Dømkirke

Released

Dømkirke is a live album from 2008, named after the church in which it was recorded, as part of the 2007 Borealis Festival in Bergen, Norway. (I’ve been to that church; it’s beautiful, and/but I can’t imagine who thought it was a good idea to let Sunn O))) load all their amps and fog machines in there.) There’s actually a lot less doom metal drone on this record than usual for them; the lineup includes Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley on guitars, of course, and Attila Csihar on vocals — liturgical singing, rather than guttural chanting — but Tos Nieuwenhiuzen’s Moog synth, Steve Moore’s organ and trombone, and special guest Lasse Marhaug’s electronic noises are possibly even more important elements. The first track, “Why Dost Thou Hide Thyself In Clouds?”, is almost all keyboards and vocals and could easily be a hymn from some newly constituted yet orthodoxier-than-thou sect.

Phil Freeman

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