Life Metal is the eighth studio album by American drone metal band Sunn O))) on Southern Lord Records. The album received a limited release for Record Store Day on April 13, 2019, and a wide release two weeks later on April 26. Life Metal was recorded and mixed by Steve Albini entirely using analog tape. The title Life Metal is an inside joke among band members and collaborators that is meant to humorously contrast the genre death metal and conceptually contrast anything that is "not doom-and-gloom". Sunn O))) chose this as the album's title because of both the music's shift in tone and the mindset of the band members at the time of writing. In addition to Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley, the album features collaborators Tos Nieuwenhuizen, Tim Midyett, Hildur Guðnadóttir, and Anthony Pateras.