''Altar'' is a collaboration album between experimental music groups Boris and Sunn O))), released on October 31, 2006 through

Southern Lord Records Southern Lord is an American heavy metal record label that was founded in 1998 by Greg Anderson. It specialized in experimental metal: particularly doom metal, stoner rock, and drone metal. The label later expanded its line-up to include a ...

( SUNN62). A limited two-CD edition was released on October 23 via

Southern Lord Southern Lord is an American heavy metal record label that was founded in 1998 by Greg Anderson. It specialized in experimental metal: particularly doom metal, stoner rock, and drone metal. The label later expanded its line-up to include art ...

with a 28-minute bonus track with Sunn O))), Boris, and Dylan Carlson, titled "Her Lips Were Wet with Venom". Inoxia Records released their own two-CD version in 2006 which features a bonus track on the first disc, "The Sinking Belle (Black Sheep)", and also features "Her Lips Were Wet with Venom" on disc 2. The triple-vinyl edition by Southern Lord contains all of the songs from their two-CD edition, additional pictures, and liner notes by

Kim Thayil Kim Anand Thayil (born September 4, 1960) is an American musician best known as the lead guitarist of the Seattle-based rock band Soundgarden, which he co-founded with singer Chris Cornell and bassist Hiro Yamamoto in 1984. Cornell and Thayil ...

. The Daymare 3LP version was released March 23, 2007 and features a bonus track not found on any other version of this release: "The Sinking Belle (White Sheep)". In addition to major players Sunn O))) and Boris, ''Altar'' also boasts an extensive roster of guest musicians/collaborators such as

(

Soundgarden Soundgarden was an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1984 by singer and drummer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil (both of whom are the only members to appear in every incarnation of the band), and bassist Hiro Yama ...

), Joe Preston (

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

Thrones A throne is a seat of state for a potentate or dignitary. Throne or Thrones may also mean: People * Throne (surname) Arts and entertainment *The Throne (group), collaboration pseudonym for rappers Jay Z and Kanye West (as on Drake's "Pop Style") * ...

, Melvins,

High on Fire High on Fire is an American heavy metal band from Oakland, California, that was formed in 1999. Matt Pike, the band's frontman and founder, also plays guitar for doom metal band Sleep. High on Fire won the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Metal Perfo ...

Phil Wandscher Phil Wandscher is the former guitarist of the alt-country band Whiskeytown, and is now a member of Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter. Wandscher appeared on Death Cab For Cutie's album ''Transatlanticism ''Transatlanticism'' is the fourth stu ...

and

Jesse Sykes Jesse Sykes (née Solomon) (born July 17, 1967) is an American singer and songwriter, best known for her band Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, which was formed in 1999 with Phil Wandscher. Early life and education Sykes was born in Mount Kis ...

(both of Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter) as well as long time Sunn O))) collaborators TOS Niewenhuizen and Rex Ritter. On December 10, 2007, the bands collaborated at the

Forum Forum or The Forum (plural forums or fora) may refer to: Common uses * Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States *Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city **Roman Forum, most famous example *Internet ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

along with a number of the guests featured on ''Altar'' for a live performance. A 3LP

picture disc Picture discs are gramophone (phonograph) records that show images on their playing surface, rather than being of plain black or colored vinyl. Collectors traditionally reserve the term picture disc for records with graphics that extend at lea ...

version of the album, limited to 500 copies, was sold exclusively at this London show.Southern Lord Records » sunn O))), Boris, Earth **ALTAR** performance London, Forum 12/10/2007
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Track listing

Disc One

# "Etna" – 9:51 # "N.L.T." – 3:49 # "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)" – 7:37 # "Akuma no Kuma" – 7:52 # "Fried Eagle Mind" – 9:47 # "The Sinking Belle (Black Sheep)" - 5:05 (Japanese CD bonus track) # "The Sinking Belle (White Sheep)" - 4:36 (Japanese 3LP bonus track) # "Blood Swamp" – 14:46

Disc Two

# "Her Lips Were Wet With Venom" – 28:14

Personnel

Sunn O))) & Boris * Greg Anderson - guitar , bass guitar , bass , Moog Rogue * Stephen O'Malley - guitar ,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

Korg MS-20 The Korg MS-20 is a patchable semi-modular monophonic analog synthesizer which Korg released in 1978 and which was in production until 1983. It was part of Korg's MS series of instruments, which also included the single oscillator MS-10, the k ...

, clandestine guitar ,

califone Califone is an experimental rock band from Chicago. The band is named after Califone International, an audio equipment manufacturer. Their work has been critically acclaimed. Roots & Crowns review AllMusic Califone has released an album and feat ...

* Wata - lead guitar , guitar ,

space echo The Roland RE-201 Space Echo is an audio effects unit that produces delay and reverb effects. It was produced by Roland Corporation from 1974 to 1990. Roland produced several smaller versions in later years. Background A tape echo device re ...

, vocals & space guitar , space echo guitar * Takeshi - guitar , bass , bottle lead guitar * Atsuo - drums , bowed cymbal ,

gong A gongFrom Indonesian and ms, gong; jv, ꦒꦺꦴꦁ ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ja, , dora; km, គង ; th, ฆ้อง ; vi, cồng chiêng; as, কাঁহ is a percussion instrument originating in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Gongs ...

, traps , lead drums Additional musicians * Bill Herzog -

upright bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar ...

, vocals ,

snare SNARE proteins – " SNAP REceptor" – are a large protein family consisting of at least 24 members in yeasts, more than 60 members in mammalian cells, and some numbers in plants. The primary role of SNARE proteins is to mediate vesicle f ...

- vocals *

Adrienne Davies Adrienne Davies is the current drummer and percussionist of the drone metal band Earth. Davies is credited as drummer on several of Earth's albums. They range from '' Living in the Gleam of an Unsheathed Sword'' (2005) and for drums, percussi ...

- percussion * Joe Preston -

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

* Steve Moore -

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

* TOS Nieuwenhuizen -

oberheim Oberheim is an American synthesizer manufacturer founded in 1969 by Tom Oberheim. History and products Tom Oberheim founded the company in 1969, originally as a designer and contract manufacturer of electronic effects devices for Maestro (most ...

Moog Taurus The Moog Taurus is a foot-operated analog synthesizer designed and manufactured by Moog Music, originally conceived as a part of the Constellation series of synthesizers. The initial Taurus I was manufactured from 1975 to 1981; a less popular re ...

, Moog Rogue , Korg MS-20 * Troy Swanson - oberheim , oberheim 4 voice * Randall Dunn - Korg MS-20 , sherman filter bank ,

echoplex The Echoplex is a tape delay effect, first made in 1959. Designed by Mike Battle, the Echoplex set a standard for the effect in the 1960s—it is still regarded as "the standard by which everything else is measured." It was used by some of the ...

, natural trouble * Mell Dettmer -

Roland SH-101 The Roland SH-101 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation between 1982 and 1986. Though it was something of a commercial failure during the time of its manufacture, it later became a staple of electronic music in the 1990 ...

* Eyvind Kang -

viola ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

* Kim Thayil - guitar * Rex Ritter - Moog Taurus * Dylan Carlson - guitar Technical *Produced By Sunn O))) *Recorded, Engineered & Mixed By Randall Dunn *Mastered By Mell Dettmer

Pressing History

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Altar Sunn O))) albums Boris (band) albums 2006 albums Southern Lord Records albums Collaborative albums