Prolific noisemakers Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson have paired with illustrious producer-engineer-musician Steve Albini to create their first studio album in four years, Life Metal. The LP, due April 26th via Anderson's own Southern Lord record label, was announced today along a preview video featuring nearly five minutes of music to give fans a taste of the hypnotic wash of massive tones to come.
Listeners familiar with the outfit's signature immersive scope of sound will find immediate comfort in the track snippets, which function less to differentiate the individual movements of the album and more as a peek into the full experience to come. Sunn O))) albums are not for those seeking a hook-driven amalgamation of singles — the work acts as a shifting, breathing organism, moving smoothly as it creates ripples in the oceanic tide of distortion and fuzz channeled through the patient riffing of the group's core.
To match the billowing atmosphere of the material, the group chose one of NYC-based artist Samantha Keeley Smith's luminous abstract expressionist paintings (as shot by photographer Ronald Dick) for the cover art, echoing the dreamlike timbre of the music within. You can pre-order Life Metal via Southern Lord, and find a list of the band's upcoming live dates, which include Sunn O)))'s first U.S. tour since 2017, at this location.
