Boris & Sunn O)))
Altar (2lp/red)
RSD 2023 release on lava red vinyl. Repress of the long out of print (originally released on Halloween 2006) Boris and Sunn O))) collaboration with a twist: The original version was a triple LP but this 2023 version is a double. As you'd expect from a Sunn O))) release, the packaging is super nice: gatefold tip-on style jacket, a poster and a nice booklet with liner notes from Kim Thayil. Matt Colton cut, original master by Mell Dettmer. The first collaboration between Southern Lord's two kingpins of avant-metal, 'Altar,' is surely the most eagerly-anticipated extreme music release for some time. The wedding of Sunn O)))'s brutal drone symphonies with Boris' kaleidoscopic noise results in a wholly unique album that alchemically merges familiar elements of each band's sound into a transfigured, mysterious whole; roaring drones rise and collapse beneath blasts of disorienting, warped horns, the end result a heaving, psychedelic mass that looks set to induct yet more devotees to the shadowy explorations of both acts. A mind-blowing sludge of cathartic, blurred noise.