Having never listened to any of these bands prior to now I wasn’t sure what to expect, but considering the hype surrounding Sunn O))) I had a feeling it was going to be something I was either going to really like or, more than likely really hate. In the end, I’m not really sure what I feel about this.

I received this promo from Southern Lord Records and I only have one question to ask them; THIS is metal? You seriously consider this to be metal? If you do you are so fucking high you probably think Aqua Teen Hunger Force is actually funny. You can call this whatever you want; drone, experimental, psychedelic, ambient or doom, but one thing it is not is METAL.

Metal is aggressive. Metal is angry. Metal makes you want to bang your head, pump your fist and raise the goathorns. The collaboration of Sunn O))) and Boris entitled Altar contains none of those elements. This sounds like something people listen to when they ingest too much peyote.

Experimental psychedelic drone fused with doom would be the best way to explain the odd music contained on this effort, and I don’t mean doom in an Evoken or Winter sense, I mean it more along the lines of weird fucked up Melvins-styled experimental stoner doom. Atmosphere plays a big part in this effort, as it seems the goal of the music is to take you on a mystical journey or some weird hippy crap along those lines.

The music itself is… well… it’s not even really music for the most part, just a collection of sounds layered one on top of the other to build this weird aural tapestry, mostly consisting of a lot of reverberating guitar and bass tones with soft drum beats. The only track that stands out to me is "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)" which features the vocals of Jesse Sykes of Jesse Sykes And The Sweet Hereafter and while the clean vocals aren’t the best I’ve ever heard the track itself is honestly one of the most hypnotic songs I’ve ever heard and sounds like it belongs on an independent movie soundtrack, like Trainspotting or Lost In Translation. Other than that, there’s not much of interest on this album, unless you really like droning experimental music, which I do not.

I’m not sure why this album was sent out to metal magazines and websites for review since it’s clearly not a metal album and for the most part isn’t even music. While "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)" is a good song, it hardly makes this album worth the attention of the average black, doom, death or grind aficionado. I definitely won’t be rushing out to pick up a Sunn O))) or Boris CD after listening to this album that’s for sure.

Review byTeufel