| Monoliths & Dimensions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Sunn O))) | ||||
| Released | May 18, 2009 | |||
| Recorded | 2007–2009 | |||
| Genre | Drone metal, experimental, ambient music | |||
| Length | 53:00 | |||
| Label | Southern Lord SUNN100 |
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| Producer | Mell Dettmer, Randall Dunn | |||
| Sunn O))) chronology | ||||
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Monoliths & Dimensions is the seventh studio album by the avant-garde drone doom band Sunn O))). The album was created and recorded over a period of two years and features the collaborations of composer Eyvind Kang, Australian guitar player Oren Ambarchi, Hungarian vocalist Attila Csihar, Dylan Carlson from the drone band Earth, and trombonists Julian Priester and Stuart Dempster. There's also an upright bass trio; French and English horns; harp and flute duo; piano, brass, reed, and string ensembles; and a Viennese woman's choir led by Persian vocalist Jessika Kenney.[1]
However, the band said, "The album is not Sunn O))) with strings or metal-meets-orchestra material." The band took an approach concentrating on more of allusion toward the timbre of feedback and the instruments involved, so the piece is really illusory, beautiful and not entirely linear, stating, "[The end product is] the most musical piece we’ve done, and also the heaviest, [most] powerful, and most abstract set of chords we’ve laid to tape."
When speaking at the launch of Monoliths & Dimensions Stephen O'Malley told Alex Templeton-Ward that the album was "like a prism ……our music is the white light going in, a lot of the colour comes out the other side through the amazing arrangements and personalities of the guest performers and core collaborators… I think the main topic of this album is elaboration, expansion and prismatic detail. The source of that detail is inherent in the sounds of the guitars and the notes of those arrangements."[2]
The final song, titled "Alice", is a dedication to the late Alice Coltrane.
Contents |
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [3] |
| Drowned in Sound | (10/10)[4] |
| Mojo | [5] |
| MusicOMH | [6] |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.5/10)[7] |
| Rock-A-Rolla | (favorable) [8] |
| Rock Sound | [9] |
| Spin | [10] |
| Terrorizer | (favorable)[11] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes | [12] |
Initial critical response to Monoliths & Dimensions was very positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 88, based on 16 reviews.[13]
All songs written by Anderson and O'Malley.
| Region | Date | Label |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | May 18, 2009 | Southern Lord |
| North America | May 26, 2009 | Southern Lord |
| Asia and Australia | TBA | Southern Lord |
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