Of Samhain), a cd originally released on Arthur Magazine's Bastet label, which features a single 50 minute live track, recorded on Halloween 2003 in London, a massive roiling downtuned dronescape, plenty of slow motion riffing and bowel loosening rumble, as well as a pretty funny interview which took place on Resonance FM and features Edwin Pouncey (aka Savage Pencil) interviewing what sounds like a VERY stoned, and slightly goofy Anderson and O'Malley. Even though the live track is a killer, it's worth it for the interview alone!
And just in case you need the scoop on White One, here's our review from when we first listed it:
Rumbing distortion. Doom. Drone. The vibrations have begun, another SUNNO))) disc is upon us!
As you probably know, the shorthand description for this band is that they're the SUNN that orbits Earth (the band). But actually this release from Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson's heavier-than-thou SUNNO))) proves that (as we knew all along) they exert their own gravity in the universe of dark heavy drone musicks. Previous efforts like "Flight Of The Behemoth" have been faves round here, and they also made a fan out of pagan psych-rock maven / monolith expert Julian Cope, who appears here on the 25 minute opening track "My Wall" reading an epic poem! It's a bit like Current 93 but of course waaaay heavier. SUNNO))) has some other heavy friends involved with this recording too, among them the mighty Joe Preston (Thrones, ex-Melvins, ex-Earth!) who brings in some of the fucked up programmed drumming that makes his Thrones project so special. Meanwhile, Jessamine/Fontanelle's Rex Ritter not only plays on the disc, but took care of the recording and mixing too. And the doom-folk direction that Cope's presence suggests is furthered by vocal contributions from Nordic ice witch doom vocalist Runhild Gammelsaeter (whom some will know from her band with Greg Anderson, Thorr's Hammer). The final, spacey track with her and Preston dueting is a dronefolk dream. Holy Wotan! Space rockers, drone fiends, pagans, and doom heads alike all should worship this dark SUNN... And we're told the recording session apparently yielded enough material for more than one album, thus was born White2 which would follow not soon after!
MPEG Stream: "The Gates Of Ballard"
MPEG Stream: "A Shaving Of The Horn That Speared You"

SUNN O))) White2 (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
And the vibrations continue...like the ice age envisioned in that recent movie The Day After Tomorrow, White2 by Earth-worshippers SUNNO))) has finally arrived to obliterate all life foolish enough to have futilely flourished in the interim since the release of their previous album White1 last year. It's doom time, folks. For the unprepared among you, we should explain that the Earth just mentioned is of course the band not the planet, with Earth (and SUNNO)))) being the lowest of the low, sub-Melvins, drone-out, heavy-riff-ruling outfits around. Earth came first, but over their last few albums SUNNO))) really have moved beyond the Earth tribute phase, and certainly crossed over from the metal realm into the indie-rock and avant-experimental spheres as well, with an Arthur magazine sponsored tour and write-ups in The Wire to prove it. Maybe they're now the hipster "metal" band of choice but we won't hold that against them -- they're freaking good! (Believe it or not, we hear that some folks in Poland have formed a band in tribute to SUNNO))), known as MOOND)))! If they release anything we can get, we'll let you know.)
White2 was recorded at the same sessions as White1, which saw the core SUNNO))) duo of guitarists Stephen O'Malley (Khanate, Burning Witch, Lotus Eaters) and Greg Anderson (Goatsnake, Engine Kid) augmented by guests including Rex Ritter (Jessamine) and Joe Preston (Thrones, Melvins, Earth itself) both of whom appear on this disc. White1 also featured a recital by none other than head Head Julian Cope. He's not present on White2, but in his place they've installed someone perhaps even more pagan: vocalist Attila Cishar, the Hungarian black metal icon best known for fronting Norway's infamous Mayhem on their classic De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas album!
This disc ("optimized for blackened sub-bass systems" just so you know) clocks in at 63 minutes, divided amongst three long tracks, the first of which, "Hell-O)))-Ween", starts things off as you'd expect: it's a sonic glacier, prime Earth-styled SUNNO))) drone-grind. But track two, "bassAliens" moves into weirder, more abstract territory, a haunting, cave-dwelling improv whose electric noises could be the awakening of some cosmic Cthulhoid monster. Then the last and longest track "Decay2 (Nihil's Maw)" ups this album's quota of terror and beauty both. A spacey, droney, dark dreamscream from the throat of Attila... White2 is metal maybe, experimental yes, and quite a scary success. The farther-out stuff on this disc could be and has been rightly been compared to the music of Keiji Haino, cloaked in the same blackness. From riffage to ritual, recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Hell-O)))-Ween"
MPEG Stream: "bassAliens"

SUNN O))) White2 (Southern Lord) 2lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now on lp! Packaged in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve and pressed on two slabs of (of course) white vinyl! This vinyl edition also adds one track, the 18 minute "Decay [The Symptoms Of Kali Yuga]" that previously only appeared as an mp3 bonus on Southern Lord's "Beast Of" Attila Csihar cd. Aside from that addition, what we said about the cd version applies, as follows:
And the vibrations continue...like the ice age envisioned in that recent movie The Day After Tomorrow, White2 by Earth-worshippers SUNNO))) has finally arrived to obliterate all life foolish enough to have futilely flourished in the interim since the release of their previous album White1 last year. It's doom time, folks. For the unprepared among you, we should explain that the Earth just mentioned is of course the band not the planet, with Earth (and SUNNO)))) being the lowest of the low, sub-Melvins, drone-out, heavy-riff-ruling outfits around. Earth came first, but over their last few albums SUNNO))) really have moved beyond the Earth tribute phase, and certainly crossed over from the metal realm into the indie-rock and avant-experimental spheres as well, with an Arthur magazine sponsored tour and write-ups in The Wire to prove it. Maybe they're now the hipster "metal" band of choice but we won't hold that against them -- they're freaking good! (Believe it or not, we hear that some folks in Poland have formed a band in tribute to SUNNO))), known as MOOND)))! If they release anything we can get, we'll let you know.)
White2 was recorded at the same sessions as White1, which saw the core SUNNO))) duo of guitarists Stephen O'Malley (Khanate, Burning Witch, Lotus Eaters) and Greg Anderson (Goatsnake, Engine Kid) augmented by guests including Rex Ritter (Jessamine) and Joe Preston (Thrones, Melvins, Earth itself) both of whom appear on this disc. White1 also featured a recital by none other than head Head Julian Cope. He's not present on White2, but in his place they've installed someone perhaps even more pagan: vocalist Attila Cishar, the Hungarian black metal icon best known for fronting Norway's infamous Mayhem on their classic De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas album!
This disc ("optimized for blackened sub-bass systems" just so you know) clocks in at 63 minutes, divided amongst three long tracks, the first of which, "Hell-O)))-Ween", starts things off as you'd expect: it's a sonic glacier, prime Earth-styled SUNNO))) drone-grind. But track two, "bassAliens" moves into weirder, more abstract territory, a haunting, cave-dwelling improv whose electric noises could be the awakening of some cosmic Cthulhoid monster. Then the last and longest track "Decay2 (Nihil's Maw)" ups this album's quota of terror and beauty both. A spacey, droney, dark dreamscream from the throat of Attila... White2 is metal maybe, experimental yes, and quite a scary success. The farther-out stuff on this disc could be and has been rightly been compared to the music of Keiji Haino, cloaked in the same blackness. From riffage to ritual, recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Hell-O)))-Ween"
MPEG Stream: "bassAliens"

SUNN O))) White2 (Japanese Version) (Daymare) 2cd + 3"cd 35.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Besides Boris, SUNNO))) are the undisputed masters of the limited, the repackaged, the-must-buy-for-a-single-track, the must-have-every-color-vinyl, a crazy cult of completism. Almost every release by both bands, has seemingly been offered in multiple limited releases, slightly altered versions for Japan and the US, ridiculously limited runs, and impossible to get tour only editions. We put up with it, cuz, well, both bands rule, and continually kick our asses. And it's kinda fun chasing down weird hard to find releases and super limited editions. To a point.
We're happy to report, that unless you are one of the very lucky ones, saw the band on tour, or spent a fortune on eBay, then these three Japanese reissues are absolutely worth rebuying, as each one includes a bonus disc (or discs) that most folks probably never got their hands on. In fact, we were never able to get any of them for the store. So we'd wager lots of you will be super psyched to pick these up, even if you already have the Southern Lord version. Especially since buying the original versions on eBay would probably cost as much as these multiple disc Daymare versions, and they look amazing, re-designed packaging by Stephen O'Malley, printed inner sleeves, cool miniature lp style gatefold jackets, obi's, really really nice. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES too, so these will probably not be around for long...
The bonus discs on White Two seem to be the ones everyone is after. A criminally limited double cd (one 3", one 5") originally released on Scott Slimm's aRCHIVE label, we tried to order 100 copies, but it sold out so fast we never saw a single copy. So now here's your chance, a double disc of live SUNNO))), recorded live in Brooklyn in 2004, featuring SUNNO)))as a trio, O'Malley, Anderson, and Rex Ritter from Jessamine. ANd again more of what you love. Slow and heavy and strangely beautiful...
And just in case you need the scoop on White Two, here's our review from when we first listed it:
And the vibrations continue...like the ice age envisioned in that recent movie The Day After Tomorrow, White2 by Earth-worshippers SUNNO))) has finally arrived to obliterate all life foolish enough to have futilely flourished in the interim since the release of their previous album White1 last year. It's doom time, folks. For the unprepared among you, we should explain that the Earth just mentioned is of course the band not the planet, with Earth (and SUNNO)))) being the lowest of the low, sub-Melvins, drone-out, heavy-riff-ruling outfits around. Earth came first, but over their last few albums SUNNO))) really have moved beyond the Earth tribute phase, and certainly crossed over from the metal realm into the indie-rock and avant-experimental spheres as well, with an Arthur magazine sponsored tour and write-ups in The Wire to prove it. Maybe they're now the hipster "metal" band of choice but we won't hold that against them -- they're freaking good! (Believe it or not, we hear that some folks in Poland have formed a band in tribute to SUNNO))), known as MOOND)))! If they release anything we can get, we'll let you know.)
White2 was recorded at the same sessions as White1, which saw the core SUNNO))) duo of guitarists Stephen O'Malley (Khanate, Burning Witch, Lotus Eaters) and Greg Anderson (Goatsnake, Engine Kid) augmented by guests including Rex Ritter (Jessamine) and Joe Preston (Thrones, Melvins, Earth itself) both of whom appear on this disc. White1 also featured a recital by none other than head Head Julian Cope. He's not present on White2, but in his place they've installed someone perhaps even more pagan: vocalist Attila Cishar, the Hungarian black metal icon best known for fronting Norway's infamous Mayhem on their classic De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas album!
This disc ("optimized for blackened sub-bass systems" just so you know) clocks in at 63 minutes, divided amongst three long tracks, the first of which, "Hell-O)))-Ween", starts things off as you'd expect: it's a sonic glacier, prime Earth-styled SUNNO))) drone-grind. But track two, "bassAliens" moves into weirder, more abstract territory, a haunting, cave-dwelling improv whose electric noises could be the awakening of some cosmic Cthulhoid monster. Then the last and longest track "Decay2 (Nihil's Maw)" ups this album's quota of terror and beauty both. A spacey, droney, dark dreamscream from the throat of Attila... White2 is metal maybe, experimental yes, and quite a scary success. The farther-out stuff on this disc could be and has been rightly been compared to the music of Keiji Haino, cloaked in the same blackness. From riffage to ritual, recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Hell-O)))-Ween"
MPEG Stream: "bassAliens"

SUNN O))) & BORIS Altar (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
It was inevitable really. The Japanese masters of Orange Amp-powered drone-sludge and the robed priests of low end doom. How could it not happen? In fact, if you remember the 2005 April Fool's AQ list, we actually jokingly predicted this epochal event! Although in our version it also included Earth, each band playing one note of the world's heaviest E chord.
The real question was never IF it would happen, it was when. And how. Especially how. C'mon, how on earth can you fit that many amps in a recording studio. They must have used an airplane hanger, either that or they filled a high school gymnasium with Sunn and Orange stacks and microphones, and actually played in an entirely different room.
Regardless, it happened, and it sounds as good as you might imagine. Both bands completely compliment each other. SUNNO))), whose slow motion riffing borders on pure ambience, is given a serious propulsive shove, with more structured riffing and the addition of DRUMS!!! Boris get dragged back into the gloriously glacial tarpit of their older records, discarding their current garage rock rrrooooaaar for that classic slow motion doom trudge. However you look at it, it's basically the best record either band has put out. It's like an EVEN heavier SUNNO))), with bigger riffs and pulverizing doom rock drums, and of course wailing psychedelic leads. For Boris, they've taken their blown out grooves and dipped them in tar, added a million more pounds of guitar firepower and made the best Boris record since Flood.
But it's not all pulverizing doom riffage. There's plenty of dark droning ambience too. Huge stretches of swirling guitar rumble, dreamy swaths of wispy steel string shimmer. murky and haunting, processed vocals and minor key melodies swimming in a black sea of echoey ambient guitars and sizzling cymbal shimmer. The strangest track is probably "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)", sort of the Boris / SUNNO))) version of a torch song, with FX smeared piano, strange buried rhythms, and hushed vocals, like a doom metal Mazzy Star.
The closer "Bloodswamp" is 14 minutes of churning downtuned guitars and shimmering Sunroof! like ambience. No riffs really, or if they are there, they're stretched into thick streaks of black fuzz. A furiously epic coda to a fucking amazing record.
The first 5000 of these (long gone now, sorry) included a bonus disc, featuring, guess who, Dylan Carlson of Earth (making our April Fools joke come true!!). But even without Dylan's presence on the album proper, there are lots of guest performers including Jesse Sykes, Joe Preston from Thrones (also ex-Melvins, ex-Earth), Kim Thayil from Soundgarden (aha) and Rex Ritter from Jessamine.
Packaged beautifully in a mini cd style gatefold, with AMAZING cover art, black on black with weird muted color and text printed in glossy varnish and metallic gold, both bands be-robed and standing in a cornfield, a full color booklet attached to the inside.
MPEG Stream: "Etna"
MPEG Stream: "N.L.T."
MPEG Stream: "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)"

SUNN O))) & BORIS Altar (Southern Lord) 2cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It was inevitable really. The Japanese masters of Orange Amp-powered drone-sludge and the robed priests of low end doom. How could it not happen? In fact, if you remember the 2005 April Fool's AQ list, we actually jokingly predicted this epochal event! Although in our version it also included Earth, each band playing one note of the world's heaviest E chord.
The real question was never IF it would happen, it was when. And how. Especially how. C'mon, how on earth can you fit that many amps in a recording studio. They must have used an airplane hanger, either that or they filled a high school gymnasium with Sunn and Orange stacks and microphones, and actually played in an entirely different room.
Regardless, it happened, and it sounds as good as you might imagine. Both bands completely compliment each other. SUNNO))), whose slow motion riffing borders on pure ambience, is given a serious propulsive shove, with more structured riffing and the addition of DRUMS!!! Boris get dragged back into the gloriously glacial tarpit of their older records, discarding their current garage rock rrrooooaaar for that classic slow motion doom trudge. However you look at it, it's basically the best record either band has put out. It's like an EVEN heavier SUNNO))), with bigger riffs and pulverizing doom rock drums, and of course wailing psychedelic leads. For Boris, they've taken their blown out grooves and dipped them in tar, added a million more pounds of guitar firepower and made the best Boris record since Flood.
But it's not all pulverizing doom riffage. There's plenty of dark droning ambience too. Huge stretches of swirling guitar rumble, dreamy swaths of wispy steel string shimmer. murky and haunting, processed vocals and minor key melodies swimming in a black sea of echoey ambient guitars and sizzling cymbal shimmer. The strangest track is probably "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)", sort of the Boris / SUNNO))) version of a torch song, with FX smeared piano, strange buried rhythms, and hushed vocals, like a doom metal Mazzy Star.
The closer "Bloodswamp" is 14 minutes of churning downtuned guitars and shimmering Sunroof! like ambience. No riffs really, or if they are there, they're stretched into thick streaks of black fuzz. A furiously epic coda to a fucking amazing record.
The first 5000 copies come with a bonus disc titled SatanOscillateMyMetallicSonatas (a nod to Soundgarden, there?) that features a single 28 minute track called "Her Lips Were Wet With Venom" guest starring Dylan Carlson from Earth! Before we go any further... are you thinking what we're thinking... April Fool's? SUNNO))) and Boris And Earth!!! And I bet you at least some of the bonus track is in E!! Boy, did we call it. And actually Atsuo from Boris confided in a friend of AQ that indeed, part of the reason they got Dylan to guest was because of that April Fool's review! How cool is that?!?
Anyway, the bonus track is a monstrous wall of churning guitars, with occasional howled almost death metal vocals buried way down in the mix, and languorous Earth Hex-like twang guitar draped lazily above a churning blackhole ambience. So good.
Besides Dylan Carlson of Earth, there are lots of other guest performers including Jesse Sykes, Joe Preston from Thrones (also ex-Melvins, ex-Earth), Kim Thayil from Soundgarden (aha) and Rex Ritter from Jessamine.
Packaged beautifully in a mini cd style gatefold, with AMAZING cover art, black on black with weird muted color and text printed in glossy varnish and metallic gold, both bands be-robed and standing in a cornfield, a full color booklet attached to the inside, a metallic sticker on the front, each copy individually numbered. [whoops, no longer, while we do still have copies of this double cd version left, they don't have the sticker for some reason, a manufacturing snafu we're told... no biggie since it's the extra disc not the sticker that makes these so desirable!!]
MPEG Stream: "Etna"
MPEG Stream: "N.L.T."
MPEG Stream: "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)"

SUNN O))) & BORIS Altar (Southern Lord) 3lp 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Okay vinyl nerds, the wait is finally over. The ultimate sludge doom matchup, East meets West, is now, in fact, available on vinyl!!! An insanely deluxe elaborate triple lp in an impossibly oversized sleeve, gorgeous matte finish, with gloss varnish filigree. Inside, a deluxe oversized 12" booklet of color photos, liner notes by Soundgarden's Kim Thayil, each of the three lps pressed on swirled green vinyl, housed black sleeves, printed in glossy black ink with various symbols. The whole thing is pretty mindblowing. Much like the music inside. PLUS!!! This deluxe version includes the 28 minute bonus track which was originally included as a bonus disc with the first few thousand cds, the amazing three way team up "Her Lips Were Wet With Venom" which adds Earth to the already stellar SUNNO))) / Boris mix. Phew!! These triple lps are limited to 2000 copies, we got a bunch, but odds are they will be gone in no time! And while the sticker on the front claims that there is a libretto included, it is actually referring to the picture book, so don't freak out when you can't find the 'libretto'... Anyway, here's what we had to say about the music:
It was inevitable really. The Japanese masters of Orange Amp-powered drone-sludge and the robed priests of low end doom. How could it not happen? In fact, if you remember the 2005 April Fool's AQ list, we actually jokingly predicted this epochal event! Although in our version it also included Earth, each band playing one note of the world's heaviest E chord.
The real question was never IF it would happen, it was when. And how. Especially how. C'mon, how on earth can you fit that many amps in a recording studio. They must have used an airplane hanger, either that or they filled a high school gymnasium with Sunn and Orange stacks and microphones, and actually played in an entirely different room.
Regardless, it happened, and it sounds as good as you might imagine. Both bands completely compliment each other. SUNNO))), whose slow motion riffing borders on pure ambience, is given a serious propulsive shove, with more structured riffing and the addition of DRUMS!!! Boris get dragged back into the gloriously glacial tarpit of their older records, discarding their current garage rock rrrooooaaar for that classic slow motion doom trudge. However you look at it, it's basically the best record either band has put out. It's like an EVEN heavier SUNNO))), with bigger riffs and pulverizing doom rock drums, and of course wailing psychedelic leads. For Boris, they've taken their blown out grooves and dipped them in tar, added a million more pounds of guitar firepower and made the best Boris record since Flood.
But it's not all pulverizing doom riffage. There's plenty of dark droning ambience too. Huge stretches of swirling guitar rumble, dreamy swaths of wispy steel string shimmer. murky and haunting, processed vocals and minor key melodies swimming in a black sea of echoey ambient guitars and sizzling cymbal shimmer. The strangest track is probably "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)", sort of the Boris / SUNNO))) version of a torch song, with FX smeared piano, strange buried rhythms, and hushed vocals, like a doom metal Mazzy Star.
The closer "Bloodswamp" is 14 minutes of churning downtuned guitars and shimmering Sunroof! like ambience. No riffs really, or if they are there, they're stretched into thick streaks of black fuzz. A furiously epic coda to a fucking amazing record.
The first 2000 copies of the Altar lp include the bonus track "Her Lips Were Wet With Venom", a single 28 minute epic guest starring Dylan Carlson from Earth! Before we go any further... are you thinking what we're thinking... April Fool's? SUNNO))) and Boris And Earth!!! And I bet you at least some of the bonus track is in E!! Boy, did we call it. And actually Atsuo from Boris confided in a friend of AQ that indeed, part of the reason they got Dylan to guest was because of that April Fool's review! How cool is that?!?
Anyway, the bonus track is a monstrous wall of churning guitars, with occasional howled almost death metal vocals buried way down in the mix, and languorous Earth Hex-like twang guitar draped lazily above a churning blackhole ambience. So good.
Besides Dylan Carlson of Earth, there are lots of other guest performers including Jesse Sykes, Joe Preston from Thrones (also ex-Melvins, ex-Earth), Kim Thayil from Soundgarden (aha) and Rex Ritter from Jessamine.
So awesome!
MPEG Stream: "Etna"
MPEG Stream: "N.L.T."
MPEG Stream: "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)"

SUNN O))) & BORIS Altar (Inoxia) 3lp box 130.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We took pre-orders for this puppy and of course they flew out of here in no time. But as with most things like this, a handful of folks dropped the ball and ended up not picking up their record. Thus, we have a tiny handful (5 copies!!) up for grabs. This is the super deluxe Japanese version of Altar, 200 gram vinyl, packed in a thick box, embossed, gloss on matte printing, printed vellum obi, silk screened gold on black fabric insert inside, full color printed heavy duty sleeves, so so nice. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES WORLDWIDE!! You thought the Southern Lord version was a killer, wait until you see this!! And again, we only have FIVE copies, first ones to order get 'em and once they're gone that's it. Here's the review:
Okay vinyl nerds, the wait is finally over. The ultimate sludge doom matchup, East meets West, is now, in fact, available on vinyl!!! An insanely deluxe elaborate triple lp set. The whole thing is pretty mindblowing. Much like the music inside. PLUS!!! This deluxe version includes the 28 minute bonus track which was originally included as a bonus disc with the first few thousand cds, the amazing three way team up "Her Lips Were Wet With Venom" which adds Earth to the already stellar SUNNO))) / Boris mix.
It was inevitable really. The Japanese masters of Orange Amp-powered drone-sludge and the robed priests of low end doom. How could it not happen? In fact, if you remember the 2005 April Fool's AQ list, we actually jokingly predicted this epochal event! Although in our version it also included Earth, each band playing one note of the world's heaviest E chord.
The real question was never IF it would happen, it was when. And how. Especially how. C'mon, how on earth can you fit that many amps in a recording studio. They must have used an airplane hanger, either that or they filled a high school gymnasium with Sunn and Orange stacks and microphones, and actually played in an entirely different room.
Regardless, it happened, and it sounds as good as you might imagine. Both bands completely compliment each other. SUNNO))), whose slow motion riffing borders on pure ambience, is given a serious propulsive shove, with more structured riffing and the addition of DRUMS!!! Boris get dragged back into the gloriously glacial tarpit of their older records, discarding their current garage rock rrrooooaaar for that classic slow motion doom trudge. However you look at it, it's basically the best record either band has put out. It's like an EVEN heavier SUNNO))), with bigger riffs and pulverizing doom rock drums, and of course wailing psychedelic leads. For Boris, they've taken their blown out grooves and dipped them in tar, added a million more pounds of guitar firepower and made the best Boris record since Flood.
But it's not all pulverizing doom riffage. There's plenty of dark droning ambience too. Huge stretches of swirling guitar rumble, dreamy swaths of wispy steel string shimmer. murky and haunting, processed vocals and minor key melodies swimming in a black sea of echoey ambient guitars and sizzling cymbal shimmer. The strangest track is probably "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)", sort of the Boris / SUNNO))) version of a torch song, with FX smeared piano, strange buried rhythms, and hushed vocals, like a doom metal Mazzy Star.
The closer "Bloodswamp" is 14 minutes of churning downtuned guitars and shimmering Sunroof! like ambience. No riffs really, or if they are there, they're stretched into thick streaks of black fuzz. A furiously epic coda to a fucking amazing record.
The first 2000 copies of the Altar lp include the bonus track "Her Lips Were Wet With Venom", a single 28 minute epic guest starring Dylan Carlson from Earth! Before we go any further... are you thinking what we're thinking... April Fool's? SUNNO))) and Boris And Earth!!! And I bet you at least some of the bonus track is in E!! Boy, did we call it. And actually Atsuo from Boris confided in a friend of AQ that indeed, part of the reason they got Dylan to guest was because of that April Fool's review! How cool is that?!?
Anyway, the bonus track is a monstrous wall of churning guitars, with occasional howled almost death metal vocals buried way down in the mix, and languorous Earth Hex-like twang guitar draped lazily above a churning blackhole ambience. So good.
Besides Dylan Carlson of Earth, there are lots of other guest performers including Jesse Sykes, Joe Preston from Thrones (also ex-Melvins, ex-Earth), Kim Thayil from Soundgarden (aha) and Rex Ritter from Jessamine.
So awesome!
MPEG Stream: "Etna"
MPEG Stream: "N.L.T."
MPEG Stream: "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)"

SUNN O))) & BORIS Altar (Japanese Edition) (Inoxia) cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Okay, it's that time again, you know, when we tell you about a new, slightly different version of a Boris record you already have. And then you decide just how much of a Boris (and in this case, SUNNO))) as well) freak you really are.
This is the Japanese version of the recent collaborative effort between Japanese sludgelords Boris and their American counterparts, glacial doom merchants SUNNO))). Arguably the best release from either band in years, it's alternately achingly lovely, and crushingly brutal. But what's the deal with the Japanese version, and do you need it? Well, if you're as Boris obsessed as most of us are, the answer is yes. First off, it's got amazing new artwork. A gold and black slipcover with shimmering spot varnish text over a subtly altered booklet, on nice paper and with a fold-out Japanese insert. But it's the five minute bonus track that may have most of you shelling out another $20. A five minute alternate version of the track "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)". Already the record's strangest and most haunting track, female vocals hover over slow shifting slabs of glistening sound. Like doom metal gone slowcore. But on the alternate extra track, the "Black Sheep" version, the doomy moody slowcore is transformed into a string quartet, all warm soaring strings over swirling shimmers, drifting sun dappled melodies over swoonsome melodies and long drawn out chords. Quite pretty, and very much a strange addition. But is it worth buying all over again. Well, it is missing the bonus disc that came with the first pressing of the American version, but if you missed out on that completely, this is obviously essential. If you have that one already, well, it just might be worth it to have both. Up to you.
Here's what we had to say about the original disc:
It was inevitable really. The Japanese masters of Orange Amp-powered drone-sludge and the robed priests of low end doom. How could it not happen? In fact, if you remember the 2005 April Fool's AQ list, we actually jokingly predicted this epochal event! Although in our version it also included Earth, each band playing one note of the world's heaviest E chord.
The real question was never IF it would happen, it was when. And how. Especially how. C'mon, how on earth can you fit that many amps in a recording studio. They must have used an airplane hanger, either that or they filled a high school gymnasium with Sunn and Orange stacks and microphones, and actually played in an entirely different room.
Regardless, it happened, and it sounds as good as you might imagine. Both bands completely compliment each other. SUNNO))), whose slow motion riffing borders on pure ambience, is given a serious propulsive shove, with more structured riffing and the addition of DRUMS!!! Boris get dragged back into the gloriously glacial tarpit of their older records, discarding their current garage rock rrrooooaaar for that classic slow motion doom trudge. However you look at it, it's basically the best record either band has put out. It's like an EVEN heavier SUNNO))), with bigger riffs and pulverizing doom rock drums, and of course wailing psychedelic leads. For Boris, they've taken their blown out grooves and dipped them in tar, added a million more pounds of guitar firepower and made the best Boris record since Flood.
But it's not all pulverizing doom riffage. There's plenty of dark droning ambience too. Huge stretches of swirling guitar rumble, dreamy swaths of wispy steel string shimmer. murky and haunting, processed vocals and minor key melodies swimming in a black sea of echoey ambient guitars and sizzling cymbal shimmer. The strangest track is probably "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)", sort of the Boris / SUNNO))) version of a torch song, with FX smeared piano, strange buried rhythms, and hushed vocals, like a doom metal Mazzy Star.
The closer "Bloodswamp" is 14 minutes of churning downtuned guitars and shimmering Sunroof! like ambience. No riffs really, or if they are there, they're stretched into thick streaks of black fuzz. A furiously epic coda to a fucking amazing record.
MPEG Stream: "Etna"
MPEG Stream: "N.L.T."
MPEG Stream: "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)"

SUNN O))) & PAN SONIC / ALAN VEGA / STEPHEN BURROUGHS split (Blast First Petite) 10" 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Killer collaboration, another one of those team ups you might not have ever necessarily imagined happening, and even if you did, you probably didn't think it would sound this good. The core SUNNO))) duo do their thing, thick roiling riffage, warm and lush, surprisingly propulsive, and weirdly catchy, Steve Moore from Earth contributes some gorgeous gauzy organ drones and Joe Preston handles the vocals, deep growl, part intoned, part almost crooned, and of course Mika Vainio of Pan Sonic, offering up little flurries of industrial hiss, and bits of subtle glitch, taking voices and sounds and lopping them back on themselves, Vainio's contribution subtle, but practically perfect. Easily one of the coolest SUNNO))) tracks ever, maybe better than anything on the recent Monoliths And Dimensions.
The flipside features a live jam from Suicide mainman Alan Vega, recorded last year, live and lo-fi, lots of glitch and skitter, a sort of fractured electronica, Vega's vocals super effected, looped and chopped, dense and stuttery and seriously tripped out.
And the closing track on the B side is a stripped down, very Angels Of Light sounding acoustic number from Stephen Burroughs, former frontman for industrial icons Head Of David, his first recording in a decade, his voice rough and raw and simple, the guitar playing fantastic, the song dark and mysterious and haunting.
LIMITED TO 3000 COPIES, half on white vinyl, half on clear, we have the clear, housed in plain white hand stamped covers, but open the cover up (you might have to tear it open) and inside is some gorgeous original artwork.

SUNN O))) / BORIS / EARTH Reserve Not Yet Met (Southern Lord / Inoxia / Sub Pop) cd single 99.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, MAINLY BECAUSE IT WAS AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE! HEE HEE! SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In an attempt to record an album that will induce coronaries in record collectors worldwide, the current monsters of sludge: Sunn 0))), Earth and Japan's mighty Boris, got together and recorded a single track, 11 minutes long, one chord, an E to be exact, with each band handling one of the notes in the chord. Sunn 0))) deftly tackle the G, as if it were a blackened, dying sunn. Earth spews forth the B, with as much vitriol as they can muster. And of course Boris offer up a soul crushing E to complete what is quite possibly the heaviest chord ever recorded. EVER! Unfortunately this is super limited, in fact we didn't get any copies at all. We're currently bidding on the only copy in existence on Ebay right now. The Buy It Now was $25,000, so the fact that the bidding is now at $18,301 and the reserve has still not been met is not very encouraging. But c'mon, three bands, three notes, one chord, eleven minutes, one copy. You just can't put a price on that!
And while we all want to own the first edition of this already out of print triple threat sludge match cd, rumours on several message boards suggest there will be a repress, another single copy, but this will be the timeshare version. For a small fee, you will be able to own, listen to, and gaze adoringly at the cd for a brief period of time each year (determined by the number of buyers, limited to 365, so at the very least you can own the disc one day a year), before a courier shows up to deliver it to the next owner. We'll of course keep you posted.
MPEG Stream: "E"

SUNN O))) / EARTH Angel Coma (split) (Southern Lord) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Don't get too excited. By the time you read this, it will be long long long gone....

SUNNO))) 00Void (reissue) + SUNNO))) Meets Nurse With Wound bonus disc (Southern Lord) 2cd 14.98
First released way back in 2001, SUNNO)))'s 00Void was later re-released on Japanese label Daymare, which included a bonus disc, on which Nurse With Wound remixed and re-envisioned the record, and transformed it into something haunting and surprisingly lovely. That bonus disc was recently reissued on vinyl (with some slight alterations, apparently), and now Southern Lord has re-released 00Void along with, while limited supplies last, that Japanese bonus disc. So if you have the Daymare version, you don't need this, but if you missed out on this before, grab one before they're gone.
First our review of 00Void:
00Void is in fact, SUNNO)))'s first proper album, the preceding Grimmrobe Demos, being just that, demos, but sonically, it picks up right where Grimmrobe left off, huge undulating slow motion riffscapes, epic, majestic, glacial, ominous and black hole heavy. Although it hardly seems necessary at this point, for those who have managed to somehow avoid SUNNO)))'s sonic influence, SUNNO))) began life as the world's first, best, only, (and last?) EARTH tribute band, emulating and bowing before the glacial "power ambient drone" metal of Earth, creating a little cult of the dronedoomdirge faithful, long before the hipster set caught on, but this record, as much as Grimmrobe before it made a case for SUNNO))) as their own entity, sure they owed every aspect of their sound to the band they were birthed to honor (still do really), but they managed to subtly imbue that same sound with their own influences and experience, creating something even more slow and low if that were even possible, setting yet another standard for heaviness.
So on 00Void, SUNNO))) indulge in pure unfettered doom, loosed from any sort of rhythmic constrictions, unmoored from traditional song structures, letting riffs and tones and pure vibrations emanate from their wall of speakers, like some monstrous black tuning fork, almost more a physical sensation than an aural one, but those movements of blackdrone infused with a musicality that blossoms slowly the deeper you allow yourself to sink. Suffocating, pummeling, crushing, oozing, but also soothing and beautiful. Maybe one of our favorite SUNNO))) records for sure. And if the pure grim heaviness of the three originals wasn't enough, 00Void also includes a cover (or, an interpretation, anyway) of a Melvins tune! Another band who were dabbling in slow motion heaviness long before it was cool...
And here's our review of the bonus disc, Nurse With Wound's take on 00Void:
A fantastic disc of haunting drones and abstract soundscaping, constructed using the glacial doom of SUNNO))) as the building blocks, which is surprising considering how shimmery and serene much of this is.
The opening track is one long slow billow of sound, gentle clouds of muted metallic reverberations, deep resonant chiming tones, soft smeared bass notes, all blurred into a creeping drift, that is more Chalk or Coleclough than SUNNO))). The second track is evenmore abstract, isolating, or adding voices, peppering the dreamy drone with strange metallic clang, moaning horn like bleats, sprays of hiss and buzz, all over a warbly wandering bassline, the vocals driving the song at points, a nasally croon entangled in the tracks gauzy gurgle, the bass getting thicker and thicker, coated in grit and grime and hiss, the vocals effected and almost demonic, breaking glass, weird industrial clatter, and lots and lots of hisssssssss.
The final track, another gorgeously minimal drone, the sound of SUNNO))) smeared and blurred and muted into a hushed thrum, soft subtle layers shifting and blending, warm and rich and textured but simple and spare, near the end, voices and radio static surface, but still barely audible, another whispered layer beneath a sea of tranquil hushed whir. Pretty dang cool, even if it's fairly far removed from the sound of the original, but then again, that's sort of the mark of a good remix as far as we're concerned.
As with most things Southern Lord, extremely limited, each one numbered, and most likely not available for long.
MPEG Stream: "NN 0)))"
MPEG Stream: "Ra At Dusk"

SUNNO))) Oracle (Southern Lord) lp 15.98
The ominous revving of a juggernaut engine. Shifting tectonic plates. Glacial drone-riffs as death-knell backing for the sinister intonations of ritualistic incantations in a foreign tongue... That's SUNNO))) we're talking about, all right!
Imagine a sealed white room, an otherwise-empty space with the cowled-in-black SUNNO))) set up on black risers, their massive backline of amplification and instruments also duplicated as full-scale frozen white sculptures manufactured of cast resin and salt by NYC artist Banks Violette. Entombed within, the band plays alone to no audience, the massive resonation of their sub-sonic prayers self-referentially worshipful, a cosmos unto itself. This LP contains music written as the soundtrack to such a performance, which took place at a gallery in London, England in June of 2006. These actual recordings, though, were studio-recorded in 2006 and feature the core SUNNO))) duo of Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley joined by guests Atsuo (of Boris), Joe Preston (of Thrones), and Hungarian black metal icon Attila Csihar (of Mayhem). There's two side-long tracks: "Belulrol Pusztit" is a creepily quiet, hushed ceremony, Attila's whispering reptilian rasp met with rattlings and rumblings, hinting at the waves of distortion and feedback to be unleashed on the louder, heavier Skullflowering of "Orakulum"... DOOM!!
This limited (black) vinyl version of Oracle is probably the only format we're gonna get, though there IS (or was...) a compact disc edition, a double cd in fact, containing everything on this LP plus an extra disc's worth of live material called "Helio)))sophist", but it was only available for sale at SUNNO)))'s recent shows. If, and it's a big IF, they have any copies left over after their tour then we're told we may get a few, but considering that copies of that 2cd are already selling for hefty sums on eBay (fie on limited editions!!) we won't necessarily count on getting any... So probably best to grab one of these while you can...
MPEG Stream: "Belulrol Pusztit"
MPEG Stream: "Orakulum"

SUNSHINE Necromance Digital Urban Icons (Day After) cd 14.98
Fiery, caustic synth rock from the Czech Republic. European brethren of the San Diego / GSL scene (VSS et al). Fueled by a frenzied aggression. Previous releases have included a split 7" with At The Drive-In.
RealAudio clip: "Insomnia"
RealAudio clip: "Narcoleptic Feedback"
RealAudio clip: "Thru Magnetic Fields"

SUPERJOINT RITUAL A Lethal Dose Of American Hatred (Sanctuary) cd 16.98

SUPERJOINT RITUAL Use Once And Destroy (Sanctuary) cd 17.98
Latest in the seemingly endless list of Phil Anselmo projects: Pantera, Down, Viking Crown, Necrophagia, Southern Isolation, Eibon, Christ Inverter, and now Superjoint Ritual. For SR, Anselmo has enlisted the help of Eyehategod/Crowbar guitarist Jimmy Bower, Hank Williams III's drummer Joe Fazzio, and a bass player who is known simply as III, supposedly for contractual reasons similar to those that kept Anselmo a secret member of Necrophagia for so long. And the record has all those familiar Anselmo sights and sounds, fuzzy downtuned Southern groovemetal guitars, Anselmo's melodic screech, lurching, hypnotic tempos, and fierce pounding sludge metal rhythm section. But the sound here is much more raw and immediate, speedy and punky and noisy all over the place, but as with all Phil's bands it all gets reeled back in just right and becomes a sludgy groove before running wild again. Reminds me more of Pantera than Down, just so you know. Good stuff.
RealAudio clip: "Oblivious Maximus"
RealAudio clip: "It Takes No Guts"
RealAudio clip: "Everyone Hates Everyone"

SUPERMACHINER Rise of the Great Machine (Undecided) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This record was quite an unexpected surprise. Knowing that Supermachiner is half of the band Converge, we were expecting some sort of hardcore metal mayhem, but were pleased to find something much more subtle, but still super ass kicking. Dark and shimmering soundscapes of fragile chimes and drones that slowly build into hypnotic and pounding tribal freak outs ala Neurosis, and break down into minimal post rock rhythmic workouts ala Godspeed. Pretty amazing actually.

SUPREMACY Satanic Reich (Total Holocaust Records) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Beast Of Satan"

SURACHAI Plague Diagram (self-released) lp 15.98
We didn't know too much about Surachai, or his record Plague Diagram, but from the way it was described to us, as a one man electronic / metal outfit, whose sound was equal parts black metal, doom metal, powernoise and avant garde, we were sorta convinced it would be right up our alley (and yours), and now that we're finally hearing this stuff, we're pretty sure we were right.
The metal sounds remind us of the more mechanical / industrial groups like Godflesh and Pitchshifter, the sound churning and chugging, the rhythms, precise and clinical, hard to tell if it's a real drummer or a machine, but it hardly matter, this is some serious heavy, downtuned crush, and even in the first track, there are hints that this is more than just a metal record. Little stutters here and there, chirps and glitches and squelches, subtle at first, before eventually, the metal dissipates, leaving a weird bit of black ambience, all bleating horns, looped low end, hazy shifting drones, fluttering backwards effects, gradually growing more and more abstract and tripped out, before giving way to the second track, which opens with a flurry of soft chaos, machine like rhythms erupt as do buzzing riffs, those bleating horns seeming to still be present, underpinning the relentless chug, the vocals harsh and howled, the arrangement mathy and precise, and then again, out of nowhere, the song splinters, and is barraged by strange electronics, mysterious sound effects, before slipping into another expanse of ambient drift, all muted distorted glitch, heaving low end melodies, all strangely cinematic.
The rest of the record plays out similarly, a churning and chugging electronic flecked metal gradually decays eventually leaving some sort of glitched out sonic shadow, a tangle of dense pulses and layered shimmer, of staticky squelches and grinding blackened melodies, the final few minutes of the record maybe our favorite, a strange sort of slowed down demonic IDM, all chirps and hisses and whirring, that gives way to an almost Aphex Twin sort of melodic drift, albeit just a bit twisted and slightly atonal, sounding a bit like a demonic Christmas Carol, before gradually being overtaken by another squall of black buzz.
Includes lots of strange guests: Richie Devine, Nordvargr, Otto Von Schirach and others, and is pretty nicely packaged, pressed on 180 gram clear vinyl, housed in a thick PVC plastic sleeve, with a printed insert and a sticker. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES.
MPEG Stream: "Isolation"
MPEG Stream: "Ashes"

SURT Muspellsheimr (Brotherhood Of Light) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Super limited tape from this local one man band, who traffics in a sort of folk flecked lo-fi acoustic blackened ambience, all darkly strummed acoustic guitars, shimmering synths, spidery melodies, disembodied voices, whirling atmospheres, the sounds wreathed in reverb, everything just a bit warped and woozy, reminds us a bit of an acoustic ambient version of German black metal weirdos Varghkoghargasmal, a stumbling bit of windswept kosmische drift, that slips easily from hushed mesmer to urgent tension, the sounds unfurling dramatically and cinematically, occasionally slipping into long expanses of spare and sparse, almost chamber music sounding minimalism, but just as often a sprawling bit of chiming strum that sounds like a black metal interlude that blossomed into a full song, lots of soft focus haze and warm tendrils of tape hiss, while the guitars emit soft melodic tangles and blurred gauzy ambience.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Each one hand numbered.

SURT Ragnarok (Brotherhood Of Light) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Folks went a little crazy for the debut tape from this one man black metal band, enigmatically called Surt, who trafficked not so much in black buzz and a sort of haunting folky ambience, all blackened and mysterious, we could barely keep those tapes in stock, and we were all ready to review this second tape, when he sort of disappeared, and the tapes got harder and harder to restock. But since we were left with FIVE copies of tape #2, we figured we'd list it, so at least a few of you who dug the first tape could get your hands on this one.
And just like the first one, the sound of Surt remains, folky and ritualistic, some sort of subterranean Appalachia, mostly steel string guitar, lots of echo and reverb, the sound rhythmic and cyclical, mesmerizing and repetitive, all over a backdrop of subtle swirl and hushed ambient shimmer, the sound slipping from strident and urgent to hushed and drifty and psychedelic, swaddled in swirling barely there synths, giving it a distinctively kosmische vibe for sure.
These are limited to 100, hand numbered, but as we mentioned above, we have five copies, and not sure if we can ever get more, so grab one while you can...

SURVIVOR All Your Pretty Moves (Monster) cd 12.98

SUTEKH HEXEN Daemons (Dead Section) 7" 11.98
Latest blast of blurred blacknoise brutality from this SF duo, whose records seem to disappear in a heartbeat, every one a ridiculously limited microedition, this new 7" no different, already sold out and out of print, we got 20 copies, and will most likely not be able to get more.
Which is a shame, cuz this is maybe SH's most melodic and distinctly black metal record yet. Frantic riffing beneath super distorted vox, a blurred tranced out almost blacknoisedrone, until the drums kick in, but when they do, it's less like a blastbeat, and more like another layer of blurred low end buzz, the guitars churning relentlessly within a cloud of black/white noise, super repetitive and cyclical, but the melodies continue to seep through, mournful and minor key, buried beneath thick swaths of roiling blackness, the sound murky and muddy and surprisingly warm for being as intense and blackened as it is.
The flipside is another surprise, all echoey and industrial, more processed vokills, this time though draped over clean guitar strum and a clattery machine like rhythm, the overall vibe brooding and downright doomy, a sort of creepy black ambient industrial maybe? There's an even more surprising second half, laced with clean, post rock-ish guitars, some death march ultradoom plod and creepy, cinematic piano-like melodies, the oozes and drifts darkly before disappearing in a haze of Merzbow worthy buzz, a thick swirling cloud of roiling blackness.
LIMITED TO 253 COPIES!! We have less than 20, so grab one before they're gone...

SUTEKH HEXEN Larvae (Handmade Birds) cd 13.98
The sound of this Bay Area blackmetal / blacknoise duo-turned-trio continues to evolve, and in surprising directions on this, their latest in a flurry of extremely limited releases over the last year. Beginning life as purveyors of dense speaker shredding noise, informed by, but not necessarily sounding much like, black metal, it seemed more a case of black metal riffs buried beneath sheets of white noise and crumbling industrial detritus, and blast beats recorded on a crappy cassette tape and played back through a Walkman, and again, buried beneath a punishing wall of sound. But with every record, the sounds seem more composed, perhaps less antagonizingly harsh, with more time spent creating atmospheres and ambience, than actually buzzing and blasting, which again is the case on Larvae. The opening track, begins with 3+ minutes of shimmery ominous ambience, laced with strange insectoid clicks, the guitars, when they do surface, unfurl soft strummed streaks of chordal whir, beneath which lush swells undulate drowsily, it's at about the 4 minute mark, that the song splinters, and explodes in a dense blurred barrage of furious murky black buzz, that while heavy, is also soft focus enough that it nearly has more in common with Tim Hecker or folks like that, until the group crank up the sound once again, and it becomes full on black metal, that lasts less than a minute, and the band return to the haunting drift that opened the record, before one final time, blasting through the last two minutes, the guitars a black blur, the vocals a fierce monstrous bellow, the drums, if there are any, buried in the mix, a heaving wash of noise drenched heaviness, that manages to be massive, but still weirdly textural.
The relatively brief second track applies the group's corrosive crunch and black atmospheres to something much more dirgey and dismal, a churning industrial tinged creep, the sounds blown out and in-the-red, a tangle of black noise / white noise and industrial crush somehow sculpted into a lumbering black doom, peppered with squalls of blaring FX drenched ear shredding skree, but also underpinned by all manner of layered drones and disembodied voices.
The final track, clocks in at a whopping 15 minutes, and again, finds the band easing into it, unfurling a hushed bit of blackened dronescaping, again flecked with strange clicks and skitterings, the guitars drift in, this time sounding like some sort of Appalachia, draped over streaks of muted crumbling crunch, the song sprawling out into an epic chunk of black folk drift, tangled voices, swirls of hiss and thrum, all wreathing the steel string buzz of the acoustic guitar, until at about the ten minute mark, everything is swallowed up by an avalanche of frenzied black buzz and frantic riffing, so dense and tangled that again, sans headphones the riffs all bleed into one thick roiling cloud of sound, eventually coalescing into an almost classic metal sounding chug, a murky hypnotic dirge that churns malevolently to the record's end.
Both the cd and the lp come in super swank, and gorgeously designed packaging, the artwork abstract in all blacks and greys, with the text printed in clear spot varnish ink, designed by Sutekh Hexen member Kevin Gan Yuen and Dwid Hellion from hardcore legends Integrity. The cd is limited to 500 copies, the lp is already sold out and out of print, so these are the last vinyl copies we'll be able to get...
MPEG Stream: "Isvar Savasana"
MPEG Stream: "La Det Bli Lys"

SUTEKH HEXEN Larvae (Handmade Birds) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The sound of this Bay Area blackmetal / blacknoise duo-turned-trio continues to evolve, and in surprising directions on this, their latest in a flurry of extremely limited releases over the last year. Beginning life as purveyors of dense speaker shredding noise, informed by, but not necessarily sounding much like, black metal, it seemed more a case of black metal riffs buried beneath sheets of white noise and crumbling industrial detritus, and blast beats recorded on a crappy cassette tape and played back through a Walkman, and again, buried beneath a punishing wall of sound. But with every record, the sounds seem more composed, perhaps less antagonizingly harsh, with more time spent creating atmospheres and ambience, than actually buzzing and blasting, which again is the case on Larvae. The opening track, begins with 3+ minutes of shimmery ominous ambience, laced with strange insectoid clicks, the guitars, when they do surface, unfurl soft strummed streaks of chordal whir, beneath which lush swells undulate drowsily, it's at about the 4 minute mark, that the song splinters, and explodes in a dense blurred barrage of furious murky black buzz, that while heavy, is also soft focus enough that it nearly has more in common with Tim Hecker or folks like that, until the group crank up the sound once again, and it becomes full on black metal, that lasts less than a minute, and the band return to the haunting drift that opened the record, before one final time, blasting through the last two minutes, the guitars a black blur, the vocals a fierce monstrous bellow, the drums, if there are any, buried in the mix, a heaving wash of noise drenched heaviness, that manages to be massive, but still weirdly textural.
The relatively brief second track applies the group's corrosive crunch and black atmospheres to something much more dirgey and dismal, a churning industrial tinged creep, the sounds blown out and in-the-red, a tangle of black noise / white noise and industrial crush somehow sculpted into a lumbering black doom, peppered with squalls of blaring FX drenched ear shredding skree, but also underpinned by all manner of layered drones and disembodied voices.
The final track, clocks in at a whopping 15 minutes, and again, finds the band easing into it, unfurling a hushed bit of blackened dronescaping, again flecked with strange clicks and skitterings, the guitars drift in, this time sounding like some sort of Appalachia, draped over streaks of muted crumbling crunch, the song sprawling out into an epic chunk of black folk drift, tangled voices, swirls of hiss and thrum, all wreathing the steel string buzz of the acoustic guitar, until at about the ten minute mark, everything is swallowed up by an avalanche of frenzied black buzz and frantic riffing, so dense and tangled that again, sans headphones the riffs all bleed into one thick roiling cloud of sound, eventually coalescing into an almost classic metal sounding chug, a murky hypnotic dirge that churns malevolently to the record's end.
Both the cd and the lp come in super swank, and gorgeously designed packaging, the artwork abstract in all blacks and greys, with the text printed in clear spot varnish ink, designed by Sutekh Hexen member Kevin Gan Yuen and Dwid Hellion from hardcore legends Integrity. The cd is limited to 500 copies, the lp is already sold out and out of print, so these are the last vinyl copies we'll be able to get...
MPEG Stream: "Isvar Savasana"
MPEG Stream: "La Det Bli Lys"

SUTEKH HEXEN Luciform (Wands) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally, the debut full length from this Bay Area black metal / blacknoise duo, who in recent months have garnered a whole lot of hype, based on a flurry of killer (albeit insanely limited) releases, and a recent West Coast tour, which found the duo playing outside of the Bay Area for the first time ever. And while we've raved about everything we could get our hands on from these guys, this is definitely the band's finest moment, albeit, weirdly their least noisy. But noisiness is all relative. Cuz this is still plenty noisy, it's just compared to some of their previous releases, and their blistering liver performances, this stuff is far removed from that black metal Merzbow sonic attack that defined their early days.
Here, the noise takes a backseat to the black metal, which is actually a good thing, the riffing, and prerecorded blast beats, weaving a woozy washed out buzzscape, which on their own, would make the sound a sort of soft focus Wold, all washed out and blackly buzzy, but over this blackened foundation, the duo add heapings of noise, the vocals, processed to oblivion, sound like gouts of white hot buzz, more guitars, extra layers of blackness, it's as if the black metal core is at the center of a swirling cloud of jagged, caustic blacknoise, the two seeming to function independently for the most part, but the band create dramatic dynamics with the twisted mix, which finds, various elements dropping out, only to erupt and explode back into action moments later, or the black metal riffing getting fused to the blacknoise creating a harsh wall of sound, which just as quickly separates leaving the blast and buzz to pound furiously, shadowed by streaks of hiss and hum, the sounds dramatically stereo panned too for further twisted effect.
The stretches of ambience are darkly effective, as are the weirdly mournful clean guitar parts, the band obviously capable of creating mood and mystery, and when the buzz kicks in, none of that mood or mystery is lost, instead, it's absorbed into the frenzied black chaos which transforms the sound into something more than noise, more than black metal, it's a darkly epic, strangely textured assemblage of buzz and blast, howl and pound, the sound a living black entity, sonic chaos given form, this is the real transcendental black metal, all should be worshipping before the altar of the priests of Sutekh Hexen.
LIMITED TO 350 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: "The Great Whore"
MPEG Stream: "In Worship, They Weep His Name"

SUTEKH HEXEN Ordo Adversarial (Wands) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This local black metal / drone-noise duo have been cranking out recordings like crazy, not that you would ever know it, as all of them were released as lavishly packaged, outrageously limited cassettes (and all in batches of something like 50 copies). Finally, the band seem to be making waves beyond the WAY underground, and a comprehensive reissue campaign is under way, as well as a whole spate of about-to-drop new releases. But THIS, this is the first recording we've been able to get from these guys to list, and fans of noise drenched blackness, and super distorted psychedelic heaviness will be in heaven (hell?). A blasting, blown out, ultraviolent blend of raw, primitive black metal buzz, dense drones, lysergic psychedelic atmosphere and caustic abrasive blacknoise, these two tracks require iron ears, a black soul and preferably some headphones to get lost in SH's bizarre black cacophony.
"Bled Thy Likeness" is a blurred and muted expanse of crackly, staticky black thrum, murky and muddy, a writhing, swirling sprawl of hazy washed out minor key riffage, laced with streaks of soaring guitars woven into a background of distorted black ambience, eventually exploding into a whitenoise drenched blast of heaving, crumbling, ultra distorted blackdrone crush, hellish shrieked vokills smeared into undulating sheets of Merzbowian buzz, all underpinned by a haunting monkish chantlike melody, adding a strange bit of melancholy mystery to the harsh hellish buzz.
"Murmur" is just as intense, a wild frenzied blown out assault of fierce and fucked up blacknoise chaos, the shrieked vox distorted and processed into another layer of furious buzz, tangled up in the frenzied berserker riffing, the whole sound a twisted, gnarled tangle of face melting, ear shredding, soul shearing fury, the song somehow blossoming part way through into something subtly more melodic, the blacknoisebuzz and grim black-blast infused with a strangely lush and warm melodic undercurrent, a deep sonic swell, rife with epic black metal majesty, but nearly suffocated by the caustic clouds of brittle buzz and in-the-red roar overhead.
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES. Super striking, thick black and white jackets, and printed on nice heavy vinyl...
MPEG Stream: "Bled Thy Likeness"
MPEG Stream: "Murmur"

SUZUKITON Service - Repair Handbook (Crucial Blast) cd 14.98
For you proggy instro-metal freaks, last list we had the ultra Champsy Hematovore, this time 'round we've got Suzukiton: two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, and no singer, all hailing from a metalloid stoner robot shitkicker planet called Richmond, Virginia. Their songs are kinda complex constructions of chunky bits that make me think of, not Legos, but whatever that other, more advanced toy construction set is meant for really smart kids who'll grow up to be engineers. These guys probably played with that when they were young, but then picked up guitars and grew long hair and beards and instead of becoming engineers and making big hydroelectric dams and rocket ships and super-computers and stuff they grew up to shred metallically and mathematically (but groovily too) in Suzukiton. Heck, the square root symbol is actually used in one of their song titles. And another song is called "Chugga". I guess when you're instrumental, the best two options are song titles like that that describe the music, or song titles that just make somebody grin. Anyway Suzukiton chugs along nicely thick and sometimes speedily, and should definitely appeal to fans of the likes of the aforementioned Champs, as well as Zebulon Pike and Mastodon and some old faves from nearby to Suzukiton's neck of the woods, Breadwinner and Confessor.
It's definitely way better that these guys channelled their aggression and smarts into this rather than, say, making bombs. And keeping it instrumental means that they don't have to talk about their feelings, either.
MPEG Stream: "Rogue Mechanica"
MPEG Stream: "Aquachimp"

SVARTAHRID As The Sunrise Flickers (Napalm) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More grim-faced black metal from a crew of modern-day Vikings. We'd never heard of them before, but I don't think this disc is their debut. They rock harder than most, and boast a great cold sound (very 'Frosty', one could say...). Energetic AND majestic, good stuff for fans of the genre!

SVARTPEST Ved Den Drabelige Inngang Til Helvete (Baphomet) cd 11.98
If you were wandering around in the cold Norwegian wilderness and found a dark cave inhabited by a tribe of trollish troglodytes who just happened to have their own black metal band and were in the middle of a really good, raw and evil rehearsal session, with nasty distorted guitars (I guess they have a portable generator) and still-bloody animal bones and skulls for percussion, THAT's the Svartpest experience. Svartpest, a severely anti-Christian crew of two or three some of whom also play in bands like Gorelord and Wurdulak, says their music "is based upon the ancient hymns of the primitive cavemen that once lived on the mountains and fjords of Norway" and certainly the cavernous atmosphere and primal grunt of their third album "Ved Den Drabelige..." gives us no reason to disbelieve 'em. They really do use bones and blocks of wood for percussion, alongside more usual black/Viking metal components like rasping vocals, blasting drums, and buzzsaw guitar riffing. What makes this great is how the metal parts are made even more powerful and majestic by the band's forays into ritualistic creepiness of a more ambient, malevolent hippy nature -- it's like Mayhem crossed with that 60's ESP band Cromagnon at times. (Note to Baphomet label: next time, don't let the cavemen themselves master the cd, 'cause that's probably why there's careless little "digi-farts" left in between the tracks.)
MPEG Stream: "I Skapelsen Av Det Kolde..."
MPEG Stream: "En Hyllest, Til Norge Vaart Land"

SVARTTHRON Soundtrack to My Solitude (ISO666) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.