Asva - What You Don't Know is Frontier

One of the more permissible travesties of modern music is the acceptance of ultra-grim necro black metal into the pretentious art types' embrace. It's not really Sunn0)))'s fault - they are after all as authentic, sorry: as tr00 & kvlt, as they come - but they are perhaps to blame. It's ironic then, that as Sunn0))) started incorporating guests from Leviathan and Xasthur into their meta-black drone worlds, the more inconsequential they became. Which is why Asva’s What You Don’t know is Frontier is such a relief – the album that Sunn0))) should have released – a terrifying drone that makes villagers bolt their windows and stay indoors, that makes cats screech at invisible demons and summons unholy tentacles from the bowels of the Earth. It can’t be coincidence that the album also features the talents of Mr Bungle/Secret Chiefs 3 head genius Trey Spruance. Maybe the layman doesn’t need that many black drone albums, but this one is assuredly a classic. [Ali Maloney]