After so much hype, the long awaited collaboration between Sunn O))) and Boris was bound to disappoint. It starts off amazingly but overall there is something missing from the album. With 17 different musicians contributing a few of the pieces get too muddled and everyone finishes the album a bit lost. In the end it is a great idea that doesn’t quite work.
Southern Lord
Opening the beautiful sleeve and starting the disc, the roar of “Etna” provides an awesome beginning to Altar. A powerful drone that is encapsulates both the amplifier worship of Boris and of Sunn O))), it is a promising start to the album to say the least. This continues nicely into “N.L.T.,” where everyone bar Boris’ Atsuo and Sunn O)))’s Bill Herzog takes a break. Atsuo’s bowed cymbal and gong lead to many wonderfully sharp sounding noises while Herzog makes low, metallic groans using his upright bass. The album then peaks with “The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)” which sees the two bands plus guests get all introspective and soppy. Stephen O’Malley swaps his amps for a piano and the rest of the players turn down the volume. Jesse Sykes sings in a croak full of sadness. This song is worth getting Altar for alone. At eight minutes it’s far too short, Boris bring the lighter parts of their Pink album to the table and Sunn O))) shockingly add to the melodies with subtle beauty.
The latter half of the album alas isn’t as good as the first. Joe Preston appears on “Akuma No Kuma,” a vocoder and synthesiser led piece that sounds like Preston’s project Thrones but not as good. Once past the novelty of Greg Anderson and O’Malley using synths it became clear that what they are doing with the synths isn’t especially good. Atsuo’s drumming and Preston’s vocals are nice but not strong enough to keep the momentum of the song going. What follows “The Sinking Belle” is a real let down. The first three pieces build up to such a high point and then it just drops clumsily. It takes some time for the album to get back on track; only towards the end of “Fried Eagle Mind” does it start to engage me again. Unfortunately it’s too little, too late as the rest of the album lacks the fire that burned so strong before. These last few pieces highlight the dangers of working with too many guest musicians: there are too many ideas being poorly executed that could have worked better with fewer cooks.
The first 5000 copies on CD (and all copies on vinyl) come with a bonus disc featuring a 28 minute drone called “Her Lips were Wet with Venom (satanoscillatemymetallicsonatas).” Dylan Carlson from Earth plays guitar on it so I had high hopes for it, here is three of my favourite bands hopefully making the record that some online shops make legends about (have a Google for Reserve Not Yet Met by the three bands). With the crash of a gong and guitars sounding like a concerto of jet turbines my hopes were met. The various musicians add their own stamp to different parts of the piece; Wata’s screaming lead guitar is as powerful as always and Carlson’s country twanging sounds like the eye of a droning hurricane. It took a few listens to fully appreciate “Her Lips Were Wet with Venom” but it has revealed itself as a mighty beast.
One of the main problems I have with Altar is how little presence Sunn O))) have on it. The primitive and unholy rituals from their own albums and live shows are almost completely absent. Granted there are massive drones but very little in the way of riffing. Altar to me is more accurately described as a Boris record with guests. This album isn’t much of a change for them, they’ve always moved between the heavy and the delicate. They’ve never needed all these extra musicians to make similar music, the drones don’t sound much fuller and the spacey tracks don’t sound much more spaced out.
At its best Altar is incredible, some of the best material that any of the artists present have put their names to; at its worst it is humdrum, there is no particularly bad track but the weaker pieces definitely pull the album down as a whole. I imagine that it will grow on me over time but for now I am a little disappointed with Altar.
samples:
- The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)
- Akuma No Kuma
- Her Lips were Wet with Venom (satanoscillatemymetallicsonatas)
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