Fans of the drone metal genre most commonly seek out a massive, thick and overbearing atmosphere in their music. Something that will overtake the mind and allow one to become suspended in a seemingly infinite sonic expanse. This means that it is generally not too difficult for a drone album to meet preconceived expectations.

For those drawn to experimental and extreme music in a broader sense, drone artists can satisfy a desire for adventurous soundscapes out of their willingness to incorporate a variety of avant-garde influences into their pieces. This is perhaps the reason why Washington-based drone metal juggernauts Sunn O))) has remained a celebrated name in the underground scene.

With only a guitar and bass forming their core and a different array of guest musicians on each album, Sunn O))) has defined drone metal while simultaneously pushing its boundaries for the last 15 years. The band’s most recent projects especially demonstrate an interest in reshaping its approach. In 2014 alone, Sunn O))) released a collaborative album with avant-garde singer-songwriter Scott Walker, as well as an LP-length project with folk metal-turned-dark ambient group Ulver.

While these collaborations have proved intriguing, Sunn O))) has not released a studio album of its own since their 2009 album “Monoliths & Dimensions,” which marked the artistic highpoint of their career. The five-year gap paired with the promise showcased on these collaborative albums has set the bar much higher than usual for the band as its follow-up album, “Kannon,” released Dec. 4, would naturally be anticipated to surpass “Monoliths & Dimensions” in terms of creativity and diversity. Unfortunately, the band didn’t live up to those standards with “Kannon.”

“Kannon” is a surprisingly lackluster album and one of the main reasons for its disappointment is that it was marketed and promoted as an album in the first place. The average running time of a Sunn O))) album is around 50 minutes, but “Kannon” is only 33 minutes long and is the band’s shortest album to date. Of course, the length of an album is not important as long as the material is high quality, but the music itself leaves a lot to be desired.

“Kannon” is essentially one grand piece comprised of three tracks of the same name that act as different movements. The songs are only a minute or two shy of typical Sunn O))) songs, but accomplish drastically less in their duration than what the group is renowned for producing. “Kannon” is a half-hour dirge consisting of the most rudimentary and simple drone metal since the inception of the genre in the early ‘90s. The black metal-inspired vocals and dark ambient-leanings of the band’s 2005 album, “Black One” are nowhere to be found, just as the flutes, horns and string ensembles that set “Monoliths & Dimensions” apart from their contemporaries are sorely absent.

It seems as though Sunn O))) has consciously attempted to scale things back rather than build upon the progress they have made, perhaps in an effort to connect with the fundamentals of their style. Sadly, the towering walls of impenetrable distortion, deafening screeches of power noise and endless feedback cascading from every gargantuan riff just come across as predictable and boring as opposed to an exciting return to form.

Ironically enough, “Kannon” is a conceptual composition from a lyrical standpoint. Although it may initially sound like listless moaning, vocalist Attila Csihar’s performance apparently addresses Buddhist themes relating to the “Goddess of Mercy,” according to the album’s marketing text. While fascinating, this concept doesn’t play a prevalent enough role throughout the album to be worthy of note, and it is truly a shame that similarly interesting ideas were not explored in the music of “Kannon.”

Considering how stunted “Kannon” is – both on a musical basis and in its length – the work should’ve been labeled as an EP, as it severely pales in comparison to the sheer inventiveness of Sunn O)))’s earlier work “Monoliths & Dimensions,” and had little chance of delivering on the hype that album generated. Even the band’s 2014 EP “LA Reh 012” was a slightly longer and more ambitious undertaking than “Kannon,” and successfully implemented elements of doom metal into their sound for the first time ever.

On its own, “Kannon” is a mediocre collection of drone metal. It is Sunn O)))’s most accessible album by far and could serve as a good entry point for those seeking an introduction to the genre. Longtime fans of Sunn O))) and drone metal, however, require more from the uniquely engulfing sensation of this music and will find that “Kannon” provides a passably immersive listening experience that is decent at best and nothing more. Hopefully Sunn O))) has not exhausted its innovativeness through the abundance of collaborations in their recent output.

Alexander Beebe can be reached at [email protected].