Sunn 0))) — White 1

Drone is the kingdom and Sunn are its rulers. White 1 is here to confirm what the fans already knew: Steve O’Malley and Greg Anderson play the heaviest music around.

Those people ain’t newcomers... For those who are no adept (just yet), a quick reminder. Greg Anderson used to play in Goatsnake and runs Southern Lord records, the best label when it comes to heavy shit. Steve O’Malley was the editor of the legendary Descent ‘zine. He did cover arts for bands such as Emperor, Burzum and Sigh. He ain’t no pussy either when it comes to his music: Burning Witch, Khanate (with James Plotkin – review here) among others. They were both part of “all-star” band Teeth of lions rule the divine (with Cathedral’s Lee Dorian and Justin Greaves, album released last year). Loud, heavy, full of low frequencies.

Most people would think that playing drone-music is like driving in a cul-de-sac road. You’d be surprised how varied it can be. Nevermind what a lot of people say, there were already huge differences between 00 Void and Flight of the Behemoth. On 00 Void, you could hear every strings of the guitars being pulled, riffs were actually audible. FOTB was a massive, soul-crushing, mind-destroying record, as black as it can get. However it’s true that changes have never been so radical.

The album was recorded in Portland, Oregon in Rex Ritter’s studio. Ritter, who used to play in sometimes drone-rock band Jessamine and is now in Fontanelle, contributed with some electronic twitching but also mixed and co-produced the album. Initially meant to be a double album, what we have here is a single CD but White 2 should be released in a few months, featuring a track with Attila Cshiar (yes, the bloke who sung on De mysteriis dom sathanas...).

The first track, My wall, features a narration by cult undergound figure Julian Cope. Starting hesitantly, the drone-sounds get more and more present while Cope recites his text. That is probably how sounded listening to Churchill on BBC radio during WWII blitz over London had Churchill been a genius, freaky, maverick character. O’Malley and Anderson’s low frequencies could very well be German bombers...

The gates of Ballard begins the way My wall ended: a powerful, heavy drone. Instead of Cope, it’s Runhild Gammelsæter (ex-Thorr’s Hammer vocalist) who handles the vocals: she chants a text called Mountain shower euphony in traditional Norse. After she delivered the goods,  starts what his the closest thing to a hummable riff Sunn ever played.  Joe Preston (ex-Melvins and Earth, now Thrones) also contributed with his drum machine (sounding pretty lo-fi). So yeah it’s hummable, but it remains dark and nasty.

The 3rd and last track is A shaving of the horn that speared you, which might be described as Steve O’Malley’s baby. You can hear that he has learned a lot from working on Lotus Eaters with James Plotkin and Aaron Turner. A shaving... is a guitar based noisy ambient track. A constant background buzz, some non-distorted guitar and Runhild’s voice. Excellent track, chilling and even threatening and frightening at times.

White 1 is the most varied Sunn record has put out so far. It might even be their best ...together with all their other records. 
There will surely be more melodic albums this year, but better than White 1? I will leave that to your own judgement.

Photo to be credited to the bloke who was nice enough to post it on the Doom-Metal forum.