It's 80 degrees outside, the sun-filled sky's as blue as Paul Newman's eyes, and I'm inside listening to sunn O))). You may ask yourself, "Why?" and that's a fair question. In the face of temporary peace, sometimes it's good to stare down the Void again. And what better way than with a new sunn O))) record, called -- perfectly enough -- sunn O))), out on Friday via Sub Pop?
Running the length of a good feature film, sunn O))) pulverizes those in its wake. It's unrelentingly grim, stark, austere, and all that, but it's also oddly compelling. It's bleakly hypnotic, offering up only six lengthy pieces which batter a listener into submission. Is there anyone else making "music" like this in 2026? Would anyone else be foolhardy enough to try?
Opener XXANN", the longest cut here, is a grinding torture session. It's a drone being warped around itself and back again. The nicely-titled "Does Anyone Hear Like Venom?" is slightly more complex, bass-notes mingling with feedback and noise. It's punishing, but also sort of darkly lovely. Elsewhere, "Mindrolling" expands further on those dark notes of the previous few cuts, with an unrelentingly downbeat sort of melodic-line.
With the exception of the piano passages in "Glory Black", the closer here, this is obviously not an easy listen. The whole M.O. of sunn O))) is to be brutal and uncompromising. And with music so simple and hypnotic, sunn O))) works. You might not put it on every day of your life, but it's something to have to remind you of the darkness lurking in and around you when you need such a reminder.
sunn O))) by sunn O))) is out on Friday, April 3 via Sub Pop.
[Photo: Charles Peterson]