Sumac Release 20-Minute Track, “May You Be Held”

Sumac’s explosive 2016 album, What One Becomes, was one of my most favoritest albums of that year. For whatever reason, its 2018 follow-up, Love in Shadow, just didn’t land with me; I certainly didn’t dislike it or anything — I listened, I enjoyed — it just didn’t stick in my brain and beg for re-listens, ya know? Perhaps that says more about me than it does the album, as tons of folks loved it, so by no means should you write it off too.

Sumac — who feature Aaron Turner (ex-Isis), Brian Cook (Russian Circles, ex-These Arms are Snakes, ex-Botch) and Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists) — will release their fourth album before this satan-forsaken hell year of 2020 ends, and they’ve just put out its title track, a sprawling, 20-minute, multi-act piece of visceral sludge. Any track that long and complex is gonna take a while to sink in, so let’s you and me listen a couple times and then reconvene later with our thoughts, OK? I’ll say this: right now I’m up to the middle part, which kind of serves as its own song, and I like what I’m hearing.

May You Be Held comes out October 2 via Thrill Jockey; pre-order here, and take a listen to the previously-released single, “The Iron Chair,” as well.