SUNN O)))'s Sound Portals
SUNN O)))
BY JORDAN MAINZER
There's a moment on "XXANN", the opening song of SUNN O)))'s new self-titled album and Sub Pop debut--after minutes of layered, buzzing, piercing, and ascending guitars--when you hear water trickle. You know, logically, that it's a mere taste of earthbound respite amidst a massacre of otherworldly sludge, like finding refuge in a bat-infested cave during an impossibly muddy hike. Indeed, when Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson hold their notes, guitars up in the air, them throttling the neck for another go-around is akin to a record scratch or a jump scare; them slowly sliding down to a rumble places you mentally in that same hike in the middle of an agonizing cascade downhill. The droning guitars whirr as much as they hypnotize you. It's unsettling and creates times when you think, "Should I be hearing what I'm hearing?" as if you're getting too close to machinery without protective equipment.
SUNN O)))
Of course, witnessing the band live raises similar conundrums: "Should I be exposing my ears to this many speakers turned to 11? Should I be ingesting this much from the smoke machine?" Just like those bats in the cave, though, maybe everyone is exactly where they should be. The adage that a SUNN O))) set is therapeutic, that the harmonic vibrations don't just jostle your organs but change you permanently, remains true. This time around, however, the duo has added more context. At the Salt Shed last month, they let the "Venom Banter 1986" tape play in its entirety before entering the stage, an infamous cut of only between-song introductions from the legendary British metal band announcing "Nightmare", "7 Gates of Hell", "The Chanting of the Priests", and more. SUNN O))) have long been ones to call out to artists that have influenced them in their work, as wide-ranging as Metallica and Alice Coltrane. The second track of sunn O))), titled "Does Anyone Hear Like Venom", I don't think is a cute misspelling, but wordplay about perception. Does anyone hear like Venom does, taking in their local elements and using them to generate something new? Records like Black Metal turbo-charged then-regular metal tempos into speed races. Even though SUNN O))) operate at the opposite end of the velocity spectrum, they, too, manifest instances of associational nostalgia. One second of tinnitus-inducing feedback can recall histories of loud, righteous live shows.
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
Crowd
SUNN O)))
In a sense, it doesn't really matter that sunn O))) is the duo's first album that consists of just the two of them, because it features so much more than people. Tracked at Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville, Washington, the record incorporates unfamiliar instruments and sources, from piano ("Glory Back") to field recordings ("Mindrolling"). At the Salt Shed, were you to step back into the balcony, you could barely see the audience, let alone the band, the whole room shrouded in smoke, the most human-looking things the tops of lights peeking above the amps. The crowd whooped between riffs, as O'Malley and Anderson played with tone and brightness beyond their quintessential guttural purring. In SUNN O)))'s world, deep listening exercises are as worthy of thrown horns as are growling vocals and herculean drum thwacks. Open your ears, and you can hear into the past and future.
SUNN O)))
SUNN O)))
