Troubled air: the drone and doom of reproduction in SunnO)))'s metal maieutic

Abstract

This article examines aesthetic legacies and gendered histories of reproductive labor in the long, slow, reverb-heavy performances of the contemporary metal band SunnO))). Summoning aesthetic concepts of mimesis and sublimity, SunnO)))'s unique droning compositions suggest that the claim of “being metal” is bound up with the imperative of “bearing metal” – bearing in the sense of surviving as well as delivering forth. SunnO)))'s practice recalls a submerged connection between the aesthetic, the biological, and the material: a longue durée of reproduction that sounds like – feels like – doom. In this sense, what drags and drones in metal – and manifests in occult imaginary of dark effeminate monstrosity – is not outside the purview of a queer and feminist interest; rather, metal's attempts to police its borders bespeak the common ground we share.

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