The term ‘hipster’ re-emerged during the late 90s, right around the time when Sunn O))) were laying down their first recordings.
Indeed, there existed a lingering feeling that the Seattle drone doomsters’ career would surely fade, once the mung bean salad set inevitably moved on to some fresh fad. And yet here we are, years later, staring the band’s seventh full-length square in the face. It’s proof that founders Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson were actually onto something. Having immediately established Sunn O))) as a byword for sound as endurance test, the dynamic duo and a clutch of collaborators expanded their original remit, taking in ambient, noise, black metal and almost all things in between. From the almost atonal drones of Kannon 1, to the tortured tones of _Kannon 2 _(shades of Celtic Frost and Triptykon here), to the scything, abrasive Kannon 3, it’s an apocalyptic sensory assault in the destabilizing Sunn O))) tradition, topped by Mayhem frontman Attila Csihar’s distinctively-demented vocals. Centered on a metallic heft, Kannon is something of a return to the band’s drone doom roots, and a re-immersion in a post-black metal milieu.
