Sunn O)))

Formed in 1998 on the Seattle scene, drone metal project Sunn O))) brings together guitarists Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson to pursue an extreme exploration of amplified sound and slow tempos. Sunn O))) has developed a musical language of dense walls of distorted guitars, prolonged drones, nearly absent rhythms and stretched structures, at the intersection of doom metal, ambient, noise and more experimental contemporary influences. Releasing their early albums, including ØØ Void (2000) and Flight of the Behemoth (2002), on Anderson’s Southern Lord label, Sunn O))) gradually established an aesthetic based on repetition, loud volume and an almost ritual dimension, reinforced by recurring vocal collaborations, notably with Attila Csihar. The White1 (2003), White2 (2004) and Black One (2005) period marked a move toward more abstract forms, before Altar (2006), recorded with Japanese band Boris, highlighted the importance of collaborations in Sunn O)))’s trajectory. With Monoliths & Dimensions (2009) and Soused with Scott Walker (2014), the duo more emphatically incorporated brass arrangements, choirs and orchestral textures, while Life Metal and Pyroclasts (2019), recorded in the same period, continued this pursuit of long, dense pieces. On stage, Sunn O))) emphasizes an immersive experience of high volume, stage fog and a slow spatial unfolding of sound, privileging physical sensation and duration.