Sunn, Monoliths and Dimensions
Sunn O))) keep on pushing the outer limits of metal
On their seventh studio release, Sunn O)))'s core duo of Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson augment their power chord drones with horns, strings, choirs and even conch shells. This might prompt comparison to the orchestrations on Black Sabbath's sixth album, Sabotage, but Monoliths and Dimensions is far more experimental. The eclecticism of the numerous guest musicians, including fusion trombonist Julian Priester, experimental violinist and arranger Eyvind Kang, Earth's Dylan Carlson, and black metal vocalist Attilla Csihar, is appealing and well-integrated, serving to elaborate on an already defined aesthetic rather than creating a stylistic grab bag.
The first track, "Aghartha," starts off in familiar territory, with O'Malley and Anderson's guitars hanging on a single chord as long as possible before moving to the next, and gradually builds into a large ensemble piece, with Csihar's rock bottom vocal (his range falls somewhere between Bela Lugosi and Barry White), water sounds and crazed strings that sound like one of Alan Silva's free jazz orchestras in full frenzy. The album's finale "Alice" references its namesake (Alice Coltrane) with its use of harps, but the trombone arrangement also brings Arthur Russell's Tower of Meaning to mind — appropriately so, since Sunn O))) bring metal and the avant-garde together in a way not unlike Russell's disco/avant-garde symbiosis.
