Sunn O)))))) — Sunn O))))))

After spending the last decade and a half or so trying to expand upon, cross-genre pollinate, and generally do something different with their monolithic sound. This tenth studio album from prime doom droners Sunn O))))))- it finds them very much returning to their roots, but with way more layers of guitars and pure crushing weightiness about it.

Sunn O)))))) is the band's first release on Sub Pop, and it comes as either a CD or a double vinyl release. I’m reviewing the former of these. The CD comes presented in a thick mini card gatefold- on its front and back, we get reproductions of paintings by American abstract painter Mark Rothko- both of these feature the artist’s trade mark block of colour field paintings, which are of course perfect for Sunn O)))))) weighty blocks of sound. Inside, we get a set in pine woodland/ wearing black robes picture of the two-piece band of Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley. Also inside is a sixteen-page inlay booklet- featuring quotes/ write-ups about the album.

I’ll have to be open from the off, the last three albums from the band, 2019’s Pyroclasts, Life Metal and 2018’s Kannon had left me indifferent and largely underwhelmed. It just felt like they were either ploughing a more stayed/ dull version of their classic material, adding in unnecessary genre twists, or trying to change the tone/ feel of their sound. So I’m afraid I had all but written off the band, that was until I heard the first single off this new album “Glory Black”- it was such a damn heavy/ thick return to the origins of the band, and I bloody loved it.

Then, of course, we got the album for review, and I just couldn’t wait to give it a play, throwing aside all the other releases that came in the post that day. And I’m so happy to report the album lives up to the promise of the single, and then some.

The album features just six tracks and a total play time of just over seventy-nine minutes. We move from “Does Anyone Hear Like Venom?” with its mix of lumbering ‘n’ dense riff crush and baying/ wailing prime evil feedback atmospherics. Onto the just over eighteen minutes of “Mindrolling" which is built around thickly rolling cannons of ominous doom drone, moving between meaty and purring black chuggs, mid-range simmering’s, and revibrating pitch stenches. Onto the just under eleven minutes of “Everett Moses” which, after its malevolent buzzing & choppy start, it shifts into moody baying, wailing, and climbing the doom heights riffing.

When I first got this album, it barely left my stereo, and at points I had to literally forcefully remove it to play other stuff/ get back to normal reviewing patterns. Not only is self-titled a true & proper return to form from Sunn O)))))), but it’s one of 2026's highlights.