sunn 0))) - Live White

Live White presents Sunn 0))) as perhaps the most primitive and heaviest power trio in history. Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson are here joined only by Rex Ritter, who honed his drone with neo-shoegazers Jessamine. Live White covers the basics in the Sunn 0))) discography, containing five tracks of material that appear on White1 under different names, one from Flight of the Behemoth, one from 00 Void, an early version of a track that would appear on Black One ("Caveman Salad" here, "Orthodox Caveman" on the studio album), and some otherwise unreleased tracks ( "Funeralmarch (To the Grave)," "Funeraldrone") on the second disc. The set ranges from the early, Earth-worshipping droning of "NN O)))," through the avant-doom of "B-Alien Skeleton" to the chugging Melvins homage of "Funeralmarch." Needless to say, the album sounds absolutely fantastic the louder that it is played, as the hidden dynamics in the harmonic overtones do not appear at lower volumes. White1's liner notes state "Maximum Volume Yields Maximum Results" and the same is true here. This is true power ambient music, meant to be felt as well as heard. A highlight in Sunn 0)))'s catalog, and also the one that is hardest to get, unfortunately. This was severely limited by the label, with no more than 500 copies produced. But it is worth the search.