Sunn O))) and Black Mountain

The pair have made some of the most forward-thinking and innovative drone-based music of the 20th/21st century, pushing the genre to more expansive and also more popular territories. Influenced by Earth and early Melvins, they are widely regarded as one of the loudest bands on the planet, incorporating everything from extreme black metal, dark ambient music to noise rock in creating their unique sound. Through heavily detuned guitars, slow tempos and powerful distortion, they create huge soundscapes and darkly eerie atmospheres that are drenched in feedback.

Initially begun as an Earth tribute act, the duo began writing their own music, before releasing their first recordings, "The Grimmrobe Demos" (1998) and "øø Void" (2000) on Hydra Head Records subsidiary, Double H Noise Industries. These initial recordings were predominantly made just using guitars, but with 2002's "Flight of the Behemoth," they utilised an element of percussion to expand their sound. They continued this exploration with their next two releases, "White1" (2003) and "White2" (2004).

With "Black One," released in 2005, they began incorporating electronics into the mix and went on to push their music to new territories through the collaborative album, "Altar," that was made alongside Japanese doom-metal band, Boris. As well as working with Boris, they have also collaborated with noise pioneer, Nurse With Wound, with 2011's "The Iron Soul of Nothing." In their 2009 album, "Monoliths and Dimensions," they featured a Vietnamese woman's choir alongside french horns. Again building upon their musical repertoire, they collaborated with singer-songwriter, Scott Walker in 2014, on the album, "Soused," which has received widespread critical acclaim.

McBean founded Black Mountain after the dissolution of his previous band Jerk With A Bond, recruiting the drummer in that band, Joshua Wells, to help realize an idea he had for a collective called the Black Mountain Army. Over time the collective expanded to include artists, writers and musicians of all shapes and sizes, and it was through this collective that McBean and Wells found the three people who later form the rest of Black Mountain in 2004. The band immediately started rehearsing and writing their first songs, and hit a creative purple patch pretty much directly out of the gate.

“Druganaut”, the band’s first single, was issued by the Jagjaguwar label in October 2004, and by January of the following year they had written, recorded and produced their self-titled debut album. The album was very well received critically, with an 8.3 out of ten rating from Pitchfork Media to boot. The band went off on tour almost as soon as their debut album was released, even taking in a few shows supporting Coldplay, of all people, and only stopped for McBean to record his second album with his side project band “Pink Mountaintops”. However, Black Mountain had become his main band, and soon enough it was time to record “In The Future”, their second effort.

The album was released in January 2008, and it was another critical hit. Rave reviews came from Drowned In Sound, Q Magazine, The Skinny and The Hold Steady’s Franz Nicolay, who listed the album as one of his favorite releases of the year. Their track “Stay Free” became the least likely track to be featured in the film Spider-Man 3, and to cap it off, the album was nominated for the 2008 Polaris Music Prize. Ever since then, Black Mountain have remained one of the most respected acts in the Canadian indie rock scene, with a pulverizing live show to boot. For that, they come highly recommended.