Spiritual transformations in two songs by Sunn O)))

Owing to its compelling fusion of heavy metal, spectralism and sub-bass drones, the music of the guitar duo Sunn O))) (pronounced ‘sun’) has attracted significant academic attention. Two songs by Sunn O))) bring many of the topics in the scholarly literature into focus: ‘Alice’, an instrumental homage to jazz pianist/harpist Alice Coltrane and ‘Kannon 2’, whose lyrics recount a miracle performed by the gender-shifting Buddhist deity Kannon (aka Guanyin). In both songs, Sunn O))) mobilize expressive strategies to convey stories about these figures. I argue that these songs depict spiritual transformations through musical and lyrical means: Coltrane undergoes a transformation; Kannon undergoes and then executes one.