SUNN O))) (Live)

at The Boiler Shop, Newcastle, U.K., March 27, 2024

SUNN O))) (Live at The Boiler Shop, Newcastle, U.K., March 27, 2024)
Photo: Mick Burgess

The beautiful, haunting choral Requiem music that gently shimmered around the hall during the intermission lulled the crowd into a deep false sense of security as the houselights dimmed and the fog machine belched forth a volcanic amount of smoke that billowed up over the stage. Quite a striking image, further enhanced by the curtain of small vertical spotlights at the front of the stage and the three huge cinematic spots to the rear, situated behind a semi-circular wall of speakers.

And on they strode, Seattle’s Drone legends, Sunn O))), two mysterious figures bedecked in long-hooded habits and without pomp or ceremony, unleashed their low rumbling, swirling, feedback driven cacophony of Drone.

Seeing the silhouetted duo, grinding out those Drone riffs to “Novae” and “Rxanlord” in their five song set, surrounded by swirling smoke and seriously atmospheric lighting created a stunning, eyrie image.

In “Butch’s Guns” and “Crank Everett” they drew up a hypnotic rumble that defies description and could only really be appreciated taking in the whole audio, visual experience.

Sunn O)))’s avant garde take huge guitar riffs is utterly unique. Nobody looks like them or sounds like them and should be experienced once in a gig lifetime.

Author

  • Mick Burgess

    Mick is a reviewer and photographer here at Metal Express Radio, based in the North-East of England. He first fell in love with music after hearing Jeff Wayne's spectacular The War of the Worlds in the cold winter of 1978. Then in the summer of '79 he discovered a copy of Kiss Alive II amongst his sister’s record collection, which literally blew him away! He then quickly found Van Halen I and Rainbow's Down To Earth, and he was well on the way to being rescued from Top 40 radio hell!   Over the ensuing years, he's enjoyed the Classic Rock music of Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, and Deep Purple; the AOR of Journey and Foreigner; the Pomp of Styx and Kansas; the Progressive Metal of Dream Theater, Queensrÿche, and Symphony X; the Goth Metal of Nightwish, Within Temptation, and Epica, and a whole host of other great bands that are too numerous to mention. When he's not listening to music, he watches Sunderland lose more football (soccer) matches than they win, and occasionally, if he has to, he goes to work as a property lawyer.

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