It’s 2015, and I don’t want to talk about genres anymore. They’re just marketing, man. Case in point: Sunn O))) just announced a new full-length coming out December 4 on Southern Lord. Now, I could spend all day trying to explain to you how, no, they’re not a pop-punk band anymore, how they put that behind them back in 2009 with Monoliths & Dimensions and how ever since their collaboration with Ulver back in 2014 on Terrestrials, they’ve been leaning in a decidedly more skate-punk direction, but I’m just not going to do that. Especially since I know that this is the internet and that the second I do anything like that, some yokel on Twitter is going to blow up my DMs claiming that their collaboration with Scott Walker signaled a full shift into rap metal, even though, as we all know, rap metal has been dead as a door nail since Linkin Park dropped The Hunting Party last year.
Whatever. The new Sunn O))) album, whether it’s weak thrash or party shred or mall punk, is called Kannon. Composed in the time since the release of their happy hardcore masterpiece with Scott Walker Soused, the album finds the duo of Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson working with an array of old music partners, including co-producer Randall Dunn, Oren Ambarchi, Attila Csihar, Rex Ritter, and Steve Moore. Weirdly, the press release describes the album as the group’s “most outright ‘metal’ in years.” Named for the Buddhist “goddess of mercy,” the group commissioned critical theorist Aliza Shvartz to contribute text for liner notes exploring and expanding on themes present in the music. Though it will be out officially on December 4, a limited clear-vinyl edition will be available on Black Friday Record Store Day, November 27.
Kannon tracklist:
01. Kannon 1
02. Kannon 2
03. Kannon 3
[Photo: Peter Beste]
• Sunn O))): https://sunn.bandcamp.com
• Southern Lord: https://www.southernlord.com