Sunn 0))) kind of have a hit or miss reputation with me. I enjoyed their first few records and some of their collaborations with other bands, but I think their brand of drone metal got a little stale to my ears over time. Their last album, Kannon, a Record Store Day 2015 release, was a little rinse and repeat, with the repetitive feedback laden guitar getting pretty monotonous, with little in the way of progression. It was worlds away from albums like Black One. So when Life Metal was announced, I was a little apprehensive.
The album is produced by Steve Albini, which in my eyes is a plus, since I knew it would be heavy and raw as all hell (which it is. The sound mixing is much better than Kannon. You can really feel the riffs), but the title Life Metal worried me a bit. Is this like some Liturgy crap, where we'll be saving death metal from the stigma of it's name? Thankfully, no, it's just a joke, but it doesn't really do a lot to enhance the songs. The four tracks here are very repetitive, which for a drone record really shouldn't be that surprising, but there is little else to the songs, and they don't really evolve over time.
Take for example, pretty much any composition by William Basinski. The loops he presents are incredibly simple, and repeating them for an hour with no variation would be incredibly boring. However, these loops evolve over time and subtly mutate, to the point where the loop is completely different by the end, but the changes have been so minute that you can't even tell where it changed.
Here, I think they're going for a meditative or hypnotic sound, but I can't really get into it.
Bands like Swans play with extreme volume and repetition to produce depth and soundplay using harmonics and overtones hidden in feedback and distortion only produced at these ear shattering and body destroying extremes in volume, but their songs also are experimental and have many sections to mix things up. Sunn 0))) is essentially just plugging in a few guitars, turning the volume and gain up to 11, playing some incredibly slow riffs, and stretching these dirges out for 20 minutes a pop. These songs, while hiding some sounds in the mix and having some interesting elements here and there, are just far too repetitive for my taste. I'd say it works well for background music for office work, or for your hipster yoga fix, but as a stand alone, it's not up to snuff with some of their earlier work. Plenty of other acts have tapped into what they're trying to accomplish, and have done it more successfully. As for the upcoming sister album, Pyroclasts, I just hope it's a little more engaging and a little less one note.
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