AOTW | 1 April: SUNN O))) – Black One
The flagship album that inspired the new moniker for SUNNbleach, Black One represents the coalescence of everything that SUNN O))) sought to accomplish in the the noughties. Merging drone metal and black metal into something undefinably monstrous, Black One broke from the power ambient of White1 and White2 (no relation) with shorter songs, more prominent vocals, and – frankly – more content. Black One features a huge medley of styles of black metal, which is occasionally typecasted (though not always undeserved) of being the same bleak tremolo riffs about ice, cold, and Satan. While Black One has plenty of all three of those things, it also has an incredible protracted cover of Immortal’s “Cursed Realm of the Winterdemons”, a gory trip into the grave of Elizabeth Bathory (featuring Malefic of Xasthur), and feedback-induced screams. The ambient is still there, although it is utilized this time as a contrasting element rather than the main focus: the best example is closing track “Bathory Erzsebet”, which features an tolling bell for its for eight minutes. Black One is necessary listening for anyone intereset in doom and black metal, and it is an excellent case study in the compositional variety that lies within extreme metal’s abyssal forms.
Check it out below: