Black One

Sunn 0))), Sunn 0)))

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 18, 2005)
• Original Release Date: June 28, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Southern Lord
• ASIN: B000AP2ZAS
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Sixth and darkest album yet from the Sunn0))) camp. They continue with their collaborative efforts, inviting OREN AMBARCHI, John Weise (BASTARD NOISE), Wrest (LEVIATHAN, LURKER OF CHALICE), and Malefic (XASTHUR, TWILIGHT). Progressive yet primitive sub-sonic sounds from the deep.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars YIKES! And the Award for Creepiest Album of 2004 goes to..., March 4, 2006

By	Barry Dejasu "the_otherness" (Rehoboth, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This has to be one of the most singularly terrifying albums ever. Music is supposed to be evocative, naturally, but fear? Come ON now...and besides, how can music be scary? Listen to this and you'll find out.

Thick, sludgy sounds dripping from the ichor of darkness itself. Howls and screams from beyond the light - and performed mostly by two of the best black metal talents currently at work (Malefic, of Xasthur, and Wrest, of Leviathan). Song structures as indiscernable as the settings of your worst nightmares. Muddy production which leaves any signs of the obvious obscured in cold blackness.

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"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."

--Friedrich Nietzsche, "Beyond Good and Evil"

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Whoa, man, February 23, 2006

By	General Zombie (the West) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This is some sick stuff. This is the only Sunn O))) album I've heard, and I don't have too much to compare it to. People call it Drone Metal, and that describes it well enough, though this one has got a definite black metal vibe to it as well. In my mind this is kinda the culmination of what black metal should be, just pulse and atmosphere on and on forever This is mostly just an endless wall of noise, rumbling, feedback ridden bass and ridiculously deep, powerfully distorted guitar. Very, very slow, no drums at all apart from a few little bits of percussion at a few points. Largely instrumental but with a fair bit of inhuman black metal shrieking and groaning in some of the tracks. It's generally very repetitious and has virtually no melody, and it seems like it should be boring, honestly, but it's truly bruising and hypnotic. Their note on the back: 'Maximum Volume Yields Maximum Results' definitely proves true. Ya gotta have this as loud as you can handle it for it totally work. Anyway, definitely one of the darkest things I've ever heard. Highly Recommended.

Also, the cover art is awesome.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sunn Worship, October 27, 2005

By	M. Maxwell "SkormFlinxingGlock" (Vancouver, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

DISCLAIMER: This review may not be helpful in determining whether to purchase this particular Sunn album.

I saw Sunn live last night in Vancouver touring on this album and it was unlike anything I've ever seen.

Not so much a "rock" or even music show... the closest I could come to accurately describing it is "performance art" and even that's way off the mark. Last night my body did things at Sunn's behest I never knew it could. By far these guys are the LOUDEST live band I have ever seen... no idle statement. Instead of buying one of their albums, I decided to go see their show since I found out about it just weeks after discovering this band.

5 figures emerging cloaked in black, and the DROOOOOONE starts as those beautiful Sunn tube amps begin to hummmmmmmmmmmmm... Before you know it the first (possibly only) note of the show unfurls over the audience like a steamroller. It's like watching the Melvins (sans Dale Crover) at 1/4 speed, as one of the guitarists' hands arches up to the ceiling as a frame of reference for the rest of the band to keep the "beat" (as if 5 or 6 BPM constitutes a beat)... then comes crashing down in unison.

I kid you not, they played some notes last night that made it very difficult to breathe. Thankfully the tension was relieved 15 seconds or so later when the note changed and my chest was pounded slightly less intensely. One fun and interesting phenomenon I noticed was that whenever I exhaled my lips would vibrate against each other no matter how hard I tried to stop it.

It's not clear to me if the low-frequency chords or the sequence thereof signifies something esoteric, but one gets the sense that there is a method to what this band does. Picture the deafening sound of silence in the void of space, ever pulsing, stretching and dilating until it threatens to pull you apart... somehow it is as warm and soothing as it is visceral and frightening. This ain't your father's progressive metal.

I will say this: NEVER before have I seen members of the audience place their heads against the amps at a show. It was not an isolated incident either, at first I thought it was one joker with no regard for his own hearing, but then it happened again... and AGAIN. As loud as Sunn are, when it was all over and I walked out of the venue, there was no painful ringing in my ears, no shrill whine of damaged hearing. Kind of ironic that the band who put on the LOUDEST show of my life also barely registered on the permanent hearing damage scale.

Are they a real band or a promo/demo "act" for Sunn amps? It's hard to tell when your skull is shaking so violently. Two things are for sure:

1) I WILL see them again next time they roll through town.

2) I MUST have all their albums.