Episode 137: Brute Force: on Sunn O)))'s 'Life Metal'

What Evil Dead 2 is to the Baroque, Sunn O))) is to Brutalism. Or more like: if the likening of Evil Dead 2 to the Baroque felt like a stretch in episode 136, the brutalist bona fides of Sunn O)))'s drone metal are incontestable. In this episode, their 2019 masterpiece Life Metal frames a conversation touching on 20th-century avant garde music, the tactility of sound, the metaphysics of the Kickass Riff, Aztec aesthetics, the virtues of impermanence, and of course, the sublime beauty of brutalist buildings. Listen to volume 1 and volume 2 of the Weird Studies soundtrack by Pierre-Yves Martel Support us on Patreon Find us on Discord Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau! Get your Weird Studies merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop REFERENCES Sunn O))), Life Metal Theatre of Eternal Music, musical group Daniel Albright, Panaesthetics Brian Eno, Imaginary Landscapes John Wray, “Heady Metal” Nyarlathotep, Lovecraft character Byung-Hul Chan, The Philosophy of Zen Buddhism Fred Wilcox (dir.), Forbidden Planet H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness Godfrey Reggio (dir.), [Koyaanisquatsi](imdb.com/title/tt0085809/)