SUNN O))) — Sunn O))) [Oxblood Vinyl]
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For nearly 30 years, SUNN O))) – Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson – have pushed the boundaries of heavy music, straddling the worlds of the avant-garde and rock to forge a style instantly recognisable as their own.
Now, SUNN O))) return with their first album of new material since 2019’s acclaimed Pyroclasts. Their tenth album – their debut for new label Sub Pop – demonstrates the duo’s mastery of time and space, light and dark, and their willingness to evolve their unmistakable sound into bold new forms.
The eponymously titled SUNN O))) was tracked at Bear Creek Studios, Woodinville, Washington with Brad Wood (HuM, Tar, Sunny Day Real Estate, Liz Phair). This location would prove crucial to the recording process.
“The vast tracking room had big windows looking out on trees,” says O’Malley. “We could go hiking and be out in the woods, spend time outdoors. That became a big part of it.”
“It was very inviting and very comfortable there,” adds Anderson. “There was no stress, no worry about the timeline or anything like that. We just let ourselves go, and let the music come out.”
SUNN O))) have long welcomed collaborators into their self-contained world, including such esteemed fellow travellers as Hungarian vocal explorer Attila Csihar, Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, Seattle-based multi-instrumentalist Steve Moore, Texan polymath Mark Deutrom, Silkworm co-founder Tim Midyett and legendary singer-songwriter Scott Walker. For the new album, however, O’Malley and Anderson explore the still-fertile, primal territory of the duo format.
“On this album for the first time all of the instrumentation was performed by Greg and I,” says O’Malley. “All of the records have our leadership and direction, of course, but this time around, it was almost like this crucible of ideas that was really at the core of what we’ve been doing.”
Recording exclusively as a duo should not be interpreted as SUNN O))) limiting or restricting themselves. To the contrary, it has opened up new possibilities for their music.
“What’s been happening with our performances over the last couple years with the two of us and no other collaborators or players has been really fresh and exciting,” says Anderson. “There’s been a lot of development. A lot of that was unexpected. And a lot of things that happened in the studio were really exciting and different from what we had been playing live, as well.”
The six compositions on SUNN O))) are expansive and panoramic yet finely detailed, reflecting the arboreal setting in which they were recorded. Opener “XXANN” enters with howling feedback before crunching into what might at first seem familiar territory – until one registers the sound of water trickling beneath. “Mindrolling” likewise incorporates field recordings, as does “Glory Black”, which in addition introduces piano, by turns sonorous and delicate, into the mix, lending the already formidable piece a hushed, solemn feel. The Newcastle-forged originators of black metal get a shout out in the title of “Does Anyone Hear Like Venom?” which seems to position Cronos, Mantas and Abaddon as deep listeners, attuned to their Tyneside surroundings in much the same way as SUNN O))) are to the forest enfolding Bear Creek Studios. Throughout the album, the interplay between O’Malley and Anderson attains fresh heights of telepathic intensity as they shape a music that itself breathes the bracing, earthy air of the Pacific Northwest.
“It’s always developing,” says Anderson. “That’s a constant, and that’s what sustains my interest and passion. There’s a movement that’s happening, whether it’s forward, backwards, to the side, whatever.
That’s what makes playing in this group, at least for me, different and unique and special.”
In October 2025 SUNN O))) released the first fruit of a new deal with celebrated US label Sub Pop in the form of a maxi 12” featuring “Eternity’s Pillars”, “Raise The Chalice” and “Reverential” – three monumental tracks from the same sessions that produced the new album. The alliance with Sub Pop makes perfect sense, as Anderson explains.
“We decided that we should approach Sub Pop, after I’d had some great conversations with Jonathan Poneman,” he says. “So I called him up and before I could get the words out of my mouth, he said, ‘We’d love to do it. Tell me what you guys need.’ He was really excited and supportive.”
SUNN O))) are no strangers to striking cover art – as illustrated by their collaborations with Joanne Ratcliffe for Black One, Richard Serra for Monoliths & Dimensions, Angela LaFont Bolliger for Kannon and Samantha Keely Smith for Life Metal and Pyroclasts. For SUNN O))) they have been granted permission by the estate of the late American artist Mark Rothko to reproduce two of his paintings on the album’s sleeve.
“Over a few years, I developed a correspondence with Christopher Rothko via the Rothko Foundation’s Henry Mandell,” explains O’Malley. “It’s such an honour to be in the proximity of art on that scale, which has moved me personally so much for decades. Standing in front of a Rothko painting you can experience landscapes, worlds and environments subjectively in the abstraction.”
Liner notes for the album are provided by award-winning British writer Robert Macfarlane, famed for his works concerning landscape and the multifaceted relationship between humanity and nature. Macfarlane negotiates the peaks and valleys of the SUNN O))) sound in a poetic, philosophical manner that will be familiar to readers of Mountains Of The Mind: A History Of A Fascination (2003), The Wild Places (2007), Underland: A Deep Time Journey (2019) or Is A River Alive? (2025).
“I’ve been very interested in Robert’s writing for a long time,” says O’Malley. “He was very up for engaging with this project. And what he ended up turning in was mind-blowing. It’s part of the creative process, framing our music in a certain way, visually and with language, before presenting it to the world.”
SUNN O))) also worked with French artist Elodie Lesourd, whose illustration work is featured on the inner LP sleeves and accompanying album merch.
All of which adds up to a fully immersive experience, uniting sound, word and visual into something that is undeniably, completely SUNN O))).
Joseph Stannard, January 2026
https://www.subpop.com/artists/sunn_o
"Seit fast 30 Jahren erweitern SUNN O))) - Stephen O'Malley und Greg Anderson - die Grenzen der Heavy-Musik und verbinden die Welten der Avantgarde und des Rock, um einen Stil zu schaffen, der sofort als ihr eigener erkennbar ist. Jetzt melden sich SUNN O))) mit ihrem ersten Album mit neuem Material seit dem gefeierten Pyroclasts aus dem Jahr 2019 zurück. Ihr zehntes Album - ihr Debüt bei Sub Pop - zeigt, wie gut das Duo mit Zeit und Raum, Licht und Dunkelheit umgehen kann und dass sie bereit sind, ihren unverwechselbaren Sound zu neuen, mutigen Formen weiterzuentwickeln. Das gleichnamige Album ,SUNN O)))" wurde in den Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, Washington, mit Brad Wood (HuM, Tar, Sunny Day Real Estate, Liz Phair) aufgenommen. Dieser Ort erwies sich als entscheidend für den Aufnahmeprozess. ,Der riesige Aufnahmeraum hatte große Fenster mit Blick auf Bäume", sagt O'Malley. ,Wir konnten wandern gehen und draußen im Wald sein, Zeit im Freien verbringen. Das war ein wichtiger Teil davon." SUNN O))) haben schon lange Mitwirkende in ihre eigenständige Welt aufgenommen: In früheren Werken waren Attila Csihar (Mayhem), die Komponistin Hildur Gudnadóttir, der Multi-Instrumentalist Steve Moore, der Universalgelehrte Mark Deutrom, Tim Midyett von Silkworm und der legendäre Singer-Songwriter Scott Walker zu hören. Auf diesem Album haben O'Malley und Anderson jedoch neue Möglichkeiten im ursprünglichen Format des Duos entdeckt und alle Instrumente selbst gespielt. ,Was in den letzten Jahren mit unseren Auftritten zu zweit und ohne weitere Mitwirkende passiert ist, war wirklich neu und aufregend", sagt Anderson. Die Kompositionen auf SUNN O))) sind weitläufig und panoramisch, aber dennoch detailreich und spiegeln die baumreiche Umgebung wider, in der sie aufgenommen wurden. Inmitten von heulendem Feedback und eisigem Knirschen findet man überraschend zarte Momente: eine Feldaufnahme von plätscherndem Wasser im Hintergrund, Klavierzwischenspiele, die eine gedämpfte, feierliche Stimmung erzeugen. Dabei erreicht das Duo neue Höhen telepathischer Intensität, während es Musik formt, die die belebende, erdige Luft des pazifischen Nordwestens atmet. Visuell wird das Album von zwei Gemälden des verstorbenen amerikanischen Künstlers Mark Rothko eingerahmt. Die Liner Notes stammen vom preisgekrönten britischen Schriftsteller Robert Macfarlane, der für seine Werke über Landschaft und die Beziehung zwischen Mensch und Natur bekannt ist. Durch die Arbeit der Band, Macfarlane und Rothko verbinden sich Klang, Wort und Bild zu einem umfassenden Erlebnis, das unbestreitbar ganz und gar SUNN O))) ist." [press release]
"For a band this far into a venerable career to release a self-titled album generally means one of two things: a re-establishment of identity or a completely defining record good enough to be eponymous. Well, which one will this be? It is out now through Sub Pop Records.
The squalling, undulating feedback that opens XXANN feels like a warm embrace from an old friend, but held so long that it makes you uncomfortable. SUNN O))) have always done their best work at that precipice of pleasant submergence and drowning, layers of droning fuzz that envelop and threaten your safety. When that initial drone riff crashes through, it feels like a seismic event, rattling your teeth in droning, vibrating waves.
Each of their releases has felt cathartic in their own way, but this album threatens the very limits of oppression in a way I haven’t really felt since Black One. But in this dark and droning morasses, you will find the moments that betray this arboreal recording process; a trace of running water in XXANN, the field recordings at the beginning and end of the dense, viscous drones of Mindrolling; these fleeting glimpses of a natural world so close to this undulating darkness are moments of hope in an otherwise suffocating, cloying miasma of squalling feedback and bone shaking distortion.
Black metal pioneers get a nod in Does Anyone Hear Like Venom?,in what could also be a nod to their Immortal cover on Black One; a complete deconstruction of that style into its base elements, but retaining every part of the darkness. Over almost eighty minutes, you are treated to a full body immersion into the hypnotic, unsettling serenity of SUNN O))), closing with the touches of piano on Glory Black that is an utterly unsettling coda.
I’ve never had the chance to see the band live, but I’ve heard tales that people lie on the floor to get the full force of that droning rumble. Well, SUNN O))) is an album that would suit that perfectly, because it feels like a primal experience in sound and vibration. Everything is huge and vast, it makes you feel small and almost pointless, like a grain of sand tossed around during an earthquake.
This is a gorgeous yet hideous experience of lustful horror, of sensuous terror, of endlessness, and it leaves you enthralled in its wake. SUNN O))) are back with a vengeance, and this is an album they needed to make." [Sandy Williamson / The Sleepy Shaman]
Now, SUNN O))) return with their first album of new material since 2019’s acclaimed Pyroclasts. Their tenth album – their debut for new label Sub Pop – demonstrates the duo’s mastery of time and space, light and dark, and their willingness to evolve their unmistakable sound into bold new forms.
The eponymously titled SUNN O))) was tracked at Bear Creek Studios, Woodinville, Washington with Brad Wood (HuM, Tar, Sunny Day Real Estate, Liz Phair). This location would prove crucial to the recording process.
“The vast tracking room had big windows looking out on trees,” says O’Malley. “We could go hiking and be out in the woods, spend time outdoors. That became a big part of it.”
“It was very inviting and very comfortable there,” adds Anderson. “There was no stress, no worry about the timeline or anything like that. We just let ourselves go, and let the music come out.”
SUNN O))) have long welcomed collaborators into their self-contained world, including such esteemed fellow travellers as Hungarian vocal explorer Attila Csihar, Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, Seattle-based multi-instrumentalist Steve Moore, Texan polymath Mark Deutrom, Silkworm co-founder Tim Midyett and legendary singer-songwriter Scott Walker. For the new album, however, O’Malley and Anderson explore the still-fertile, primal territory of the duo format.
“On this album for the first time all of the instrumentation was performed by Greg and I,” says O’Malley. “All of the records have our leadership and direction, of course, but this time around, it was almost like this crucible of ideas that was really at the core of what we’ve been doing.”
Recording exclusively as a duo should not be interpreted as SUNN O))) limiting or restricting themselves. To the contrary, it has opened up new possibilities for their music.
“What’s been happening with our performances over the last couple years with the two of us and no other collaborators or players has been really fresh and exciting,” says Anderson. “There’s been a lot of development. A lot of that was unexpected. And a lot of things that happened in the studio were really exciting and different from what we had been playing live, as well.”
The six compositions on SUNN O))) are expansive and panoramic yet finely detailed, reflecting the arboreal setting in which they were recorded. Opener “XXANN” enters with howling feedback before crunching into what might at first seem familiar territory – until one registers the sound of water trickling beneath. “Mindrolling” likewise incorporates field recordings, as does “Glory Black”, which in addition introduces piano, by turns sonorous and delicate, into the mix, lending the already formidable piece a hushed, solemn feel. The Newcastle-forged originators of black metal get a shout out in the title of “Does Anyone Hear Like Venom?” which seems to position Cronos, Mantas and Abaddon as deep listeners, attuned to their Tyneside surroundings in much the same way as SUNN O))) are to the forest enfolding Bear Creek Studios. Throughout the album, the interplay between O’Malley and Anderson attains fresh heights of telepathic intensity as they shape a music that itself breathes the bracing, earthy air of the Pacific Northwest.
“It’s always developing,” says Anderson. “That’s a constant, and that’s what sustains my interest and passion. There’s a movement that’s happening, whether it’s forward, backwards, to the side, whatever.
That’s what makes playing in this group, at least for me, different and unique and special.”
In October 2025 SUNN O))) released the first fruit of a new deal with celebrated US label Sub Pop in the form of a maxi 12” featuring “Eternity’s Pillars”, “Raise The Chalice” and “Reverential” – three monumental tracks from the same sessions that produced the new album. The alliance with Sub Pop makes perfect sense, as Anderson explains.
“We decided that we should approach Sub Pop, after I’d had some great conversations with Jonathan Poneman,” he says. “So I called him up and before I could get the words out of my mouth, he said, ‘We’d love to do it. Tell me what you guys need.’ He was really excited and supportive.”
SUNN O))) are no strangers to striking cover art – as illustrated by their collaborations with Joanne Ratcliffe for Black One, Richard Serra for Monoliths & Dimensions, Angela LaFont Bolliger for Kannon and Samantha Keely Smith for Life Metal and Pyroclasts. For SUNN O))) they have been granted permission by the estate of the late American artist Mark Rothko to reproduce two of his paintings on the album’s sleeve.
“Over a few years, I developed a correspondence with Christopher Rothko via the Rothko Foundation’s Henry Mandell,” explains O’Malley. “It’s such an honour to be in the proximity of art on that scale, which has moved me personally so much for decades. Standing in front of a Rothko painting you can experience landscapes, worlds and environments subjectively in the abstraction.”
Liner notes for the album are provided by award-winning British writer Robert Macfarlane, famed for his works concerning landscape and the multifaceted relationship between humanity and nature. Macfarlane negotiates the peaks and valleys of the SUNN O))) sound in a poetic, philosophical manner that will be familiar to readers of Mountains Of The Mind: A History Of A Fascination (2003), The Wild Places (2007), Underland: A Deep Time Journey (2019) or Is A River Alive? (2025).
“I’ve been very interested in Robert’s writing for a long time,” says O’Malley. “He was very up for engaging with this project. And what he ended up turning in was mind-blowing. It’s part of the creative process, framing our music in a certain way, visually and with language, before presenting it to the world.”
SUNN O))) also worked with French artist Elodie Lesourd, whose illustration work is featured on the inner LP sleeves and accompanying album merch.
All of which adds up to a fully immersive experience, uniting sound, word and visual into something that is undeniably, completely SUNN O))).
Joseph Stannard, January 2026
https://www.subpop.com/artists/sunn_o
"Seit fast 30 Jahren erweitern SUNN O))) - Stephen O'Malley und Greg Anderson - die Grenzen der Heavy-Musik und verbinden die Welten der Avantgarde und des Rock, um einen Stil zu schaffen, der sofort als ihr eigener erkennbar ist. Jetzt melden sich SUNN O))) mit ihrem ersten Album mit neuem Material seit dem gefeierten Pyroclasts aus dem Jahr 2019 zurück. Ihr zehntes Album - ihr Debüt bei Sub Pop - zeigt, wie gut das Duo mit Zeit und Raum, Licht und Dunkelheit umgehen kann und dass sie bereit sind, ihren unverwechselbaren Sound zu neuen, mutigen Formen weiterzuentwickeln. Das gleichnamige Album ,SUNN O)))" wurde in den Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, Washington, mit Brad Wood (HuM, Tar, Sunny Day Real Estate, Liz Phair) aufgenommen. Dieser Ort erwies sich als entscheidend für den Aufnahmeprozess. ,Der riesige Aufnahmeraum hatte große Fenster mit Blick auf Bäume", sagt O'Malley. ,Wir konnten wandern gehen und draußen im Wald sein, Zeit im Freien verbringen. Das war ein wichtiger Teil davon." SUNN O))) haben schon lange Mitwirkende in ihre eigenständige Welt aufgenommen: In früheren Werken waren Attila Csihar (Mayhem), die Komponistin Hildur Gudnadóttir, der Multi-Instrumentalist Steve Moore, der Universalgelehrte Mark Deutrom, Tim Midyett von Silkworm und der legendäre Singer-Songwriter Scott Walker zu hören. Auf diesem Album haben O'Malley und Anderson jedoch neue Möglichkeiten im ursprünglichen Format des Duos entdeckt und alle Instrumente selbst gespielt. ,Was in den letzten Jahren mit unseren Auftritten zu zweit und ohne weitere Mitwirkende passiert ist, war wirklich neu und aufregend", sagt Anderson. Die Kompositionen auf SUNN O))) sind weitläufig und panoramisch, aber dennoch detailreich und spiegeln die baumreiche Umgebung wider, in der sie aufgenommen wurden. Inmitten von heulendem Feedback und eisigem Knirschen findet man überraschend zarte Momente: eine Feldaufnahme von plätscherndem Wasser im Hintergrund, Klavierzwischenspiele, die eine gedämpfte, feierliche Stimmung erzeugen. Dabei erreicht das Duo neue Höhen telepathischer Intensität, während es Musik formt, die die belebende, erdige Luft des pazifischen Nordwestens atmet. Visuell wird das Album von zwei Gemälden des verstorbenen amerikanischen Künstlers Mark Rothko eingerahmt. Die Liner Notes stammen vom preisgekrönten britischen Schriftsteller Robert Macfarlane, der für seine Werke über Landschaft und die Beziehung zwischen Mensch und Natur bekannt ist. Durch die Arbeit der Band, Macfarlane und Rothko verbinden sich Klang, Wort und Bild zu einem umfassenden Erlebnis, das unbestreitbar ganz und gar SUNN O))) ist." [press release]
"For a band this far into a venerable career to release a self-titled album generally means one of two things: a re-establishment of identity or a completely defining record good enough to be eponymous. Well, which one will this be? It is out now through Sub Pop Records.
The squalling, undulating feedback that opens XXANN feels like a warm embrace from an old friend, but held so long that it makes you uncomfortable. SUNN O))) have always done their best work at that precipice of pleasant submergence and drowning, layers of droning fuzz that envelop and threaten your safety. When that initial drone riff crashes through, it feels like a seismic event, rattling your teeth in droning, vibrating waves.
Each of their releases has felt cathartic in their own way, but this album threatens the very limits of oppression in a way I haven’t really felt since Black One. But in this dark and droning morasses, you will find the moments that betray this arboreal recording process; a trace of running water in XXANN, the field recordings at the beginning and end of the dense, viscous drones of Mindrolling; these fleeting glimpses of a natural world so close to this undulating darkness are moments of hope in an otherwise suffocating, cloying miasma of squalling feedback and bone shaking distortion.
Black metal pioneers get a nod in Does Anyone Hear Like Venom?,in what could also be a nod to their Immortal cover on Black One; a complete deconstruction of that style into its base elements, but retaining every part of the darkness. Over almost eighty minutes, you are treated to a full body immersion into the hypnotic, unsettling serenity of SUNN O))), closing with the touches of piano on Glory Black that is an utterly unsettling coda.
I’ve never had the chance to see the band live, but I’ve heard tales that people lie on the floor to get the full force of that droning rumble. Well, SUNN O))) is an album that would suit that perfectly, because it feels like a primal experience in sound and vibration. Everything is huge and vast, it makes you feel small and almost pointless, like a grain of sand tossed around during an earthquake.
This is a gorgeous yet hideous experience of lustful horror, of sensuous terror, of endlessness, and it leaves you enthralled in its wake. SUNN O))) are back with a vengeance, and this is an album they needed to make." [Sandy Williamson / The Sleepy Shaman]