User ratings in Music are temporarily disabled. More info

Life Metal
by
Life Metal Image
Metascore
85

Universal acclaim - based on 16 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 29 Ratings

  • Summary: The Seattle drone metal specialists return with the first of two planned 2019 follow-ups to 2015's Kannon. This four-song set was produced by Steve Albini.
Buy Now
Buy on

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. No Ripcord
    May 10, 2019
    90
    Calling Life Metal a great metal/rock/guitar album, ultimately, is a disservice: This is a sonic meditation channeled through humbuckers and hearts.
  2. Uncut
    Apr 19, 2019
    90
    More mellifluous than menacing despite its formidable display of power, Life Metal may be the richest work in the band's 21-year-mission to reconfigure Tony Iommi-worthy riffage into a soundtrack for mindful meditation. [May 2019, p.34]
    All this publication's reviews
  3. musicOMH.com
    Apr 23, 2019
    90
    Life Metal resonates in the surrounding air particles long after the last track concludes, and will reverberate in the minds of listeners longer still. A truly magnificent, very real, and ultimately restorative record.
  4. Kerrang!
    Apr 19, 2019
    80
    Gloriously triumphant, weirdly exhilarating and entirely engrossing, Sunn O))) have created something genuinely brilliant here.
  5. Q Magazine
    May 15, 2019
    80
    It does thrillingly refine the group's electric explorations of numinous spaces both minuscule and gigantic. [Jul 2019, p.114]
    All this publication's reviews
  6. Dusted Magazine
    May 7, 2019
    80
    Life Metal is music as event. It’s a terrific record.
  7. PopMatters
    Apr 30, 2019
    60
    Maybe it's churlish to hope for more than the sound of two friends doing something they enjoy but Sunn O))) have delivered so much more than that, over such a significant period, that it means the biggest surprise here is that a band famed for discovering the nuances and unseen potential of repetition, finally sound repetitious.

See all 16 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 3
  3. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. sammyanthony
    May 16, 2019
    7
    If you're new to this kind of music, just like me, then there's so much to talk about. But Life Metal gives different perspective of whatIf you're new to this kind of music, just like me, then there's so much to talk about. But Life Metal gives different perspective of what metal could be. This is fun, yet boring.… Expand
  2. MARKNOBRT
    Apr 25, 2019
    1
    This is everything i hate in music. No Talent, no fun, no drums, awfullly pretentious and self indulgent, unfocused, unprofessional andThis is everything i hate in music. No Talent, no fun, no drums, awfullly pretentious and self indulgent, unfocused, unprofessional and extremely boring. Sounds like a really bad guitar player tuning his axe for 70minutes. It could have been recorded by beginner musicians (apparently not, they're +20yrs veterans). How could Steve Albini be related to this? This really has more to do with new age music than metal music. In a genre (metal) with so many underrated bands and musicians, how could critics score this record so high? Maybe i just don't get the thing... It' might be one of the worst records i've EVER heard but i'll give it a 1 cause there's some good tones here and there and the artwork isnt that bad. But ''#6 Best Album of 2019''? C'mon man!… Expand

See all 3 User Reviews

Awards & Rankings

38
#38 Best Album of 2019