SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN When The Shit Hits The Jazz (Manhand) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Super limited brand new release (May 2006!) cd-r from our favorite free folk hippy collective, more wonderfully druggy and spacey shambolic psychfolk and tripped out tribalism. In a cool striped cover with skulls on it! We only got a few of these from the band when they were here on tour...

SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN Z (Ecstatic Peace!) cd 10.98

MPEG Stream: "oo"
MPEG Stream: "oo oo"

SUNCHARIOT Climbing The Avalanche (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.
Ultra limited tape from this Vinland black metal horde, whose sound is anything but traditionally black metal, whether this is by design, or by chance, the sound of Sunchariot is a thick, washed out, blurred bit of murky buzz, that minus the bellowed vox, could very well be mistaken for a weirdly rocking bit of Philip Jeck or Tim Hecker, the riffs smeared into warm gristly swells, the machinelike pound of the drums, buried under the heaving blackened swells of crumbling melody, and weirdly swoonsome synths, that only reveal themselves when the blast and buzz recedes. The vocals two, transform into a sort of raspy croon during those brief moments, only to revert to a gruff bellow. All the while, a second guitar unwinds a twisted bit of melody that sounds strangely processed, pulsing over the top, a sort of of twisted, atonal lead, that seems to be melting into the roiling blackness beneath it.
Definitely fierce and heavy and intense and most definitely black metal, it's also twisted and off kilter enough, that the sound here almost transcends black metal, and is transformed into some sort of buzz drenched apocalyptic folk, or some soft noise industrial dronemusic, the songs and melodies almost sounding like some mysterious traditionals all twisted up. And when the vocals also slip into the fuzz and buzz, it becomes even more blearily bizarre and darkly dreamy.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Each one hand numbered.

SUNCHARIOT Suncross (Blood Honor and Strength) (Brotherhood Of Light) cassette 5.98
Tape number two from this local one man band, who as we mentioned in our review of his first tape, has an awesomely skewed take on black metal, as is evidenced again here, on the haunting delictae opening, a lilting melody that is repeated over and over, creating a trancelike mood, before the buzzing guitars swoop in, but again, in keeping with the warped blackness, the guitars here are muted and washed out and weirdly quiet, a hazy buzzy blur, undulating and pulsating, beneath bellowed vokills, the drums, if there are any, absolutely buried beneath a blackened haze, which is how the whole tape plays out, a blurry sprawl of droned out buzzscapes, the drums occasionally making an appearance, but revealing themselves as more of a distant buried pulse, the vocals too, here and there leap to the top of the mix, a wild monstrous demonic croak, the music still blurred in the background, the result is somewhere between a super raw, ultra lo-fi rehearsal tape, and some sort of avant experimental blackness, either way, we dig it a LOT, and we're imaging most of you into weirdo black metal will find this tranced out black metal minimalism right up your alley.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!! Each one hand numbered!

SUNDOWNERS The Girl With the Thing in Her Hair (Drag City) 7" 3.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Remember how the first Sundowners single sounded like Palace's Will Oldham had taken some hallucinogens and someone stole the tape and released it? The new Sundowners single plays the same prank on Bill Callahan of Smog. Cathy loves the synthesizer-drenched b-side. Whose bedroom will Drag City sneak into next? Hint: they'll find the duo in the kitchen.

SUNDOWNERS, THE Chicago Country Legends (Bloodshot) cd 12.98
Chicago alt-country label Bloodshot Records now has an 'old school' offshoot! 'Tis called Bloodshot Revival, and one of the first releases is this collection of two dozen Sundowners' tunes from the '60s and early '70s (and one more recent song from '88). If you find yourself askin' "Who were the Sundowners?", you probably weren't in Chicago back in those days. 'Cause if you were, heck you'd know that they were a beloved down-home tavern trio. Their set lists were filled with originals and covers ran the gamut from the traditional to the contemporary. Covers included The Beatles' "Something", Bobby Darin's "Things", Robbie Fulks' "Cigarette State" and "Tom Dooley". A wonderful tribute and treasured document of a bygone era.
MPEG Stream: "Tears"
MPEG Stream: "Guess My Eyes Were Bigger Than My Heart"

SUNFLOWER LOGIC, THE Clouds On The Polar Landscape (Pink Banana) cd ep 10.98
Somehow, even after releasing THREE full length Guided By Voices albums last year (or was it four) on top of the hundred or so that came before, and having recorded about a million more under his own name, apparently Robert Pollard still needs homes for some of his songs, so thus, The Sunflower Logic was born. And as you might imagine, the sound won't be at all unfamiliar to fans of GBV and all the various related offshoots. But then us GBV fans are indeed a voracious lot, and thus won't (and probably shouldn't) think twice about picking up another batch of Pollard-y pop perfection. The Sunflower Logic though is definitely a slightly noisier proposition, just give "UFO Nights" a listen, it's a fantastically loose-limbed droned out psychedelic noise pop, lots of buzz, and weird warbly melodies, some weird paranoid lyrics, and yeah, the sort of tossed off hook most other bands would trade their firstborn for.
The rest of the ep is just as off kilter. "I Wanna Marry Your Sister" begins with a creepy voice mail message, before the song unfolds as a super raw lo-fi home recorded acoustic dirge, Pollard's vocals weirdly processed, the guitar angular, all over a weird filed of glitchy static. "I Was A Boy" is classic GBV pop, doused in weird noises, muted and murky, laced with shards of squelch, and some near metallic chug. "Felt Stars" is a twisted bit of piano cabaret, Pollard's vocalizing over pounded piano, sounding like an unrealized GBV outtake, and finally, "Fuck You Mr. Smith", which starts off dirgey and near metallic, but instead of exploding into something heavy, it transforms into a loping droned out jangle, again, all over a weird drone, this time a churning processed guitar swirl, looped and layered, the song devolving occasionally into twisted little catchy choruses, the whole thing seriously druggy and damaged.
In fact, to some ears, this might sound like a tossed off odds and ends cash grab, which who knows, it could be, but GBV/Pollard obsessives will find lots to love amidst all the noise and deconstructed anti pop weirdness. Reservedly recommended, and only for the GBV faithful!
MPEG Stream: "UFO Nights"
MPEG Stream: "I Was A Boy"
MPEG Stream: "Fuck You Mr. Smith"

SUNFOREST Sound Of Sunforest (Acme Gramophone / Lion Productions) cd 16.98
Somewhere between The Free Design, The Incredible String Band and The Buggaloos lies Sunforest. Sunforest were a mysterious British female trio that recorded this sole 1969 gem of acid-folk prog-tinged popsike that has been a holy grail of sorts for sample-searching record heads. Even our own Antaeus (Lazer Sword) admitted to sampling the opening track "Overture To The Sun" to make a beat. That song along with another track, "Lighthouse Keeper" are also famous for their inclusion in the film "A Clockwork Orange". Medieval and baroque at times with harpsichord, piano and pump organ flourishes, lilting horns and sublime triple harmonies, Sound of Sunforest also features some of the best British session players around including Herbie Flowers (bassist on Lou Reed's "Walk on The Wild Side, Bowie's Space Oddity and Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire Du Melody Nelson), and Big Jim Sullivan (Lord Sitar) on guitar. Like most British records of the era, whimsy and zaniness can gain the upper hand at times with songs about candy shops, insect weddings, and eccentric old hippy ladies taking us back to the Sid and Marty Kroft days of our youth, but there is plenty of insanely beautiful songs of the likes we've never heard making this an odd but highly satisfying listen.
MPEG Stream: "Be Like Me"
MPEG Stream: "And I Was Blue"
MPEG Stream: "Magician in The Mountain"

SUNGOD Contackt (Holodeck) cassette 7.50
One of six new tapes from the always awesome Holodeck label out of Austin, Texas features a new release by Texas psych-heavies, Sungod. We raved about them awhile back for their debut release, Crash Galactic, now sadly out of print. On Contakt, these cosmic explorers are setting foot on a new and strange alien landscape, starting with a More-era Pink Floyd desert soundtrack vibe before breaking out with full kraut-inflected heaviness of lysergic guitar washes and pummeling poly-rhythmic momentum. A heady mix of gaseous electronics and acid guitar shred is nicely tempered by Blade Runner-like ambient passages of forlorn piano and slow burn synth-scapes. The final track, "Third Reichel" brings in layered acoustic guitar treatments in sequenced repetitions that evolves into full deep space rock take off. Limited!

SUNGOD Crash Galactic (Ethereal Mother Tapes) cd-r 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've been meaning to review something from these Texan psychedelic space-kraut heavies for ages now, this one is as good a place to start as any, their latest, a super limited cd-r that finds Sungod traveling the astral plane, and offering up a pretty fair (and extremely varied) sampling of what these guys are capable of, their sound all over the map, but all held together by an underlying kosmische drift, the opener, is a hushed brooding slow build, that wreaths subtle low end shimmer, in clouds of swirling space-aged blips and bloops, total planetarium show trip out, until part way through, when the drums come in, transforming the sound into something much more dense and driving, but still plenty abstract. The second track is a lush expanse of harmonium like drones, pulsing beneath swirling FX and acoustic guitar Appalachia, haunting and meditative, before slipping into the next track, a swirling retro synth groove that would sit petty perfectly alongside the current crop of retro futuristic synth wranglers. Krautrocky and cosmic!
The sound shifts dramatically after that, a sort of slow slithery acoustic blues, all slippery slide, laced with piano, and peppered with empty tin can percussion, which gives way to a heady slab of pulsating spaced out synthscapery, all droney, and Necks-like with skittery free jazz drumming, and delicate piano, under clouds of swirling synths, and from there on out, all bets are off, the band slipping easily from super distorted fuzzy kraut flecked garagerock groove, to super abstract collaged ambience, to blown out blissed out freeform noise, to heavy Hawkwind style spacerock freakout, to hazy, druggy musique concrete, to heavy cosmic synthdrone mesmer.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Packaged in a dvd style case, with a full color printed insert.
MPEG Stream: "Constellation Of Ions"
MPEG Stream: "Breechclout"
MPEG Stream: "Bounded Hessians"
MPEG Stream: "There's Hell In That Girl"

SUNKEN Eye Electric Organ, Brain Electric Nerve (Pseudo Arcana) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another collection of haunting and gorgeous dronemusic from Antony Milton, who in addition recording as Sunken with Stefan Neville, plays in the Stumps, Mrtyu, The Nether Dawn and about a million others, PLUS he runs the PseudoArcana label, and we think he might even have a real job as well. Not sure how he does it, we're just glad he does.
So as we mentioned above, Sunken is Milton and his pal Neville who also records as Pumice. In Sunken, the two mainly play organs, reed and Hammond, but the two also make sounds with intercoms, tapes, delay pedals, guitars and of course vocals. But the organs are what Sunken is all about, and the sound is awesomely fuzzy, simultaneously lo-fi and lush. The opening track is 30 minutes long and throughout organs whir and wheeze, the sounds they produce so rich and textured, so fuzzy and buzzy and imperfect, the tones crumbling and shifting, the chords wavering and warbly, long drawn out melodies, that sound sort of drunken or seasick, thick tangled layers of sounds, heaving and whirring and churning out long Niblockian drones, but not nearly as static. It almost sounds like obscure NZ outfit Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos covering the Dead C. A sort of droned out free rock, rendered in quavering organ tones and hissy fuzzy warble. Here and there, the tracks splinter apart briefly offering up some skittering electronic glitchery, some analog stutter and skip, before slipping right back into that woozy mesmer.
The second track is a bit more abrasive, what sounds like guitar is strummed into a field of blurred high end buzz and shimmer, but within, tones materialize, bits of percussive whatsits thump and creak, all manner of sonic detritus drifts by, always surrounded by a cloud of organ and guitar whir. And boy does this track remind us of Wreck Small Speakers, which in case we didn't make it obvious already is most definitely a good thing.
The record finishes off with a little lullaby outro, some sweet swoonsome organ, over the top some distorted minor key guitar, the perfect warm and warbly finish...
MPEG Stream: "Sounding / Salt / Seacow"

SUNKEN FOAL Fallen Arches (Planet Mu) cd 14.98

SUNLIGHT Creation of Sunlight (Lion Productions) cd 15.98

SUNN O))) 00 Void (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The world's first, best, only, (and last?) EARTH tribute band oozes forth with their second album on Hydra Head sub-label HH Noise Industries. 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 cd-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))) 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, the aQ 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'Malley artwork, 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, the aQ 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'Malley artwork, 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, the aQ 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'Malley artwork, 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"

SUNNO))) MEETS NURSE WITH WOUND The Iron Soul Of Nothing (Ideologic Organ) 2lp 32.00
Back in 2007, Stephen O'Malley approached Nurse With Wound about reworking SUNNO)))'s 00Void, urging that Steven Stapleton push the sound of SUNNO))) towards the classic NWW sound of Soliloquy For Lilith. The resulting 'remix' found its way onto the Daymare 2cd version of that same record and stands as 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. While we had a handful of that Japanese release it's hardly surprisingly that it went out print rather quickly. Fortunately, O'Malley found another outlet for these recordings through his Ideologic Organ imprint of Editions Mego. Side A here features "Dysnystaxis" - 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))). Side C's "Ash On The Trees" is even more abstract, isolating vocals which had been previously obscured from the original recordings, peppering the dreamy drone with strange metallic clang, moaning horn like bleats, sprays of hiss and buzz, all over a warbly wandering bassline; the bass getting thicker and thicker, coated in grit and grime and hiss, breaking glass, weird industrial clatter, and lots and lots of hisssssssss. Pete Stahl (Scream, Wool, Goatsnake) was responsible for those vocals which occasionally drive the piece at points as a nasally croon entangled in the track's gauzy gurgle then dipping into an effected, almost demonic howl. Side two of both lps split the 25 minute track "Ra At Dawn" into two parts, with additional material thrown in for good measure. Expect more of that 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.
MPEG Stream: "Dysnystaxis"
MPEG Stream: "Ash On The Trees"
MPEG Stream: "Ra at Dawn Part 1"

SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE Diary (Sub Pop) cd 11.98
The end all / be all of emo is this - the debut from Sunny Day Real Estate. Charmingly bleak emo-pop played with such emotional intensity that it's not hard to imagine lead singer Jeremy Enigk breaking down in tears after each song!

SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE Diary (Sub Pop) cd 11.98
It's a strange musical time lately, with pretty much every cool band we loved in the eighties and nineties reforming, many of them recording brand new albums, lots of them performing classic albums in their entirety, and while we're usually not all that psyched on the reunion thing, we have to say, we were pretty thrilled to get to see Slint, and some of us are going to see the Get Up Kids next week, and who could possibly complain about seeing the Butthole Surfers or Killdozer or Jesus Lizard? Sure, they were better back in the day, the energy is different, back then they were young and hungry and had something to prove, now they're moms and dads with jobs and many are probably doing it for the money, considering they're probably gonna make more reuniting for a few months now than they ever did in years of recording and touring.
Plus there's a whole new generation of music fanatics, who missed out on arguably some of the best music ever, many of whom love bands who wouldn't even exist if it weren't for all those bands that came before.
One reunion that folks have been clamoring for since mere moments after breaking up, is for emo legends Sunny Day Real Estate, and while it only took a decade, it looks like the band will in fact finally reunite, and tour, and yeah, we'll probably all be there, freaking out when they play the hits, and speaking of the hits, maybe more exciting than the reunion, is the deluxe reissue of SDRE's first two albums, Diary, and LP2, both absolute classics, redefining the template for modern day indie rock / emo, and like Slint, SDRE were most definitely a band that launched a million other bands. Odds are most folks have these discs already, but if for some reason you don't holy shit are you in for a treat. Heavy, mathy, emotional, catchy, totally rocking, and just absolutely incredible.
Diary, originally released back in 1994, is another one of those records that is so front loaded, you could be forgiven for owning this record and nor making it to the end. Even now, we have to fight the urge to play the first few tracks over and over and over. But fight on, cuz the second half is just as kick ass.
"Seven" and "In Circles" are probably SDRE's best known songs and for good reason, two of THEE most perfect indie rock jams ever. The guitars lines are tangled melodic, the riffs crunchy, the drums complex and pounding, the arrangements complex, with plenty of starts and stops, little bursts of manic chug, streaks of chiming shimmer, the vocals so anguished and passionate, high and reedy, but still a little rough and ragged, keening and on the verge of breaking, slipping from whisper to howl and back again, really, if you've never heard these guys, just listen to the sound samples, and if you're not immediately smitten / obsessed, then heck, we're not sure what else to do for you.
"In Circles" is the prettier half of the opening one-two punch, with that immediately recognizable looped guitar intro, before slipping into some shimmery stripped down almost slowcore, but with a fantastically soaring, epic, majestic, hands in the air, heartbreak chorus, which ranks up there as one of those all time goosebumps, hair on the back of your neck, tearjerker, air guitar, indie rock musical moments, and a testament to its power is that it has that affect EVERY time, and still does 15 years later.
So after listening to those two songs 20 or 30 times, force yourself to continue on, you won't be disappointed. "Song About An Angel" is another slow brooding drift, that has one of the coolest stop start staccato bridges ever, as catchy as any other song's chorus. "47" had it been pushed forward a little in the playing order, might have been part of that irresistible replay opening salvo, with an incredible main melody, and verses that somehow manage to be even catchier than the catchy chorus. And don't let all this poppiness and catchiness ward off you heavy music folks, all that pop is tangled up and intertwined with some serious heaviness, plenty of heft and crunch, some incredible guitar playing, wild mathy, almost metallic drumming, and again, all wound up into highly unconventional song structures.
We could go on and on and on, the rest of the record is just as awesome, there are a handful of brooding slow burners, but even those are peppered with some seriously emo blowouts, not a bad one in the bunch, it's not hard to see why we all freaked out about this band when this record first appeared, and none of its power or emotion or energy has been blunted by the passing of time. Not in the least.
The reissue features two bonus tracks, from the awesome and long gone Thief, Steal Me A Peach 7", which predated Diary by about a year, and if anything is even heavier and more dense, the perfect sort of bonus track, melding seamlessly with the album proper (and one thing we notice listening to the 7"s tracks is how much SDRE sometimes sounded like a WAY heavier, way more rocking Decemberists!). New fancy gatefold digipak packaging, with that iconic Fisher Price Little People parody artwork, featuring those conical people shaped toys, set in depressing environments, like in a kitchen with the toast burning, amidst a not so happy family, a couple sleeping far apart in their bed, in surgery, at the scene of a car accident, etc. Also includes all new liner notes and interviews with the various band members.
One complaint about the cd packaging though, the digipak comes in a slipcover, which is always cool, but the slipcover has the record title, band name, and some random text about bonus tracks and the producer, stuff that should obviously have been on a sticker but is printed over that super cool artwork, and unfortunately, you can't toss the slipcover, cuz it's the ONLY place where the track listing is printed, thankfully, the lp version does not make the same mistake...
MPEG Stream: "Seven"
MPEG Stream: "In Circles"
MPEG Stream: "47"

SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE Diary (Sub Pop) 2lp 16.98
It's a strange musical time lately, with pretty much every cool band we loved in the eighties and nineties reforming, many of them recording brand new albums, lots of them performing classic albums in their entirety, and while we're usually not all that psyched on the reunion thing, we have to say, we were pretty thrilled to get to see Slint, and some of us are going to see the Get Up Kids next week, and who could possibly complain about seeing the Butthole Surfers or Killdozer or Jesus Lizard? Sure, they were better back in the day, the energy is different, back then they were young and hungry and had something to prove, now they're moms and dads with jobs and many are probably doing it for the money, considering they're probably gonna make more reuniting for a few months now than they ever did in years of recording and touring.
Plus there's a whole new generation of music fanatics, who missed out on arguably some of the best music ever, many of whom love bands who wouldn't even exist if it weren't for all those bands that came before.
One reunion that folks have been clamoring for since mere moments after breaking up, is for emo legends Sunny Day Real Estate, and while it only took a decade, it looks like the band will in fact finally reunite, and tour, and yeah, we'll probably all be there, freaking out when they play the hits, and speaking of the hits, maybe more exciting than the reunion, is the deluxe reissue of SDRE's first two albums, Diary, and LP2, both absolute classics, redefining the template for modern day indie rock / emo, and like Slint, SDRE were most definitely a band that launched a million other bands. Odds are most folks have these discs already, but if for some reason you don't holy shit are you in for a treat. Heavy, mathy, emotional, catchy, totally rocking, and just absolutely incredible.
Diary, originally released back in 1994, is another one of those records that is so front loaded, you could be forgiven for owning this record and nor making it to the end. Even now, we have to fight the urge to play the first few tracks over and over and over. But fight on, cuz the second half is just as kick ass.
"Seven" and "In Circles" are probably SDRE's best known songs and for good reason, two of THEE most perfect indie rock jams ever. The guitars lines are tangled melodic, the riffs crunchy, the drums complex and pounding, the arrangements complex, with plenty of starts and stops, little bursts of manic chug, streaks of chiming shimmer, the vocals so anguished and passionate, high and reedy, but still a little rough and ragged, keening and on the verge of breaking, slipping from whisper to howl and back again, really, if you've never heard these guys, just listen to the sound samples, and if you're not immediately smitten / obsessed, then heck, we're not sure what else to do for you.
"In Circles" is the prettier half of the opening one-two punch, with that immediately recognizable looped guitar intro, before slipping into some shimmery stripped down almost slowcore, but with a fantastically soaring, epic, majestic, hands in the air, heartbreak chorus, which ranks up there as one of those all time goosebumps, hair on the back of your neck, tearjerker, air guitar, indie rock musical moments, and a testament to its power is that it has that affect EVERY time, and still does 15 years later.
So after listening to those two songs 20 or 30 times, force yourself to continue on, you won't be disappointed. "Song About An Angel" is another slow brooding drift, that has one of the coolest stop start staccato bridges ever, as catchy as any other song's chorus. "47" had it been pushed forward a little in the playing order, might have been part of that irresistible replay opening salvo, with an incredible main melody, and verses that somehow manage to be even catchier than the catchy chorus. And don't let all this poppiness and catchiness ward off you heavy music folks, all that pop is tangled up and intertwined with some serious heaviness, plenty of heft and crunch, some incredible guitar playing, wild mathy, almost metallic drumming, and again, all wound up into highly unconventional song structures.
We could go on and on and on, the rest of the record is just as awesome, there are a handful of brooding slow burners, but even those are peppered with some seriously emo blowouts, not a bad one in the bunch, it's not hard to see why we all freaked out about this band when this record first appeared, and none of its power or emotion or energy has been blunted by the passing of time. Not in the least.
The reissue features two bonus tracks, from the awesome and long gone Thief, Steal Me A Peach 7", which predated Diary by about a year, and if anything is even heavier and more dense, the perfect sort of bonus track, melding seamlessly with the album proper (and one thing we notice listening to the 7"s tracks is how much SDRE sometimes sounded like a WAY heavier, way more rocking Decemberists!). New fancy gatefold digipak packaging, with that iconic Fisher Price Little People parody artwork, featuring those conical people shaped toys, set in depressing environments, like in a kitchen with the toast burning, amidst a not so happy family, a couple sleeping far apart in their bed, in surgery, at the scene of a car accident, etc. Also includes all new liner notes and interviews with the various band members.
One complaint about the cd packaging though, the digipak comes in a slipcover, which is always cool, but the slipcover has the record title, band name, and some random text about bonus tracks and the producer, stuff that should obviously have been on a sticker but is printed over that super cool artwork, and unfortunately, you can't toss the slipcover, cuz it's the ONLY place where the track listing is printed, thankfully, the lp version does not make the same mistake...
MPEG Stream: "Seven"
MPEG Stream: "In Circles"
MPEG Stream: "47"