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sunn O)))

sunn O)))

The Seattle drone-metal duo that turned volume itself into an instrument, and became a genre unto itself.

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The Seattle drone-metal duo that turned volume itself into an instrument, and became a genre unto itself.

MOODS · crushing · monolithic · slow-building · immersive · ominous · meditative · abrasive · expansive · droning · heavy

BIOGRAPHY

Sunn O))) formed in Seattle in 1998, built around guitarists Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson, with Hungarian vocalist Attila Csihar joining as primary singer from 2003 onward. Their sound fuses doom, drone, black metal, and dark ambient into extremely slow, extremely loud pieces built on distorted, low-tuned guitars (often drop A) with little conventional rhythm or melody. The pair also founded Southern Lord Records in 1998, which has released most of their catalog alongside other doom, sludge, and experimental metal acts. Albums like Flight of the Behemoth, the White1/White2 pair, Monoliths and Dimensions, and 2019's Life Metal (recorded with engineer Steve Albini) expanded their palette with choirs, French horns, and percussion. They've also collaborated with Ulver and Scott Walker, and in 2025 signed to Sub Pop, releasing a self-titled tenth album in 2026.

WHY THEY'RE COOL

Sunn O))) didn't just play metal slower and heavier than anyone else, they made volume and duration into compositional tools, influencing a generation of post-metal acts from Pelican to Boris and Mono. Their willingness to bring in a Viennese women's choir, French horns, or songwriters as different as Scott Walker and the members of Ulver shows a band expanding drone's vocabulary rather than repeating it. Decades in, their 2026 self-titled Sub Pop debut still drew

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