Low Culture Podcast: Altar by Sunn O))) and Boris

In this month’s pod, John Doran and Luke Turner discuss witnessing the glorious evolution of the doom titans in the early 2000s, and how it led to the formation of The Quietus

Sunn O)))’s original name Mars tells you something, it being both the name of a massive planetary body but also a piece of music by Gustav Holst which is a an Ur-text in the history of heavy metal, given that it is the direct musical influence on ‘Black Sabbath’ by Black Sabbath. And this is what the band did, guiding heavy metal to an irreducible, super heavy core of skull crushing riffs stretched out to absurdity and beyond. Boris are a transcendent experimental heavy rock band from Japan, named after a track by the Melvins, who have spent most of their career as a three piece. Sunn O))) take one mode and wrench infinite variety from it; Boris have used a bewildering number of genre styles while it’s more something spiritual or philosophical that remains constant. Both groups are committed collaborators so it was only right that they made a kind of yin yang album together, Altar, which was released on Halloween 2006. And, as we hope will become clear, the album signified a huge sea change for both cultural and personal and professional reasons here at the Quietus. From the confusion of early encounters at ATP festivals, to barging into incredibly loud gallery shows, then on to changing the face of our culture permanently, this is a sound that represents a journey from rupture to healing taking in Miffy the Rabbit, getting spannered on a pirate ship, a coffin made from salt and an old woman giving birth to a sturgeon along the way.