Wow this was actually a sad thread. Lots of people bashing Sunn for their talentless drones which are not music, or whatever. Very close minded to call someone's creation not music and talentless. The ultimate peaceful person sees but does not criticize, because they realize it is pointless and hypocritical.
Is not the conception of music the majority of the creative process while physically playing it is the secondary, easier part? Sit on the corner of your bed and play guitar for 6 hours per day, you'll be a good player, but you're probably not being too unique because you're just running through the guitar licks Van Halen and a billion people already did forever. Try to conceptualize something unique that tries to go beyond the accepted creative spectrum and use guitars and amplifiers in a new way. Can you? I sure as hell basically can't.
Whenever I hear people complain about bands that are "bad" I always think in my mind "What have you done and why is it legitimate? Is it legit beacuse it 'fits in?' Why should anyone's creative process ever be deemed legitimate or illegitimate? Why are you for some reason an authority on 'good' and 'bad?'"
As other people have said, Sunn, and a billion other bands that do experimental music, are trying to do something interesting, not just play the same chords that everyone has played since guitar was invented. It's so sad how people jump on you for doing something that's not "normal." Do you realize you are negating people who are trying to go outside of the normal musical spectrum? Isn't this how every genre of music ever was created? Would you criticize hard bop when it was played for the first time, or kraut rock, or funk, or heavy metal? Was that 'not music' at first? Do you criticize scientists and engineers who try to innovate and bring something new to the world, whether conceptually or physically?? Do you prefer stagnancy and redundancy?
For the record Sunn is not innovating in that they are creating drone, as others have said drone music has been around forever (ragas, for expample), but they are certainly pushing the limits of drone, and incorporating lots of dreariness, volume, and metal into it, which I think is cool. The guitar has been played every which way; they don't care. They are playing amplifiers. The whole point of that band is the total musical experience, physical, aural, and visual. Whether you enjoy it or not is a personal feeling, to say it is bad or illegitimate or "not music" is in my mind self righteous.
