You Can Now Stream Sunn O)))’s New Album Life Metal in Full

Drone metal titans Sunn O))) have a new album called Life Metal coming out next Friday, April 26, but you can stream it right now thanks to NPR.

I’ve had it on for about 24 minutes so far and forgot I was listening to it a few times already, but that’s just me — I’ve never really gotten the appeal of this band beyond the initial conceptual cool factor of an obliterating wall of drone (which wears off after a few minutes). Perhaps you’re more cultured than me, though, so check it out for yourself and see what you think.

Life Metal was recorded with legendary producer Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago along with a sister album, Pyroclasts, to be released later this year. NPR calls Pyroclasts “more meditative,” which is hilarious to me given that all of this band’s album are about as meditative as they come. But hey, uh, that should be interesting!

I’m out of things to say about this record/band, so I’ll leave you with this difficult to parse, almost-Crahan-ian quote from guitarist Stephen O’Malley:

“As a musician you’re so inside the sound that it’s completely obvious that the sound is it’s own character. It’s not disassociated from the players, but it’s the main character, and that’s something that links our live performances, which have an incredible sound energy and immersive energy, to our approach to Life Metal.”

Say what? Maybe I’ve just got to go see this band live to understand.