From its humble roots paying tribute to Earth, in symbolic devotion in the choice of a name that points both to the Seattle band and the legendary amplifier brand, the entity formed by Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley has achieved a sphere of influence that far transcends those boundaries drawn at the end of the last century. From the doom genealogy reinvented in previous bands such as Burning Witch and Goatsnake, to the altar erected to ‘Earth 2: Special Low-Frequency Version’ in ‘Grimmrobe Demos’ and ‘ØØ VOID’, Anderson and O’Malley postulated a maxim – “Maximum Volume Yields Maximum Results” – which has since been continuously extrapolated into new dimensions, dragging in its riffing a whole horde of followers from the most diverse quarters and experiences – metalheads, noiseniks, scholars of experimentalism, potheads in collusion with the dark side, and people with no fixed abode generally interested in music of transcendence and hypnosis.

Approaching three decades of activity and boasting a diverse cast of collaborators throughout this time, from the regular participation of Attila Csihar (Mayhem) and Oren Ambarchi to the more or less occasional appearances of people like Julian Cope, Eyvind Kang, John Wiese, and Hildur Guðnadóttir, Sunn O))) have brought to life a theater—the robes, the high volume and the smoke curtains on stage are nothing more than a theatrical assumption of a whole occult folklore—coined in their own language in ‘Flight of the Behemoth’ in 2002, where streams of metal, drone, noise, contemporary composition, and a continuous minimal/maximal duality converge in a slow-motion flow that regenerates with each onslaught. From the rituals and invocations forged in feedback in the diptych ‘White’, to the icy fury of Scandinavian black metal in suspension in ‘Black One’, to the almost orchestral arrangements of ‘Monoliths & Dimensions’ and later reification, more stripped down and metal, with ‘ Kannon’ to the most recent affirmation of all this, clearly evident in the title, in ‘Life Metal’, in addition to albums in symbiotic collaboration with Boris, Ulver, and Scott Walker – RIP – Sunn O))) rewrite their own style at a slow pace that rightfully belongs to them. And now they have a new chapter with an appropriately self-titled album on the legendary Sub Pop label—responsible for releasing ‘Earth 2’ in 1993, as if completing a cycle—where, for the first time, all the music was created solely by the duo of Anderson and O’Malley, in a very relaxed atmosphere, immune to pressure. As if rediscovering their essence. A key word for a sound that is as primordial in its genesis as it is infinite in its ambition.
BS