Sunn 0))) - Monoliths & Dimensions [Albums]

Southern Lord

June 11, 2009, 05:38 PM

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This album will either change the way you think about music or leave you with a grinding headache and a desire to wash out your ears with battery acid.

Not since Scott Walkers incomprehensibly intense and awesome 2006 album 'The Drift' has something so dark, powerful and just plain 'different' invaded my ear-space with such careless abandon. If Marilyn Manson or My Chemical Romance constitute your ideals of 'dark' music then simply put, this aint for you. Sunn 0))) (the silent 0 and subsequent brackets are meant to represent an amplifier feeding back) have been at the forefront of their own Southern Lord labels 'drone' movement for over a decade now and while they have come close to perfecting the sound before (on their superb Julian Cope collaboration White1 and Black Metal leaning Black1 albums) here they really hit the nail on the proverbial head with a sound which is at once crushing, moving and so low-end it could well be prescribed as an audio laxative.

Sunn 0)))'s Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley began Sunn 0))) in the mid 90's as an Earth cover band, taking the template of Dylan Carlsons drone pioneers and infusing it with a deeper, more refined understanding of texture, tone and timbre. They explored the extremes of low-tuned electric guitar drone at maximum volume on their first album 'The Grimmrobe Demos' in 1998 but have since developed a sound which incorporates everything from free jazz and classical arrangements to death metal and the avant-garde. 'Altar', their 2006 collaboration with Boris even brought them towards the realm of the pop song with the deeply moving song 'The Sinking Belle'. However even with a catalogue this vast and eclectic, few could have been prepared for Monoliths and Dimensions, Sunn 0)))'s most diverse and rewarding 'experience' yet.

The album clocks in at just under 55 minutes and contains only 4 tracks, Anderson and O'Malley include more guests here than they ever have before and the performances from everyone involved are stellar. We have Earth's Dylan Carlson on guitar, Jazz trumpeters Julian Priester and Cuong Vu, a full male and female voice choir and Mayhem vocalist (yes Mayhem, as in that band where the original singer shot himself in the face, leaving the best suicide note ever 'excuse all the blood' and the bassist tortured, murdered and ate the lead guitarist...... but don't let that put you off) Attila Csihar, who provides a vocal contribution of such overwhelming menace you would almost be forgiven for thinking Satan himself was delivering the monologues. Sunn 0))) here seem to have taken an approach similar to avant-garde composer John Cage, utilising not only the method of using silence as it's own instrument, but also in his thorough and heavily collaborative work processes.

The album opens with "Aghartha", a blast of down-tuned guitars which builds slowly over 5 minutes before Csihar enters the frame, delivering an epic poem concerning the creation of Earth. The song gathers more instrumentation as it advances with acoustic basses, piano, horns and reeds entering the fray one by one until the piece builds to an epic climax as Priester and Dempster blow away on a heavily effected 'conch shell' (don't ask) and Csihars vocals take on a ritualistic resonance, matching in bowel shattering reverberation the rumble of Anderson and O’Malley’s guitars. Thunderous resonant sounds call from beyond the grave before a group of creaking basses eke out of the speakers like a chorus of ancient, rusty doors. It builds to a heady blast of noise before receding to Csihar, who ends his esoteric tale of inner Earth to the accompanying sounds of the tide crashing upon some invisible shore and finally dissipating into a single booming moan.

'Big Church' opens on a dramatic a-cappella female choir which is joined almost immediately by a barrage of guitar feedback. After a relatively short build up Csihar enters with a more melodic vocal style than he used on 'Aghartha' and a discordant, clean guitar plays a lonely refrain over the reproaching choir as it builds to a shocking full stop only minutes into the song. The bells that mark the periods of almost absolute silence throughout the song stand out drastically and mark a subtle shift in tone that isn't revisited fully until the final track 'Alice'. Also layered above the feedback here is a lonely organ, viola and heavily panned brass section which against all odds manage to find adequate space amongst the crushing distortion. Csihar's vocals fade in and out of the mix like a wandering apparition, speaking incantations that are just audible over the din, it's disturbing stuff and not for the weak of constitution. The choir is an inspired addition as it adds an almost operatic sense of drama which takes the track into a musical realm I don't think I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. 'Big Church' is truly like nothing I've ever heard before, and it's been years since I've been able to make that proclamation!

'Hunting & Gathering' is by and large the most conventional track the album has to offer with what could almost be classed as a conventional metal riff underpinning Csihar's most traditional performance on the record. The addition of sparse percussion here marks it out as the albums black sheep with droning cymbals and huge, parping horns bleeding into the most brutal synth sound ever concocted. Its textures have more in common with the bands White1 & 2 albums than anything else here but it's more refined, excessive and overly affecting. There are cracks of melody showing here too, the last vestments of dark matter still clinging to the rocks slowly being chipped away by Priester and Dempster's simple and jarring horn arrangements. It's basically one final slab of black granite before the gleaming fountain of light that is 'Alice', Sunn 0)))'s beatific nod to Alice Coltrane and the first time the band has ever truly embraced their more jazz based leanings. It's orchestral grandeur and ambient tones have more in common with 'Stars Of The Lid' than any kind of metal music and it's heavy contrast with the rest of the record only deepens it's connection, it's impact and it's beauty. The acoustic instruments seem to be gradually overtaking the feedback, pulling light from the darkness which results in an orgasmic musical head-rush.... it's like the metaphysical, musical equivalent of the bends.

The record ends as the feedback fades entirely leaving just the horns, a flowing harp and some tear inducing melodies that feel well earned after nearly an hour of punishing dread. The album works almost as the audio equivalent of Kubricks '2001' with it's deliberately glacial pace, haunting atmosphere and stark moments of beauty and wonder occasionally piercing through the black ice. To give the record a genre tag would be a grave disservice, It's a monumental achievement both artistically and musically and is thus far my album of the year. If you can stomach it and you've prepared yourself adequately, then sit back, relax and turn up the black.

Tracklisting:-

1. Aghartha
2. Big Church
3. Hunting & Gathering
4. Alice

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