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The beauty of creation isn't entirely sweet. Think of Igor Stravinsky's dynamic and dissonant Rite of Spring, which was so extreme in its time it caused a riot at its 1913 premiere. As the score to the "origins of the world" sequence in Walt Disney's animated feature Fantasia, the bold and mind-boggling music was set to volcanic eruptions, dinosaur battles, and oceanic waters flooding away the detritus of mass extinction. Elements of darkness go hand in hand with discovery and rebirth.

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Drone titans Sunn O))) subscribe to this mindset, too, or at least that's what their brightly textured eighth record, Life Metal, would imply. Recorded with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago (along with a more meditative sister album, Pyroclasts, which will be released later this year), the album is as slow, heavy and massive as anything the band has ever put out, but this time around each track radiates a warmth and majesty filtered through a prism of intense, stratosphere-scaling sound. It's a striking change of pace, even for a group whose previous material has run a sweeping conceptual and emotional gamut, exploring everything from the bleakest underbellies of society (2005's Black One) to a Buddhist deity of mercy (2015's Kannon).

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For founders, guitarists Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley, the comparatively uplifting vibes of the new album are a reflection of their friendship and musical partnership that's now in its third decade, and their general sense of contentment in their personal and creative lives. "The recording session [for Life Metal] was kind of a 20th anniversary gift to ourselves," Anderson tells NPR. "You know, 'We've made it, we're still alive, we're still together as a group, and we're really enjoying it, so let's celebrate.'" – NPR