sunn o))) is to music what david lynch is to film. if you have seen some of lynch’s more obscure movies, such as eraserhead and inland empire, you know how strange, disturbing these films can be. these are films you either like or hate, and to see them you have to be in the right mood. the drone doom duo sunn o))) is very similar, only that they make music and not films.

the music is dark, or more like pitch black. or even blacker than that. it is disturbing. strange. creepy. more art than music. and definitely nothing you should listen to when being in the wrong mood. the following piece, orthodox caveman from their album black one, is a very good example of their music.

they also did a joint album with the japanese doom band boris, which resulted in the album altar. unfortunately, the studio versions are not really available on youtube, so here’s a live version of the opener etna. sorry for the bad sound quality (though for a concert recording it’s actually pretty good)…

agalloch is another band i stumbled about while browsing my favourite record store in zurich. during their existence, they produced four full-length albums ranging over different styles. i particularly like the latter three: the mantle, ashes against the grain and marrow of the spirit.

unfortunately, all songs from the mantle are only playable on youtube for certain regions (in which i’m not living apparently). there are a couple of live recordings available, but i prefer the studio versions, especially when listening to the songs the first time. in case you can find them somewhere, the lodge and the hawthorne passage (featuring a quote from det sjunde inseglet) are two very good songs on that album. it is unfortunate that i can’t include these songs here since they are rather different, compared to the songs i present below.

from the album ashes against the grain, some songs are available on youtube, for example not unlike the waves, a dark, atmospheric and heavy song with both clear vocals and distorted screaming:

another song i really like from that album is the opener limbs. the second song i want to present is from their newest album marrow of the spirit, released november 2010. it is called black lake nidstång and has a duration of over 17 minutes. it’s my favourite piece from that album, and not that easy to digest.

update: someone uploaded the complete song together with a very nice photo show:

finally, here’s another piece from marrow of the spirit, called to drown. the first half is rather calm, while the second is more and more dramatic, until the music evolves into noise and finally into sounds of water, sounds of waves.

the story of frost* and me starts many years ago, at new year’s eve, when a friend gave me a promo version of their debut album milliontown. this turned out to be a nice progressive rock act, led by a songwriter who usually writes pop pieces, for example for the atomic kitten, who decided to go back to his roots and do some progressive rock. one very nice piece from this album is no me no you:

the album ends with a 26 minutes long song called milliontown, a really beautiful piece of prog:

after disbanding in 2006, they came together back in 2007 and released another album in 2008 called experiments in mass appeal, which i don’t like as much as the first album though.

kauan is a band from russia, whose lyrics are in finnish and russian. starting as a folk/doom metal band, they continuously changed their style and now fit into the post rock category. i randomly stumbled about one of their albums on amazon, since for some reason one of their album was wrongly labelled as an album by mar de grises. i liked the songs i tried on youtube, especially orkidea from their second album tietäjän laulu. orkidea is a rather calm song, with heavy guitars only appearing seldomly:

another very beautiful piece is valveuni from their newest album, aava tuulen maa. beautiful melodies and soundscapes await the listener:

finally, here’s a piece from the first album lumikuuro, showing the darker, doomier side of the band’s past. opposed to the above two songs, this one contains growls: