review by: Roberto Martinelli

Sunn has come a long way since the last record of theirs I heard, 00 Void (review in issue #6). On that they were basically doing what Earth pioneered, namely guitar and bass drone, but even slower and with a fatter production. But they couldn't top Earth.

A couple albums later is White 1, which is still of course a drone record, but it's got some distinct and successful flavors to it. Certainly Sunn and Earth and their ilk don't make the kind of records in which there are tracks that are necessarily better than others, as they are basically have the same intent. I'd be surprised to hear someone say, "Dude! Earth 2 is all about track three!" No.

But on White 1, the three tracks are different. My Wall is a sprawling, wandering narrative that is backed by ambient drones. The mantra-like narrative, which is structured like a song, is a bit like Dead Raven Choir, but more audible and focused, a bit like Edgar Allan Poe and "The Ride of Paul Revere" all mixed up. It works, as the narrator (guest vocals by Julian Cope) has an engaging if a bit silly delivery as he talks about meddlesome bells and the wail of Johnny Guitar.

But we're just getting to the good bits. The new Sunn has got the talents of Runhild Gammelsæter, whom you may remember as the gorgeous Scandinavian babe who did the shockingly brutal vocals on the only recording of Thorr's Hammer, which was an old project of Sunn's Stephen O'Malley. This time around, the vocals are in an ominous, spoken Norwegian, and the dronescapes are suitably more frantic and engaging, largely in part to a heavy drum machine plod. The third track, the most ambient, drifting piece, is also supposed to contain Gammelsæter's vocals, but they're hard to perceive.

So will people not familiar with this kind of thing suddenly get it if they hear White 1? Don't count on it. I'm not even sure I get what guitar drone is necessarily all about, but I enjoyed this album. (7/10)