SUNN O))) „Black One”

Music: Drone Doom Metal
Website: http://www.southernlord.com/
Country: United States
Duration: 67:09 (7 songs)
Cool Songs: Cursed Realms (Of the Winterdemons), Orthodox Caveman

“Black One” begins with the whispery, ethereal, almost dirge like opener ‘Sin Nanna’. Definitely my least favorite track on the album, because it doesn’t seem to add anything to the overall composition, it feels faintly like a tacked on afterthought. As soon as ‘Sin Nanna’ ends however, the listener is immediately catapulted into the merciless mid-tempo drone of track two ‘It Took the Night to Believe’. This is something of a sonic palette cleanser, and really grounds the listener after the heady vibe of ‘Sin Nanna’. ‘It Took the Night to Believe’ is pure evil, condensed into musical form. I got an actual, visceral thrill up and down my spine listening to Wrest’s vocals that I haven’t had since I first heard Tony Iommi’s incredible discovery of the tri-tone in Black Sabbath’s eponymous track. And the greatness of “Black One” doesn’t stop there.

Next up for your listening pleasure is a cover of the classic IMMORTAL track ‘Cursed Realms of the Winterdemons’, SUNN O))) style. Making perhaps the best use of background wind effects I’ve ever heard, and vocals by XASTHUR’s Malefic, ‘Cursed Realms (of the Winterdemons)’ nearly triples the length of the original and brings a whole new dimension of darkness to the SUNN O))) catalogue. In this and the final track ‘Báthory Erzsébet’ (Another cover/tribute, the vocal tracks of which were reportedly recorded inside a coffin) Malefic’s shrieking cuts through the background drone like glass knives through rotting flesh, and make one appreciate Abbath’s vocal clarity on the original recording even more. Here Malefic uses his vocal chords more as an instrument to add to the melancholic tone than to actually express words or ideas. His recitation of the lyrics is used more to create chaos than to be the least bit understandable. With the first tracks, it seems like SUNN O)))’s aim in creating “Black One” will be less about making a conventional Black Metal or Drone album, and more about melding the two genres into some kind of weird sonic aberration.

In this, they partially succeed, but eventually things cool down and return more or less to form: ‘Orthodox Caveman’, ‘CandleGoat’, and ‘Cry for the Weeper’ are more standard Drone fare in the vein of early EARTH, and the tracks that I enjoyed the most. Slow, chuggy, and evil as fuck. Layer upon layer of ecstatic discord, carefully arranged to overwhelm the listener in a torrent of sensory input. Drone Doom already has a rather small and selective fan base and this album caters directly to those fans, ratcheting up the intensity and evil to new and unimagined levels. If you’re a fan of Drone, this is a must buy for your collection; but if you‘re anyone else you probably won’t have the slightest idea of what’s assaulted your eardrums.

note: 9/10

Tracklist

Sin Nanna
It Took the Night to Believe
Cursed Realms (Of the Winterdemons)
Orthodox Caveman
CandleGoat
Cry for the Weeper
Báthory Erzsébet

Line-up

Greg Anderson – guitar, bass
Stephen O'Malley – guitar, bass
Oren Ambarchi – guitars, tubular bells, cymbals, gong, vocals, bowed cymbals, flies, drums, horns
Wrest – vocals
Malefic – vocals, guitar, keyboad
John Wiese – whiteout, casket electronics
Mathias Schneeberger – glacial winds