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Album reviews Music

Sunn o)))

It’s hard to write about records by super-loud, super-heavy, super-weird dronesters SUNN O))). How do you measure the effectiveness of the band’s punishing sonic experiments? 

If your bones rattle so hard it feels like your skeleton is going to tear through your body and run away to find a more suitable host, is that a good thing? Does that merit giving the record five close-parentheses out of a total five close-parentheses? If your downstairs neighbour texts your landlord who then texts you to turn down the record because it’s “too loud” (read “played at the appropriate volume”), does that mean it’s working?

If so, then the Seattle duo’s latest is a bone-rattlin’, landlord-alertin’ success. The band’s first proper non-collaborative record in over five years, Kannon may well be their heaviest offering yet. The guitars blast with a bottomless growl, and the scratchy vocals crack like that harsh vocal fry thing Ol’ Dirty Bastard used to do, where it sounded like his vocal cords were breaking apart. 

But the dynamics seem tired: boom leads to bliss and back to boom again. It’s more of the same harsh, ambient wallpaper (peeling) stuff. Call it Music For Living Inside A Guitar Amp.

Top track: Kannon 3

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