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Sunn O)))

"Power ambient"? What the hell is that? How do you characterize Sunn O)))'s sound? Is it metal? The band utilizes only distorted guitar tones, but there are no drums, not even the semblance of a beat. It is so incredibly slow that the heaviness almost dissipates. Musically speaking, it's probably as close as you can get to the infamous "brown tone" (the frequency which supposedly will make your bowels think by themselves). They are self-proclaimed worshippers of Earth and the references are not lacking; from the name of the band which comes from the title of an Earth album, to song titles. Earth were tagged along with The Melvins in the nineties as the kings of stoner metal, but Sunn O))) is just too slow to be categorized as such. Doom? Necro? There are no vocals so the whole deathly angle doesn't stick here either. It's not soothing so forget about calling it ambient.

If I were to settle on something, I would call it "drone metal". It sounds as if La Monte Young would have used his sinewave compositions using guitars and plenty of distortion pedals. Regardless of all that, Sunn O))) have pushed the boundaries of where the metal sound can go. It's definitely experimental. Usual fans of metal will probably be put off by the lack of dynamics in the songs and it's just too bleak, without even relying on the clownish imagery of black metal. It's great suicide music and the perfect way to get rid of guests after a long night of partying.

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