In the bunkerlike sanctuary of the Rothko Chapel in Houston hang 14 enormous canvases painted almost totally black. Every group of visitors seems to include one guy who can’t resist saying he could’ve painted them himself–the same sort of philistine, I’m sure, who thinks he could duplicate SUNN 0)))’s music by leaning a few guitars against some big honkin’ amps and occasionally kicking something. But people with eyes and ears know better: if you want to commune with the infinite in world-class nondenominational style, you go to Rothko, and if you want guys in druid robes to pound you into jelly with doom-metal riffs as huge and ponderous as aircraft carriers, you go to Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson. (Though O’Malley employs a similar vocabulary in Khanate, that band’s approach–enervating strings of unpredictable impacts–makes the ebb and flow of Sunn 0)))’s colossal drone seem almost narcotizing by comparison.) On last year’s Black One (Southern Lord) the core duo is joined by guitarist and percussionist Oren Ambarchi, noise artist John Wiese, and guest vocalists Wrest and Malefic, both west-coast black-metal heavies. The percussion–sepulchral knocking, frantic rustling and scraping–is as insidious as an insect infestation, and the shrieking, thrumming electronics sharpen the edges of the band’s massive, evil throb. But this music is a bodily experience first and an aesthetic one second, and listening to it on disc only gets you halfway there. A friend who saw Sunn 0))) at the Bottle a few years back confessed that he’d gone fetal on the floor behind the sound booth in an attempt to escape the noise and still felt like he was about to shit himself the whole time. It might help to think of this set as a massage to purge the toxins from your soft tissues–the headache means it’s working. On this tour O’Malley and Anderson will play guitars and Moogs, former Melvin Mark Deutrom will play bass, and Atsuo Mizuno, the drummer from openers Boris, will add vocals and gong; Ambarchi is part of the road lineup too, but tonight he’s playing only an early in-store alone (see above).
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Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Jenn Garrett.
