LIVE // MUSIC // SUNN O)))

15/7/17

The Ritz, Manchester

When ear plugs are being handed out at the entrance to a gig, you know you’re in for something special.

Returning to Manchester for the first time in five years as part of this year’s Manchester International Festival, the mighty Sunn O))) brought their seismic drone to a rapt audience, gathered as though in dark communion, receiving the gift of the drone from one of music’s most enigmatic and uncompromising bands.

Before Sunn O))) took the stage, though, we were treated to a DJ set from Manchester’s own electronica duo Demdike Stare. Their brand of murky ambient music is a perfect set-up for the night ahead. Supporting acts are often unfairly ignored as people mill about, getting drinks and chatting before the ‘main event’, but Demdike Stare command the room’s attention with ghostly atmospherics and almost subconsciously propulsive beats; the kind of music you don’t necessarily realise you’re moving along to until a few minutes in, once the sway has taken hold and you’re being swept up in the dark majesty of their slowly-unfolding textures. An extended sampling of OM (I regretfully didn’t know the song, but it was unmistakably the fantastic Al Cisneros/Chris Hakius drone outfit) added real urgency towards the end of the set, as the duo infused it with some of their own electronic touches, and certainly left this writer feeling more than warmed up for Sunn O))).

Taking the stage alone and dressed in black robes - as per Sunn O))) custom - vocalist Attila Csihar was wreathed in smoke, captivating with his bizarre, operatic vocal gymnastics. As the rest of the band appeared – also dressed in their robes, as though the Dark Brotherhood of metal music – the atmosphere reached a fever pitch which, rather than fading after the initial thrill of seeing them walk out onstage, was upheld like a tension wire throughout.

This was my first time seeing the band live, and I can confirm the stories are gloriously true – they are astonishingly loud, the frequency of their glacial guitar riffs descending upon the crowd like a warhammer, stunning everyone in place. Sunn O))) aren’t a band you move to so much as submit to, and the crowd seemed to have no issue with this whatsoever.

Their set is essentially one protracted, meditative drone (not a complaint at all), with the massive guitars combining with Csihar’s hypnotic chanting/growling/throat singing to create an experience I will never forget. The band’s sense of drama and almost mystic import is helped by Csihar’s multiple masks and outfits, as though he’s a video game boss levelling up through his various forms, appearing towards the end of the set in a cloak covered in what appeared to be shards of metal and a spiked death mask; calling to mind a cross between Sauron and a genuinely intimidating Power Rangers villain.

The Ritz is the perfect venue for such an experience, with its large, open layout allowing every ghostly note of feedback to echo; every colossal guitar note to envelop the entire room as the sheer vibration hits you in your core. Once the set was finished – the band as visibly appreciative and humbled as the audience – it was like emerging from the confines of an echo chamber. In, uh, a good way. For fans of drone/doom/‘extreme metal’/whatever name you prefer, Sunn O))) are perhaps the ultimate live experience.

(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT MUSIC AND GIGS - https://www.musicandgigs.co.uk/single-post/SunnO)