Flight of the Behemoth in Bloomington, MN

Sunn
's first two discs,
The Grimmrobe Demos
and
00 Void
, established the group's droning, bass-heavy "power
ambient
"
doom
style and showed that the bandmembers had spent plenty of time listening to and learning from their
Earth
records. With
Flight of the Behemoth
, they begin with that same basic foundation (in fact, the first two tracks are impossible to distinguish from ones on their earlier albums), but for the first time also branch out to create something new, something that goes beyond any sort of mere
worship. This is partially true of the last track,
"F.W.T.B.T.,"
which employs a drummer and a vocalist for the first time on any
recording, but more so on the third and fourth ones,
"O))) Bow 1"
"O))) Bow 2."
Given the once-over by special guest mixer/legendary
noise
artist
Merzbow
,
's hypnotic, slow-as-molasses feedback drones slowly evolve into a wall of distorted, swirling (although not completely overdriven)
on these tracks, creating the sensation of being slowly sucked into a black hole while a symphony of chain saws plays in the background. Sound like fun? Well, needless to say, this music is not for everybody, but this collaboration has yielded something truly immense and frightening, bridging the gaps between
dark ambient
/drone music and
electronic
, between
doom metal
avant-garde
electro-acoustic
sound. This is a remarkable album, recommended for brave connoisseurs of any of the above genres. ~ William York