Live Review : Sunn O))) + Jesse Sykes @ New Century Hall, Manchester on March 28th 2024

As metal fans we tend to view our world as an impenetrable fortress sitting alone in an ocean of splendid isolation. Disconnected from other strands of popular culture. The truth is actually very different, we have many openly flowing land borders with other facets of the musical lexicon. Drone metal and the legendary Sunn O))) specifically is one of those bridging areas. 

Tonight’s audience is a fascinatingly varied mismatch of seasoned metalheads, experimental indie kids and erstwhile lovers of avant-garde jazz. It also feels more akin to a classical recital or piece of performance art than it does to a normal metal gig. There are no pits, infact very little crowd movement at all and any surfaces that can be sat on will at some point this evening get a bum squeezed upon.

Jesse Sykes impressively sets the tone for tonight’s atmosphere with her scaled back lo-fi take on Gothic country. She is flanked on either side by Bill Herzog and Phil Wandscher from her former backing band, the Sweet Hereafter. They sit in a crude semicircle, heads down, slowly plucking out their maudlin refrains. This is Nu-country. The great American institution shaun of all this optimism and all its show business pizzazz.

Their output is slight and haunting and there are frequent instances where it struggles to be heard above the humdrum emitting from the bar at the back of the room. But whilst she may will be in direct competition with the chattering classes, Jesse still manages to cast an ethereal spell over the room. Everything is so stripped back that when you do get a held cord or a snippet of reverberation it actually feels monumental.

The only hints of her trademark looping psychedelia come with the final track where the three of them, still in a distinctly subdued manner, become playful with their instruments. The snatchers of distorted feedback feel both alien and welcome and draws to an end a fascinatingly restrained set by the underground heroin.

As stated Sunn O))) disregard all the traits and trappings of a communal garden rock show. Over 90 minutes, we get one continuous piece of “music”. Apparently made up of three tracks, the joins are only visible if you watch for the moments where Stepen O’Malley and Greg Andreson simultaneously raise both their arms. Talking about visible, for the vast majority of evening they aren't. They are buried behind an impenetrable wall of smoke and dimmed lights. Every now and again you see a shadow of hooded figure manoeuvre in a haze or flash of a raised arm but most of the time the creation of their “music” is hidden from view.

Once you get used to the fact that all of this is at a distinct right angled to our perceived concept of concert, it is an immersive and utterly extraordinary experience. Tonight is a much more stripped down and vital version of Sunn O))). They have no other contributors on stage and therefore there is a complete absence of any vocals, brass interludes or organ refrains (all of which have appeared in previous performances in this city, review here). Instead everything is about the way that Steven and Greg manipulate, torture and contort their guitars.

The sound they cultivate is astonishing. It is low, rumbling and hypnotic. The whole building vibrates and there is a continual chatter from the ceiling as the sonic reverberations make the perspex tiles dance in their awnings. It is like being trapped in a infinite bottle universe with everything looping around on repeat. The only way to gauge the passage of time is to watch the continually fluctuating patterns of the three lighting rigs that dominate the stage.

It is like being part of some primordial ceremony where we are drawn in by stripped back organic sounds. There are changes in tone and fluctuations in scale but you really have to work to find them. Each of the three tracks has a distinct conclusive crescendoing passage but the band are not going to do anything as mainstream as let you know where those are. Instead, like all good art, we as consumers are left to make our own assumptions about where it begins and ends and what it actually means. 

After eighty-five absorbing and edifying minutes you can tell things are beginning to come to a halt. The smoke machines are given some respite, and the fog clears enough for us to begin to make out with some clarity the two figures eking out this evening's extraordinary cacophony of sound. Guitars are raised overhead as Steven and Greg wrench out the last few pulverising notes. One of their instruments is placed on top of the imposing Stonehenge like structural of amps and it reverbs in a closed cycle of feedback. Whilst the preceding hour and half has been gloriously monotonous, there is now a palpable sense that the tempo is rising. It builds and builds and builds and then it stops. An enraptured crowd that has been caught in the moment for ninety minutes now explode in accolade.

What Sunn O)) do is gloriously impenetrable. It is as far from accessibility and commercialism as you can get. It is also absolutely astonishing and incredibly enthralling. It is one of those experiences that has to be seen to be believed and once you have done so you will keep coming back for more. This is the point where metal and immersive art meet and it is a beautiful and soul enriching place to be.  

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Sunn O))), Jesse Sykes