Sunn O)))
00 Void

Have you ever felt that an artist was mocking you? Surely yes. But how do you discern the scam from genuine expression or artistic experimentation? If we think about form, the boundary is thin, there are no clear lines beyond which the art form turns into fraud; the key lies in the enduring ability of the artistic object to create emotions, regardless of whether they are beautiful or ugly. How many classical enthusiasts were horrified at the start of the twentieth century hearing Stravinsky or Webern? How many jazz enthusiasts must have sent their worst curses to Miles Davis for plugging his instruments into power outlets? Yet today, who would have the courage to say that the aforementioned artists’ work is not art or, worse, a mockery? I believe no one. No one sane, at least. But why this long introduction? Because perhaps we find ourselves in one of the aforementioned cases.

Let's be honest: in front of nearly an hour of distortions spread across four arrhythmic, amelodic songs, with an almost zen-like stillness, it would be easy to think of a bad joke. But just staying on the surface, we would completely ignore the conceptual side of the Sunn O))) project, perhaps its true essence. Listening to these four songs is like looking through a microscope: you are so close to the sound that you can't recognize it, as if the riffs are expanding and stretching in front of our eyes, to the point that we can't tell where they start and where they end, to the point that their movement seems so slow that we confuse it for stasis. This is why it's advisable to listen to the record at unbearable volumes, you have to be submerged and overwhelmed by the breadth and height of the sound, you really have to be completely enveloped by it. Even the little gems and classy touches of the record are only appreciable at high volumes; the distorted and unrecognizable high notes of the opener "Richard", the timid clean vocals of "NN O)))", the ghost drum patterns in "Rabbits' Revenge", the disturbing effect and the heavy palm mute of "Ra at Dusk".

Speaking of more technical data, the record presents itself quite well: the artwork is intriguing enough, the production is excellent, powerful and clear enough, and fits perfectly with the content of the record. On the instrumental skill side there's little to say: perhaps anyone could replay these songs, considering how slow they are, but perhaps few would have been able to conceive them so well; think about it for a moment: what does it take not to bore with high execution speed and with two billion notes per piece? Does it seem the same to you to not bore with four notes at a very slow rhythm and without a rhythm section? I don't think so. So why do Dream Theater bore me and Sunn O))) don't? Perhaps because the latter are truly capable composers, and I'm not discovering anything new; Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley were people already quite known in the underground scene, no surprise that they knew their stuff.

My rating for the record is a solid 4.5, but to be taken with a grain of salt. Since listening to this work is a strictly personal experience, I cannot claim to give a truly objective rating. More than ever, with this work, matters of taste are the only law to follow. Follow them!!