Wow. This will perhaps necessarily be a brief review which reverts to one word uttered truths, for lack of a better way to depict this offering. Such is the way of the Southern Lord's darkest disciples, though. Such is this review. "Black One" is many things and the words that follow are chief among them, though they are perhaps not descriptive enough if simply taken one by one. As a body, though, this works. Mostly.

Drone. Punishing. Abusive. Heavy. Distorted. Malevolent. Atmospheric. Obsessive. Bleak. Crushing. Atonal. Overwhelming. Sick. Claustrophobic. Eerie. Unorthodox. Suffocating. Ambient. Black. Primitive. Pure. Sinister. Enveloping. Disturbing.

Okay, that's enough. "Writing" this way is harder than you may think. So is describing the sort of 'mind-fuck' that Mr. Stephen O'Malley and Mr. Greg Anderson subject the listeners of sunnO))) to, really. This is a band with a very limited audience -- either you are in the fold or you are not. There can be no fence sitting. Besides, that would hurt.

When the more 'experimental' songs (or parts of songs) on "Black One" subside, the mighty influence of Earth, especially their "Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version" album, can be readily discerned. \m/ The experimental parts themselves are depressive textural pieces with scathing, virtually inhuman vocals. In fact, for the final track guest vocalist Malefic (from Xasthur) was locked inside of a casket that was loaded into a hearse. All he had was a microphone and a dwindling air supply. Toldja this thing was sick.

"Scabs of the past peeling slowly from a dark and distant memory, emptiness, whispering menace glinting beneath the skin, consumption in the vast eternal maw, decaying teeth flickering over the tongue of the faceless, debasement of eternal torment, dark is the light. Dark is the light. And everything is black." And so it is.

written by Tony Belcher

Playing time: 67.09