Lately there is a sound I can?t escape. It starts as a low rumble of distorted wind and then downshifts into a grinding, guttural ooze. Think of some enormous post-apocalyptic combine disposing the scorched viscera of planets and cosmic debris. It?s the sound of The End (though what end that might be is entirely open to interpretation), and it even comes with instructions. As heard in ?Cursed Realms (of the Winterdemons),? the third song of Sunn 0)))?s ?Black One,? it?s not so easily deciphered just what these instructions might entail, but one can assume the worst. They?re not spoken so much as violently expelled through exorcism by vocalist Malefic (Xasthur, Twilight) over the most ominous distorted groans this side of Hades. ?Black One? lives up to its billing as the most black metal inspired Sunn 0))) opus yet, and given the current necrotic fixations all across the underground, it seems only fitting that these grim robed wizards would drop their ultimate blackened nightmare incantation now.

Besides, The Apocalypse is hard to ignore. It demands attention with the same crude specter that accompanies Tara Reid dining in a ritzy New York restaurant on a Saturday night. People get hurt; shit flies; asses are exposed. What Greg Anderson, Stephen O?Malley and contributors conjure here is beyond any such description but just as evil. The subharmonic quakes, distorted squeals, the feral demonic growls and gastrointestinal grumbles are all employed with maximum wretchedness and total destruction in mind. Whether blowing Satan?s horn in an icy fog (?Sin Nanna?) or riding power sludge chords with angular guitars and mournful wails (?It Took The Night to Believe?) or invoking a thorazine sludge bath (?Orthodox Caveman? and ?Candlegoat?) worthy of ?Earth 2,? Sunn 0))) delivers in crushing wave after crushing wave of post industrial metallic despair.

But what really makes this such an unbelievably inspired listening experience is the depth of the sonic constructions. The production of ?Black One? is at once harrowing and deeply textured. No wonder they wrangled lowercase guitar maestro Oren Ambarchi into the fold, whose presence can be felt in every nook and cranny of this musical haunted house. Along with Wrest, Malefic and John Wiese (Bastard Noise), the duo has once again assembled a unique ensemble.

?Black One? is Sunn 0)))?s darkest album. This is music for the half dead and sleep deprived, the corpse painted closet Satanist who lives next door, the little girl demon seed across the street. ?Black One? is for all the black ones, but definitely not for every one. My friends all seem to think I?ve lost it, and I will admit it?s just a tad monotonous in places. But in the end, some of us just can?t turn away. 9/10 -- Lee Jackson (27 June, 2006)