Send "Sunn O))) " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 It was somewhat fortuitous that it fell to me to review ØØ Void , the recently reissued second album from drone-lords Sunn O))), when I was midway through reading H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror. For if any band calls “Forbidden shapes of shadow out of great rounded hills,” produces “wild orgiastic prayers … answered by loud cracklings and rumblings …” or are linked to the “black gulfs of essence and entity that stretch like titan phantasms beyond all spheres of force and matter, space and time,” then Sunn O))) is assuredly the one. Sunn O)))‘s investigations into the properties of sound sees it firmly adhering to the precept that maximum volume equals limitless possibilities. As a result, its ritualized, thematically explorative aesthetic is laden with the promise of earth-shattering, ear-splitting transmogrification. Coalescing an array of influences – doom and black metal, orchestral soundscapes, jazz, free-noise, choral voices, psychedelia and a musique concrete obstreperousness – Sunn O)))‘s foundations have shaken with myriad sounds. Sunn O))) was born in the late ‘90s as a collaborative project between guitarist Stephen O’Malley and bassist Greg Anderson, and its releases have always been a test of one’s resolve. With its original disposition built upon the lugubriously droning keystone of Earth’s Earth 2: Special Low-Frequency Version (mixed with plenty of other susurrus threnodies) the band has expanded its template of ‘maximal minimalism’ considerably since it began. With new collaborators routinely joining the coven, Sunn O)))‘s constant refinement of its arrangements culminated in ‘09’s Monoliths & Dimensions being hailed as a masterwork of darkened synthesis and daemoniacus articulations....full text |
| Pitchfork |
| nough with the stopgaps: Since the 2009 release of Sunn O)))'s gloriously oversized Monoliths & Dimensions, the band's principals, Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley, have kept busy, though not by recording any new material for their drone-metal vanguard. Together, they've reunited their old Washington state doom squad, Thorr's Hammer, for two festivals and another reissue. Anderson reformed Goatsnake for similar treatment while steering his Southern Lord label into the knotty world of contemporary hardcore. Meanwhile, O'Malley focused on rare collaborations while launching his provocative label, Ideologic Organ, with albums by composer Eyvind Kang and Russian polymaths Phurpa. The latest tease is a collaborative reissue between Southern Lord and Ideologic Organ. More than a decade after the release of Sunn O)))'s proper debut, ØØ VOID, Southern Lord offers it again, packaged with a bonus disc of remixes of the material by British experimental masters Nurse With Wound. That same material is available via O'Malley's new imprint as the 2xLP set The Iron Soul of Nothing. If those minutiae seem overwhelming, just trust this conclusion: Sunn O)))'s essential ambitions of grand presentation and aggressive collaboration were intact at the start. Just after completing Monoliths & Dimensions, O'Malley described collaboration to me in terms of the Buddhist concept of the beginner's mind, or of allowing oneself to proceed through tasks without expectations and preconceptions. "It comes back to working on the sound itself as its own thing rather than having special guests," he said. It may be difficult to hear that sense of inclusion and openness on ØØ VOID, which from the first bass moan of "Richard" to the last guitar decay of "Ra at Dusk" sounds mostly like unwavering and unapologetic drone metal. On subsequent albums, Sunn O))) incorporated noise lords like Merzbow and John Wiese, a women's choir, Hungarian maniac and Mayhem member Attila Csihar, and an army of others. As O'Malley's quote suggests, they all played an essential role in shaping the band's sound at that moment....full text |
| Metalreview |
| As this is a reissue of an old recording and Sunn O))) is a veritable household name by this point, I won’t spend any time delving into the aesthetics of this project’s style and what it means or doesn’t mean for metal. ØØ Void is the outfit’s first proper full-length release, but considering the negligible differences in recording quality and its understated progressions from The Grimmrobe Demos, it rarely receives due recognition as such. Still, this album is unquestionably a step up from the demo that preceded it, and I’ve always been surprised at how often this debut is overlooked when discussing Sunn O)))’s recorded legacy. While the band’s experimental direction from Flight of the Behemoth onward is what drew them most of their attention, it was this album that opened the door for the direction the duo would take following its release. And when looked at as a kind of statement of purpose, ØØ Void gets the message across loud and clear. Those of you who hopped on the bandwagon later in O’Malley and Anderson’s career may be surprised at how straightforward this album is compared to the highly exploratory works concieved under the Sunn O))) name over the years. This is pure drone doom in it's most primal, direct form -- take the formula established on Earth 2, drag the guitar and bass tunings down into the pits of Hell, and up the sinister atmosphere to untold levels. No vocals, no drums, no odd excursions into other genres of music; just one or two trudging chord progressions, peppered with effects and stretched into oblivion. Despite the bare-bones approach to the “songwriting,” all four tracks on ØØ Void still manage to creep into your consciousness and captivate you while playing, which is basically the goal of any recording by these guys. While opener “Richard” is the star of the show, with its foreboding bass intro and looming slide-driven riff, each song on the album has its own unique charm, though spinning from start to finish will take its toll on most listeners....full text |
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))_Meets_Nurse_with_Wound_The_Iron_Soul_of_Nothing_09.01.2012.jpg "Sunn O))) - The Iron Soul of Nothing review")
