Typically, the electric guitar is performed with a large amount of reverb or audio feedback[3] while vocals may or may not be present. Songs often lack beat or rhythm in the traditional sense and are typically very long. The experience of a drone metal performance has been compared by novelist John Wray in The New York Times to listening to an Indian raga in the middle of an earthquake.[3] Wray also states, "It's hard to imagine any music being heavier or, for that matter, very much slower."[3] A pioneer band of drone metal called Sunn O))) has indicated a kinship with sound sculpture.[3] Jan Tumlir indicates a "sustained infra-sound rumble of sub-bass—so-called brown noise".[4]
Nadja (Toronto), Locrian[9] (US), Jesu (UK), Black Boned Angel (Wellington, New Zealand), Khanate (New York City), Ocean (Portland, Maine), Growing[10] (New York City), KTL (Washington/London), Ascend[11] and Eagle Twin (US),[12]Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine (Nottingham, England), Conan (Liverpool, England) and Moss (Southampton, England) are prominent drone metal groups that formed in the early 21st century.[2] Noise musicians, such as Kevin Drumm and Oren Ambarchi, have also worked in the style.[13]Rhys Chatham's Essentialist project is a contribution to drone metal by an elder composer,[6] attempting to "arrive at an a priori essence of heavy metal, reducing it to a basic chord progression".[14]
Connections with other art forms
Stephen O'Malley from Sunn O))) collaborated on an installation with artist Banks Violette, who has likened drone metal to the work of Donald Judd.[3] Tumlir locates a precedent in Robert Rauschenberg.[4] Violette points out, however, that drone metal is "as much a physiological phenomenon as an acoustic one",[3] with an attendant physicality. O'Malley has also mentioned an appreciation for Cormac McCarthy and Richard Serra.[1] Rhys Chatham's Essentialist included projections by Robert Longo.[6]Jim Jarmusch's 2009 film The Limits of Control features music by a number of drone metal groups.[15] Jarmusch said, "I love these kind of visual landscapes they make, and they really inspired things for me for my film ..., because when I write I'm listening to things that inspire me in the direction of whatever world I'm imagining. Boris and Sunn O))) and Earth were really instrumental in me just finding a place in my head."[16]