We are gathered here today to blow out your speakers.
"We are gathered here today to blow out your speakers." SOUTHERN LORD RECORDS

Sunn O))), "Troubled Air" (Southern Lord)

You pretty much know what you're getting when you enter Sunn O)))'s domain: extended, dense drones of heaviest metallic pressure, with subtle gradations of intensity and gradual shifts in dynamics—the sonic equivalent of having your head encased in dry ice as a generator the size of a cement truck thrums beside you. After long-term exposure, the swarming, low-end buzz creates the sensation of an enveloping warmth. Sunn O)))'s music has become a grim sort of comfort food for metal heads of stoic demeanor, and the closest thing to Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version to which the world has ever trembled.

Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson's new, cleverly titled album, Life Metal (released today), is as majestic and relatively hopeful-sounding as anything they've done in their 21-year existence. Recorded and mixed on tape with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio, Life Metal bears not a speck of digital dust in its stentorian guitar and keyboard dirges.

"Troubled Air" blows out of the gate with a grandiose, bass-y grind, and long-time listeners may think it's Sunn O))) business as usual. But not more than two minutes in, a pipe-organ reverie by new music composer Anthony Pateras pierces the murk with a sacred beam of aural light, followed later by piquant triangle hits. And suddenly you realize, that's what metal has been missing for lo these many decades—piquant triangle hits. I am not being the least bit sarcastic. It's a genius move. "Troubled Air" is a newly minted classic of ambient doom.

On the horizon are a US September tour and, according to the press release, a "second more meditative LP titled Pyroclasts, also recorded by Steve Albini in parallel," that will be revealed in the autumn of 2019, with music performed by O'Malley, Anderson, T.O.S., Tim Midyett, and Hildur GuĂ°nadĂłttir