Their appeal will forever remain inexplicable to an unimaginative majority, but Sunn O))) have long since established themselves as a genuinely significant phenomenon within both underground metal and art rock circles.
If it’s a handy entry point into the drone denizens’ warped sonic world you’re after, this long-awaited vinyl reissue of Domkirke may just be the perfect thing. Recorded in Bergen Cathedral back in March 2007, these four tectonic ullulations encapsulate much of their aesthetic, from eruptions of reverb-drenched bottom-end through to regular collaborator Attila Csihar’s wild range of chants and shrieks.
The cathedral’s acoustics play a huge part; the physical grandeur of the building itself wringing yet more subterranean throb from Cannon’s core of slow motion crescendos and Cymatics’ fragmented, abstract horrors. As ever, it is necessary to point out that you don’t need to be heroically stoned to enjoy this band’s records. You’re a grown up. You work it out.
