How did Sunn 0))) achieve metal’s scariest vocal take?
The place Sunn 0))) take within the world of heavy metal is one that, like their place in the world of music in its entirety, doesn’t sit all that well.
They definitely have elements of black and extreme metal within their sound. Yet pigeonholing them into either of those scenes feels wrong. Just as pigeonholing them into the worlds of shoegaze, drone and doom metal doesn’t feel quite right. Even calling them an avant-garde band isn’t quite right, if only because the term is so loose that there’s an argument for just about any cult band to be there. Perhaps Sunn 0))), like Primus, deserves to be called a genre unto itself.
What makes it all the more confusing is the fact that from time to time, Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson’s art project can lean into the tropes of heavy metal as much as any leather-clad, face-painted 20-somethings with their hands permanently stuck in the devil-horns position. The two of them are clearly fans of heavy metal at their core, and if one needs proof of this, just look at how they made a song about one of the dark stuff’s most enduring inspirations.
Throw a dart in a room of black metal fans, and it’ll stick to someone writing at least something about Countess Elizabeth Báthory of Ecsed. I mean, don’t, throwing darts in a room full of anyone is a mean thing to do, even if the dart itself will probably just stick into all the leather. The point is that if you write about the darkest parts of history, you will invariably reach the Hungarian noblewoman who, over the course of her life, murdered literally hundreds of teenage girls.
I mean, even her very name was taken by a black metal band, that’s how you know you’ve done something right. Or, y’know, wrong on a level hat makes people suspect you’re not even human.
How did Sunn O))) make their song about Elizabeth Báthory?
The song comes from the 2005 Sunn 0))) album Black One. As the title suggests, it’s their most traditionally black metal-influenced album, and you can tell this by two things.
The first is its cover art, which is (sing it with me now) majority black with scratchy white lines making an unsettlingly vague image. I think you qualify for a tax break from the metal Gods if you put something like that on the cover. The second are the guest vocalists on the record. If Sunn 0))) are debatably part of the black metal scene, they have some friends who definitely are.
They aren’t afraid to do some strange things with them, too. The band tapped up Xasthur mainman Scott “Malefic” Conner to contribute guest vocals to the album’s 16-minute closer ‘Báthory Erzsébet’, except that’s not what he’s credited with in the liner notes. No, Malefic was credited with “calls from beyond the grave”. Now, any self-respecting black metal vocalist would be proud to have their vocals called that, but in this case, there was something very literal about what Sunn 0))) were doing here. You can tell on the record that his vocals are even more scratchy, muffled and distorted than usual.
This is because Malefic was locked in a coffin while he completed his vocal take. This may sound like standard black metal “look at me, I’m so edgy” bollocks, but it really does give his take a genuine frisson of dread, fear and panic. Mainly because Malefic is deeply claustrophobic, so the dread, fear and panic you hear in his voice is a hundred per cent genuine.
They may be something deeper and more interesting than a standard black metal band, but Sunn 0))) can still do it better than just about anyone going.