Beautiful Gloom
I was late to the Swallow The Sun party. I initially waved them off as emo, melo-death garbage – which was extremely popular in the early 2000s when they released their first record, “The Morning Never Came”. My true introduction was their nearly 3-hour epic, Songs From The North in 2015. I have listened to the rest of their catalogue since, “Emerald Forest And The Blackbird” being my favorite of the bunch, that record will be my point of reference for their newest album, “Moonflowers”.
STS is at its heart, a dichotomy. Dark and light. Sorrow and bliss. Fear and courage; they are masters of sorrow and despair. You can hear the heartache in Juha Raivio’s guitar, doom in Mikko Kotamäki’s vocal passages. Yet, it’s all beautiful at the same time. Now, I haven’t listened to “Moonflowers” yet. I’ll be back in an hour.
Will The Dark Side Of Your Heart Make Amends With The Light?
So, the album starts off with the track Moonflowers Bloom In Misery with 2 minutes of melancholy, clean vocals and echo-y guitars. Then BOOM. The chorus punches you in the gut with hard, crunchy guitars, a screeching howl from Mikko then continues with his signature death growl. The chorus driven by a catchy, synth guitar riff. The track alternates between these soft, clean interludes and the death growls. Good start.
The next two two tracks are the singles, Enemy and Woven Into Sorrow. And…these tracks are kind of weak. I’m not sure why they released these as singles, there has to be a better song on the album, right?
All Hallow’s Grieve touts the vocals talents of Cammie Gilbert who you might know from Oceans Of Slumber and does a good job, Mikko and Cammie compliment each other really well. Props.
The Void is a turd. Skip it.
The first half of of the 7 minute track of The Fight Of Your Life is an uninspired acoustic guitar and clean vocal passage but does pick up at the 3:30 mark with some double-bass and growls, but returns to that boring opening passage to close out the song.
Finally we are at the end with This House Has No Name and also happens to be my favorite song on the album. It’s also the most interesting song on the album, it includes some black metal tremolo picking.
Final Thoughts – Not So Beautiful
“Moonflowers” overall is ok, it’s not so terrible that I regret the purchase demanding a refund; there are more misses than bangers on this album. In my opinion when you take in all of the STS catalogue, this is their worst release yet. Have they lost their fire? I hope not, but its a possibility. Maybe I should have reviewed the new Adele album, “30” instead. I blame Brian Parker for recommending me for this review 😉 Maybe I’m a little harsh? Perhaps this album is a grower and needs a few more listens? We’ll see.
I give this a 2.5/5
- Standout Track: This House Has No Name
- For fans of: Opeth, Novembers Doom, Katatonia, Daylight Dies, Draconian, My Dying Bride
-Eric Reeder 11/19/21
CD Giveaway
You read my review, awesome! I appreciate it! Now because my dumbass accidentally ordered two copies, I’ll be giving away a new, sealed copy of “Moonflowers”. To enter for a chance to win and take advantage of my fuck-up, all you need to do go to the Sdmetal Facebook page, comment on the “Moonflowers” review post with “GIVE ME THAT FUCKIN’ CD!!” I’ll use a random number generator and reach out to the winner. You have until 11/26/21 @ 11:59pm. Maybe you’ll have more fun with the album than I did.
HEY! Be sure to also check out other reviews for recent releases on sdmetal.org, including Massacre – “Resurgence”, Flotsam & Jetsam – “Blood in the Water”, and Agent Steel – “No Other Godz Before Me”. There’s alittle something for everyone. Some old school death metal, some thrash and whatever the fuck that Agent Steel is. Goddamn.
Upcoming Swallow The Sun “Moonflowers” Tour
Swallow The Sun kicks off the Moonflowers tour 11/20/21 in Arizona then ends the tour in nearby LA at the Whiskey A Go-Go on December 19th. Lets all hope COVID doesn’t ruin this one. *Knock on wood*.
