Sunn O))): Monoliths & Dimensions

Label: Southern Lord

Monoliths & Dimensions is a fantastic display of that hugeness you’ve likely read about in stories on this band and the new avant-doom-metal scene that orbits it. What no amount of hype can tell you, though, is the rich detailing in Sunn O)))‘s massed sound. Way more than just two heavy guitars: violin, spine-rattling choral events, all manner of textures and subtleties in this self-renewing universe of dark-matter music. Just incredible—and more often than not, beautiful in a completely other sort of fashion. This music is ripe for projecting your own bleak fantasies into, and no matter how dark you think they are…you’re not this dark. Startlingly lovely packaging, too, even for a CD. Please do not only listen to this record on your earbuds—it’s worth buying a good stereo for. You can thank me in the afterlife, the depths of which, by the by, may be accurately portrayed right here. (M.L. Thrope)