Black One

Black One
Artwork by Jo Ratcliffe.
Studio album by Sunn O)))
Released	October 17 2005
Recorded	Fall 2004 - July 2005
Genre	Drone Doom, Drone Metal, Black Metal, Dark Ambient, Avant-Garde
Length	67:11
Producer	Sunn O)))
Sunn O))) chronology
Candlewolff Ov Thee Golden Chalice (2005)	Black One (2005)	Angel Coma (2006)

Black One is the fifth studio album by the drone doom band Sunn O))). As the title implies, the album is heavily influenced by black metal. Along with loose re-imaginings of old-school black metal songs throughout, Black One incorporates guest musicians of the genre including Malefic (Xasthur) and Wrest (Leviathan).

With initial recording in January 2005 and the album's main recording cycle taking place in the Spring of 2005, Black One would be released in October 2005 to critical acclaim and is perceived as a further breakthrough for the band.

Background

Recording and Development

Initial recording of the album would take place in the Fall of 2004 at The Sanctuary in California by Scott Reeder. Primary tracks and mixing would take place at Donner and Blitzen Studios in May 2005 by Mathias Schneeberger, while Oren Ambarchi would record his parts at The Jerker House in Australia. The album would be finished by the end of July 2005.

"Sin Nanna" refers to the sole member of Tasmanian black metal band Striborg and is entirely composed by Oren Ambarchi. The lyrics for "It Took The Night To Believe" were written in 2003. "Cursed Realms (Of The Winterdemons)" is a loose re-interpretation (Different music but using the same lyrics) of the same song by the Norwegian black metal band Immortal, which originally appeared on the 1995 album Battles in The North.

"Orthodox Caveman", previously known as "Caveman Salad", is based on live material from the White tour, an early rendition appearing on Live White. "CandleGoat" incorporates lyrics originally written by the Norwegian black metal musician Dead and original from the Mayhem song "Freezing Moon", which was composed in 1991.

Finally, "Báthory Erzsébet" was recorded as a tribute to Quorthon (as well as the countess who inspired Bathory's name) and, according to an interview with Terrorizer magazine, is loosely built "around a really slowed down riff from 'A Fine Day to Die'", which appeared on the 1988 Bathory album Blood Fire Death. However, it incorporates original lyrics written in 2003. For the recording of the song vocalist Malefic, who suffered from claustrophobia, would be locked into a coffin with a microphone to which the coffin was placed in a Cadillac hearse. In a press release for Black One, Sunn O))) would describe the feat and end result as "truly suffocating and disturbing!". An image of Malefic in the coffin from the recording sessions did surface online around the time of release, but has since been lost.

In an interview with The Wire, Stephen O'Malley elaborated on his and Anderson's interest in the black metal genre along with the conception of Black One:

“	“Uh-huh. Black One was interesting, because there were a couple of things that happened to the band at that time. One, we got a lot of recognition outside of musical spheres even, even in the art world, stuff started happening, and there were things like the New York Times article. And the other thing that happened with that record was, rather than being a new direction, it was actually more of a culmination of a longer interest than any of the other influences of Sunn O))) except for maybe Earth and the Melvins. Personally, I'd been doing fanzines in the early '90s focusing on Black Metal, I'd been designing records, working with record labels, all this stuff. So it's not like a new concept to me. Looking backwards, maybe it was finally a release, a purging – part of a longer purging [laughs]. But musically, I think that might be where it came from. It was also the peak of Greg's and my parallel interest in Black Metal. I mean, it's still there for me, I don't know how important it is, but there's definitely a peak in its importance in the palette of music we're listening to, and maybe in a broader scale too, it seems like Black Metal has waned again for the next period. So, somehow, rather than being like a direction at the time, maybe it was more of an aesthetic, or a purging, that may have come off as a direction. To me, I think there's more in common musically with a lot of that material to the first two tracks of Flight Of The Behemoth than there is to Burzum, or Emperor, or Immortal or stuff like that. You can exercise a lot of aesthetics on an abstract music and get a lot of different results. We could have tried to exercise a different aesthetic on that record and come across not Black Metal at all. We had black robes at that point. But that's something we were resisting from the beginning, when we decided to do that. That was the first idea that came up, like, 'We can't do that, it's too obvious!' But at that point, at the time, Black One came out and it seemed appropriate or whatever.”	”
	— Stephen O'Malley, The Wire

Release

To premiere Black One, Sunn O))) would release the song "It Took The Night To Believe" as a MP3. Black One would be initially released on 18 October 2005 on CD. Notably, the CD features apocalyptic texts by Seldon Hunt on each track, followed by several black pages in the booklet.

A special 2-CD edition, limited to 2000 machine-numbered copies, would feature a bonus disc entitled Solstitinum Fulminate, a collage of drones at Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Daymare Recordings would produce a double CD version for Japan, with La Mort Noir dans Esch / Alzette as the bonus second disc.

A vinyl edition would be released at the end of 2005, with re-issues in the following years:

• 2005 - Black Vinyl (1000 copies; 180g; Includes poster)
• 2005 - Solid Grey Vinyl (1000 copies)
• 2005 - Transparent Grey Vinyl (1000 copies)
• 2005 - Grey Swirl Vinyl (1000 copies)
• 2005 - Black / Grey Swirl Vinyl (1000 copies)
• 2005 - Test Pressing (15 copies)
• 2006 - Picture Disc (500 copies)
• 2013 - White Vinyl (1000 copies; Stoughton Jacket)
• 2013 - Grey Vinyl (1000 copies; Stoughton Jacket)
• 2013 - Silver Vinyl (1000 copies; Stoughton Jacket; European Exclusive)
• 2013 - Black Vinyl (1000 copies; Stoughton Jacket; Record Store Day Exclusive)
• 2015 - Clear Vinyl (1000 copies; Stoughton Jacket)
• 2015 - Black Vinyl (1000 copies; Stoughton Jacket)

Reception and Legacy

Black One would garner critical praise from numerous publications. Pitchfork Magazine would award an 8.9/10 score and the "Best New Music" award. Reviewer Brandon Stosuy would state the following: "With Black One, Sunn 0))) harnesses the sounds and moods of black metal, then expands its palette through meticulous experimentation and a commitment to the physicality of sound. The result is a beautiful, deep, passionate reflection of life's bleakest corners." Stylus Magazine would award an "A" score and list Black One as their album of the week from 31 October - November 6.

Other notable reviewers at the time would come from the likes of Tiny Mix Tapes (5/5), Scene Point Blank (8/10), Popmatters (8/10), LambGoat (8/10), Alternative Press and Aural Innovations.

Black One would appear on several year-end lists:

• Pitchfork - The Top 50 Albums of 2005 (#28)
• Popmatters - The Top Metal Albums of 2005 (#9)
• Stonerrock.com - Top 25 Albums of 2005 (#6)

In an article by Loudwire of the best albums by specific metal subgenres, Black One was chosen as the album to represent "drone metal".

Tracklist

Black One

• 1. Sin Nanna (2:17) (Oren Ambarchi)
• 2. It Took The Night To Believe (5:56) (Sunn O))); Wrest)
• 3. Cursed Realms (Of The Winterdemons) (10:13) (Immortal; Abbath)
• 4. Orthodox Caveman (10:00) (Sunn O))))
• 5. CandleGoat (8:04) (Sunn O))); Dead)
• 6. Cry For The Weeper (14:40) (Sunn O))))
• 7. Báthory Erzsébet (15:59) (Sunn O))); Quorthon)

Solstitinum Fulminate

• 1. Wind & Fog (21:29)
• 2. Vlad Tepes (16:43)

Personnel

Sunn O))) & Guests

• Greg Anderson - Guitar (2, 4, 5, 6); Icy Inverted Crosswinds Upon Four String Zamboni (3); Moog Taurus (5); Keyboards (6); Bass (7)
• Stephen O'Malley - Lead Guitar (2, 3); Grail (3); Eclipse (3); Guitar (4, 6); Bass (4, 7); Decimator Bass (5); Crypt Calls (5); Virus (6)
• Oren Ambarchi - Bowed Cymbal (1); Flies (1); Drums (1); Electric Guitar (1, 6, 7); Atmosphere (1); Vocals (1); Caveman Drums (4); Horns (6); Wood (6); Tubular Bells (7); Cymbals (7); Gong (7)
• Mathias Schneeberger - Glacial Winds (3); Virus (7)
• John Weise - Whiteout (3); Casket Electronics (5)
• Malefic - Voice (3); Tundra Guitar (5); Guitar (6); Keyboards (6); Calls From Beyond The Grave (7)
• Wrest - Voices (2)

Technical Personnel

• Sunn O))) - Mixing, Producer
• Reedo - Engineer (Initial Tracks)
• Oren Ambarchi - Engineer (Ambarchi Pieces)
• Chris Townend - Mixing, Overdubs (Ambarchi Pieces)
• Mathias Schneeberger - Engineer (Primary Tracks); Mixing
• Mark Chalecki - Mastering
• Stephen O'Malley - Art Direction
• Seldon Hunt - Typography
• Jo Ratcliffe - Cover Illustration
• Liz O'Malley - Robes

Psuedonyms

• Greg Anderson - Mystik Fogg Invokator
• Stephen O'Malley - MK Ultra Blizzard, Taoiseach, Drone Slut, Caveman Skillz, SOMA
• Scott Conner / Xasthur - Malefic
• Mathias Schneeberger - Count Von Schneeberger
• Scott Reeder - Reedo

Solstitinum Fulminate

• Greg Anderson - Guitar L
• Stephen O'Malley - Guitar R
• Oren Ambarchi - Guitar, Electronics
• Tos Nieuwenhuizen - Analogue Synthesizer
• Attila Csihar - Vocals

External Links

• Black One on Bandcamp
• Solstitum Fulminate on Bandcamp
• Discogs
• Press Kit From 2005