Band:	Sunn O)))
Album:	Kannon
Style:	Dark Ambient, Drone doom metal
Release date:	December 04, 2015
A review by:	Auntie Sahar

Disc I
01. Kannon 1
02. Kannon 2 [feat. Randall]
03. Kannon 3 [feat. Brad, Randall, Rex & Steve]

Disc II [Japanese bonus]
01. Sending Pearl Of Light [alternate mix]
02. She Played Such Music, Flowers Blossomed [alternate mix]

Six years after their acclaimed Monoliths & Dimensions album, and multiple collaborations, including ones with Nurse With Wound, Ulver, and even Scott Walker, the legendary drone duo of Sunn O))) is finally back with a new full length, in the form of Kannon. Yet to say that the overall impact of this release is anticlimactic would quite possibly be the understatement of 2015. Get ready to shed tears, O))) worshipers, because the mighty have fallen. And they've fallen quite hard.

The overall sound of Kannon is less expansive than that of Sunn O)))'s previous full length. There aren't 30 + guest musicians on horn duty, woodwind duty, choir duty, and whatever else, and overall the album sounds more stripped down, more akin to the band's pre-Black One material. In theory this isn't an issue, but in application, from front to back, up, down, and all around, there are many aspects of Kannon that make it an overall dull and unimpressive release. Most notable as a problem would have to be the production approach taken on this album. At the time of writing this review, I've now listened to Kannon five times through, and every time I do I find myself having to crank up the volume on my PC to a significantly louder-than-usual level to actually audibly hear all the layers of the music, which has never been a problem for me with any other Sunn O))) release. I'm not entirely sure what the band did differently this time around, but somehow the production here sounds a lot more high pitched, ringy, and overall grating on the ears, which is not at all a pleasant contrast to the band's more bass-heavy, smothering approach often employed on previous albums.

Once again, the talented Attila Csihar appears as a guest vocalist for Kannon, yet this time around, his vocals are very buried in the mix, and on "Kannon 1" for example, they appear as little more than quiet whispers in the background. For a vocalist quite well known to be capable of such powerhouse performances, this approach that Sunn O))) decided to take with him here comes across as highly disappointing, and as though he was not allowed to shine to his fullest capacity. The only track here on which Attila's vocals really stood out to me was "Kannon 3." But plot twist! This particular track is actually a rerecording of one previously done on Sunn O)))'s live Domkirke album. What this means is that Kannon really only gives listeners about 22 minutes of new material, and the fact that Sunn O))) would actually rerecord something they already did and then slap it on here to compensate is something that strikes this reviewer as both lazy and even as somewhat insulting to their fanbase.

In the 2000s, if one were to look for a band responsible for bringing drone to a larger audience and really solidifying it as a legitimate genre within the larger spectrum of music, it would have to be Sunn O))). Yet this monumental status they have appears to be faltering, it faltered with the Soused collab last year, and it is faltering with Kannon again this year. Quite a few other drone bands have, quite simply, knocked Sunn O))) off their throne this year with far more engaging and dynamic releases, and as far as Sunn O))) fans go... if you're diehard into the band, you'll probably want to give this a peek just to see what it's like, but as for first timers looking to get into them, take my advice and do not start with Kannon.

Have a listen and cry about it.