''Terrestrials'' is a collaborative studio album by American
drone metal
Drone metal or drone doom is a style of heavy metal that melds the slow tempos and heaviness of doom metal with the long-duration tones of drone music. Drone metal is sometimes associated with post-metal or experimental metal.
Characteristics
Ty ...
band
Sunn O)))
Sunn O))) (pronounced "sun") is an American experimental metal band formed in 1998 in Seattle, Washington. The band is known for their distinctive visual style and slow, heavy sound, which blends diverse genres including doom metal, drone, bla ...
and Norwegian
experimental music
Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...
group
Ulver
Ulver (Norwegian for "wolves") is a Norwegian experimental electronica band founded in 1993, by vocalist Kristoffer Rygg. Their early works, such as debut album '' Bergtatt'', were categorised as folklore-influenced black metal, but the band h ...
. Produced by
Stephen O'Malley
Stephen O'Malley (sometimes referred to as SOMA; born July 15, 1974) is an American guitarist, producer, composer, and visual artist from Seattle, Washington, who has conceptualized and participated in numerous drone doom, death/doom, and exper ...
and
Kristoffer Rygg
Kristoffer Rygg (born 9 September 1976), also known as Garm, Trickster G. Rex and God Head, is a heavy-metal vocalist, musician and producer known primarily for his work with Ulver, Arcturus, and Borknagar.
Biography
Born in Oslo but raised i ...
, it was released on February 3, 2014, via
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 arti ...
.
It has been described as "three live improvisation pieces".
[Tuffrey, Laurie (December 12, 2013)]
"Listen: Sunn O))) / Ulver Collab Excerpt"
The Quietus
''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics.
Content
''The Quiet ...
. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
On December 10, 2013, a sample from the closing track, "Eternal Return", was released for streaming.
[ It was also streamed on Pitchfork Advance on the day it was released until February 10, 2014.]
Background
The relationship between Ulver and Sunn O))) extends to the mid-1990s, when Stephen O'Malley interviewed Kristoffer Rygg for various magazines.[Keane, Jonathan (February 20, 2014)]
"Stephen O'Malley Interview"
Metal Ireland
Retrieved March 7, 2014. Ulver produced a track on Sunn O)))'s ''White1
''White1'' is the third album by Sunn O))), released in 2003. It was the most significant departure from their original style to date. Each track was experimental in its own way, with Julian Cope reciting poetry for half of "My Wall", Norwegi ...
'' and O'Malley played with Rygg and Daniel O'Sullivan, also of Ulver, in the ambient
Ambient or Ambiance or Ambience may refer to:
Music and sound
* Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgrounds
* Ambient music, a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere
* ''Ambient'' (album), by Moby
* ...
/noise
Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference arise ...
[Mason, Stewart]
"Aethenor: Betimes Black Cloudmasses"
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
. Retrieved March 8, 2014. band, Aethenor. Sunn O))) was invited to perform at the Øya festival in Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
, at which time Rygg proposed that the band remain in the country for several additional days in order to collaborate. The bands created "the foundations for a bunch of tracks" at Ulver's studio, Crystal Canyon, and then Ulver prepared the preliminary arrangements and mix. The bands collaborated on the production, which, as O'Malley explained,
As O'Malley explained of the three "live improvisation
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
pieces" comprising the album, "I remember the vibe in the room back then was more rāga
A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradition, and as ...
than it was rock. And despite the fact that the walls were literally shaking from volume, it was actually quite a blissed out, psychedelic session. I wanted to preserve that vibe in the final mix".[
]
Critical reception
Upon its release, ''Terrestrials'' received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 77, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 18 reviews. Tristan Bath, writing for The Quietus
''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics.
Content
''The Quiet ...
, described the collaboration as "a meeting of chameleonic polyglots, and the result is most unexpectedly beautiful and luminescent".[ '']The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
s Jamie Thomson noted that the interaction between Ulver and Sunn O))) "isn't just greater than the sum of its parts; it's a distinct journey between two disparate musical camps" that is "long, languorous and wonderful in its invention, with Ulver lending emotional heft to Sunn O)))'s wall of tone".[ Writing for ]Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
, Thom Jurek lauded the album, as "it perfectly reflects both Sunn O)))'s impenetrably emotional dark heart and Ulver's expertly crafted senses of drama and dynamic".[ Ray Van Horn Jr., writing for Blabbermouth, described the album as "one of the most fascinating albums in either act's careers."]
However, the album did receive some qualified criticism, with ''Consequence of Sound
''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...
s Adam Kivel suggesting that the "collaboration doesn't quite rival the strongest albums of either band's catalog, but Sunn O))) and Ulver have produced an ecstatic, beautiful piece of experimental metal that celebrates the strengths of both bands". Grayson Currin of ''Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
'' also indicated that the impact of the songs proved fleeting: "After the sun rises on these meditations, then, you can simply go about your daily routine, somewhat elevated but mostly unaltered".[
]
Track listing
Daymare 2CD Bonus Tracks
Personnel
Sunn O)))
* Greg Anderson
*Stephen O'Malley
Stephen O'Malley (sometimes referred to as SOMA; born July 15, 1974) is an American guitarist, producer, composer, and visual artist from Seattle, Washington, who has conceptualized and participated in numerous drone doom, death/doom, and exper ...
Ulver
* Daniel O'Sullivan – guitars
*Kristoffer Rygg
Kristoffer Rygg (born 9 September 1976), also known as Garm, Trickster G. Rex and God Head, is a heavy-metal vocalist, musician and producer known primarily for his work with Ulver, Arcturus, and Borknagar.
Biography
Born in Oslo but raised i ...
– vocals, programming
*Jørn H. Sværen – instrumentals
*Tore Ylwizaker – keyboards, programming
Additional musicians
*Ole Henrik Moe
Ole Henrik Moe (11 January 1920 – 29 July 2013) was a Norwegian pianist, art historian and art critic.
He was born in Lillehammer, and is the brother of archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad. During World War II he was a member of the intelligen ...
– viola, violin
*Kari Rønnekleiv – viola, violin
*Stig Espen Hundsnes – trumpet
*Tomas Pettersen – drums
Production
*Anders Møller – mixing
*Jaime Gomez Arellano – mastering
*Stephen O’Malley – production, art direction
*Kristoffer Rygg – production
Charts
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
2014 albums
Collaborative albums
Sunn O))) albums
Ulver albums
Southern Lord Records albums