Sunn o))) C/D, S&D.

The new one is too fast!

I think Sunn O))) are the Charlie Chaplin of metal

Khanate get better with each release. I never listen to the debut, but Things Viral was brilliantly death-marchy, and the new one sort of combines the styles of the two prior releases into their best effort to date. The first track is seriously terrifying; I might play it to scare off trick-or-treaters tonight.

Yeah, that was the first I heard from them as well, and very good it is.

They are a little too harrowing for home listening. But live...amazing.

???

Oh well High On Fire supporting Mastodon on their UK tour will need to suffice for now :)

i wasnt even drunk when i wrote that ;-)

it's true though, the way they exaggerate every aspect of metal in a sublime way reminds me of him....

ah! I kind of get it now. :)

Khanate = I've only heard the new record, and I like it a lot....reminds me of The Necks if they played drone metal...I definitely want to track down the earlier stuff...to anyone who has them...is it all worth getting?

btw, pdf....khanate will make those trick or treaters piss their pants...go for it!

Ah, you were there? V. cool.

From what I could hear of them through the walls, rather loud.

More amp-gazing than shoe-gazing; the time I saw them at Tonic (being gently sprinkled with dust shaken loose from the rafters the whole time), they spent the whole set facing their amps, never once turning around to look at the audience. That night there were four of them - two guitarists and a bassist, and one person on keyboards which were laid flat on the stage, so he/she was hunched on knees and elbows to play. (Still not looking at the crowd.)

upcoming shows include - whitehouse, earth, sunn o)))

http://www.artforum.com/inprint/id=9859

even though the band sights earth and melvins as their biggest influences this guy wants to make it seem like Sunn0)))'s music comes from nowhere - just these two crazy metal guys.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/magazine/28artmetal.html

Exactly.

Update for desperately sad nerds like myself: there will not be a Japanese CD edition with bonus tracks, so I guess I'm just buying it from Sub Pop like everybody else.

Pulled the trigger and ordered the new CD.

CD arrived in today's mail. Listening now, having already read the cover story on them in the new issue of The Wire. Hearing just the two of them is interesting; it reminds me that one of my favorite things they do is when they change chords in a way that sounds like someone shifting gears in a giant earth-moving machine. There's lots of layered feedback harmonies, too, and a "solo" on "Does Anyone Hear Like Venom?" that reminds me of Greg Ginn circa The Process Of Weeding Out.

Haven't had a lot of time to spend with it yet but so far digging it quite a bit more than the ep

in my opinion, it's their best since monoliths and dimensions.
super psyched for the show this weekend.

If anybody’s at the Philly show feel free to say hi, I am the awkward person in a black sleeveless top, white pants and big wedge shoes who is carrying a Target bag like an asshole because they didn’t realize UTX doesn’t have a coat check anymore

I was at one of their shows a few years back, in Philly, and it was physically too punishing for me. I spent the bulk of the set out in the lobby (and even then it was very intense)

(Of course, everyone should still go)

I'm bringing a friend on Thursday who has never heard or even heard of them. Will report back ... if he survives.

The first time I saw them, I brought a date who wasn't familiar with them, but was game. We ended up leaving maybe two songs in. She was worth leaving for, but I'll always regret not going to that show solo.

We ended up leaving maybe two songs in.

Sound like you made it a good half hour!

*Sounds

Yeah, totally! She was a trooper and we have both entertained people with the "brown note" story over the years.

Just got home. Loudest show i’ve been to. Amazing. Need a sandwich and some sleep.

xps last time i saw them it was a first date
tbf that was seven years ago and we're still together so thank you sunn o))))

Even by Sunn o))) standards they were really fucking loud a couple of nights ago. I wore plugs, but the next morning I still had a real "I think I made a terrible mistake" moment.

My newbie friend told me today that he thinks the show may have changed his DNA.

tbh it probably did!

saw them a couple of nights ago and wore earplugs (which I never do, I know I know), it was loud ofc but it didn't really dawn on me how loud it was until near the end when I felt it vibrating in my chest

First time I saw them was in 2004 in medium sized club (and I think Wolf Eyes played as well?) and the volume was so much it felt like someone was pinching the bridge of my nose, next time was at a larger theater that had couches and soft chairs in one section and toward the end of show I sat down & fell asleep (complimentary)

i love a full-body ~loud~ show but in pdx they are playing at the worst venue i think i've ever been to. i don't think the place can pull off what i'm hoping. we'll see

You know it's loud when it's so loud you forget you are wearing earplugs, because it is loud.

just saw them in a relatively small theater and it was pleasantly loud but I was seated (first time I’ve seen them in a seated venue!) about 3/4rds of the way back and the noise app on my watch has them peaking at a steady 105db from that distance

I have no idea what the measurement would be on the loudest show I’ve seen, but I know swans hit 125db+ near the stage

I've seen Swans before but it wasn't loud at all, but this was also like a decade ago so

I forgot earplugs for a Swans show in 2014, they had 17 Twin Reverbs on stage in addition to the festival PA. Afterward my ears sounded like a broken AM radio, honestly thought that was going to be it for the rest of my life, but then I rallied for MBV later that evening (with plugs). Also saw a Sunn O))) / Earth show a few years later with earplugs, full body involvement and I saw my t shirt flapping at one point.

I've seen them a handful of times. Last was a few years ago in a cave in TN; the fog from the fog machines was so thick I couldn't see further than maybe 3 or 4 feet

Such a shame that when I saw them live the venue changed at last minute and it was disappointingly quiet. Well, I mean, it was loud but nothing compared to Swans or MBV who I'd both seen already

i saw them a few years back when i happened to be in Vienna for a day and a half while they were touring, it was at the Grosse Halle Arena and I could move back and forth between standing in the audience for the full experience and being in an outdoor space on a nice night with the sound still extremely audible. At the time I was getting over a cold so my stamina was a little low.

Unfortunately they're playing one of the the worst venues in Seattle on this tour.

oh man, the fog machines

luckily the venue yesterday was relatively small and they were able to mostly fog the stage, although being able to see the audience is a little bit of a distraction and I get the vibe they go for when the entire room is foggy. the custom light setup was pretty great!

the time I saw sunn o))) and tim hecker at the same festival, I was tempted to look around for what had to be industrial-sized barrels of fog machine juice

if you watch their rig run down, their fog technician, or whoever she is, talks about how the venue affects the fog. sometimes it drifts, sometimes it is stagnant, sometimes it seems to envelope you, sometimes it seems like it is carrying the sound. they played a really big place here, but by the end it was pretty dense! The machines themselves didn't seem huge, they were just pumping that shit out.

peak intensity out of the times i've seen them was Corsica Studios; so 500 capacity - smothered in fog and they also had people with censers burning incense beforehand - combo of their stacks in that room plus the PA was overwhelming. i see its actually on their bandcamp https://sunn-live.bandcamp.com/album/sunn-o-20090222-grimmrobes-presentation-corsica-studios-london-uk

Can't say I'm sold on the new album on first listen. It's all a bit workman-like and nothing particularly jumps out at me as being different or remarkable from previous outings

Can't say I'm sold on the new album on first listen. It's all a bit workman-like and nothing particularly jumps out at me as being different or remarkable from previous outings

― rameau in the main room (dog latin), Sunday, April 19, 2026 4:05 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I have seen (and enjoyed) this band live on several occasions, and I would see them again in a heartbeat, but I can't imagine needing to own more than one album by them. I know "one trick pony" is generally considered a pejorative but in this case the trick is really good, so I don't intend it that way. But if ever there was a band you have to see live to appreciate, it's this one

I don’t know, Monoliths & Dimensions is one of my favorite albums ever and sounds dramatically different from this.

Yeah, all of their studio albums are very different from each other. I would say the absolute keepers are Oracle, Monoliths & Dimensions and Life Metal, but I also like Kannon and Terrestrials (their collaboration with Ulver) and this new one quite a bit, and some of their live albums, most notably Dømkirke and the recent BBC Music one with the long title, are great, too.

the second Albini sessions one feels like kind of a departure in a cool way

the first time I saw them, it was in the Hearn generating station in Toronto during a festival. the middle of that former power plant building is as tall as the statue of liberty, indoors, and the main floor, such as it is because it's open in the middle, is of proportionate scale

they got most of the stage clouded but they were cranking full volume fog the whole way

I agree the albums are quite varied despite their core MO. The ones I find myself listening to the most are White 1 & 2 for the variety and the recentish Life Metal and Pyroclasts for the superbly recorded elemental droning. (The BBC Metta Benevolence session too.)

I don't want to spoil it for anyone who is planning on seeing an upcoming tour date, but did they do an amusing intro at their other recent stops?

Yes. Brought me back to the days of long road trips with buddies.

The eponymously titled SUNN O))) was tracked at Bear Creek Studios, Woodinville, Washington with Brad Wood (HuM, Tar, Sunny Day Real Estate, Liz Phair). This location would prove crucial to the recording process.

“The vast tracking room had big windows looking out on trees,” says O’Malley. “We could go hiking and be out in the woods, spend time outdoors. That became a big part of it.”

“It was very inviting and very comfortable there,” adds Anderson. “There was no stress, no worry about the timeline or anything like that. We just let ourselves go, and let the music come out.”

I wonder how loud it is at a studio session

They just plug straight into the desk

This time they wanted to go back to the basics

Just two guys in a room