Posted in Whathaveyou on September 3rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I’ll never forget that my first real show back from the pandemic was to see Finnish melodic death-doomers Swallow the Sun at Dingbatz in Clifton, New Jersey, in November 2021 (review here). Not that they were lacking status in my mind as a sentimental favorite before then, but the truth is I was apprehensive getting back out in the era of plague, and they delivered the reminder that as soon as the music starts and I’m standing in front of the stage — even masked, in sweatpants as I was — everything’s okay. Their early 2025 return to the States in celebration of their new album, Shining (out Oct. 18 on Century Media), will find them hitting Gramercy Theater in NYC, headlining alongside Harakiri for the Sky, Ghost Bath and Snakes of Russia. The first single, the tightly-composed, lushly produced “What I Have Become,” came out a couple weeks back and can be streamed at the bottom of this post.
Hoping to have more to come on the album as we get closer to the release, but here are the tour dates for now so you have an excuse to mark your calendar early:
Finnish Death-Doom Masters SWALLOW THE SUN Announce 2025 North American Headline Tour
Finnish death-doom pioneers SWALLOW THE SUN are set to embark on a highly anticipated North American headline tour supporting their forthcoming album, ‘Shining,’ which drops on October 18th via Century Media Records. The tour features support from Harakiri For The Sky, Ghost Bath, and Snakes of Russia. Kicking off on February 20th in Detroit, MI, the tour will bring the band’s signature blend of despair, beauty, and crushing heaviness to audiences across the continent, wrapping up on March 15th in Chicago, IL. The artist pre-sale is going on now; general tickets go on sale August 30th, at 1:00 PM EDT / 10:00 AM PDT.
“What a great line-up we have on this tour. Join the happiest tour of 2025 and secure your tickets immediately,” says vocalist Mikko Kotamäki
SWALLOW THE SUN With Harakiri For The Sky, Ghost Bath, and Snakes of Russia 2/20/25 – Detroit, MI – Sanctuary 2/21/25 – Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground 2/22/25 – Montreal, QC – Fouf’s 2/23/25 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall 2/24/25 – New York, NY – Gramercy Theater 2/25/25 – Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage 2/26/25 – Greensboro, NC – Hangar 1819 2/27/25 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl 2/28/25 – Orlando, FL – Conduit 3/1/25 – Pensacola, FL – Handlebar 3/2/25 – Houston, TX – Parish Room @ House of Blues 3/3/25 – Austin, TX – Come And Take It Live 3/4/25 – Albuquerque, NM – Launch Pad 3/5/25 – Phoenix, AZ – Rebel 3/6/25 – San Diego, CA – Brick By Brick 3/7/25 – Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex 3/8/25 – San Francisco, CA – Neck of The Woods 3/9/25 – Portland, OR – Bossanova Ballroom 3/10/25 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon 3/12/25 – Salt Lake City, UT – Metro Music Hall 3/13/25 – Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater 3/14/25 – Omaha, NE – Reverb 3/15/25 – Chicago, IL – Reggies
The tour announcement follows the release of the band’s latest single, “What I Have Become,” a powerful track that delves into themes of transformation and rebirth. Produced and mixed by Dan Lancaster (Bring Me the Horizon, Muse, Enter Shikari), the song showcases SWALLOW THE SUN at their most intense, both sonically and lyrically.
More than two decades of despair, beauty, and heartache have not only shaped but fueled Finnish melancholy torchbearers, the chart-topping and two-time Finnish Grammy nominated SWALLOW THE SUN.
Formed in Jyväskylä in 2000, the quintet has enjoyed numerous fan-lauded music videos (10+ million YouTube views) and streaming dominance (50+ million Spotify plays), while also embarking on a four-continent, 900-show run over the course of their 20-year career.
Their new music, however, is the group’s first step on the new path to the unknown.
SWALLOW THE SUN are: Juha Raivio – Guitar, Keys Juho Räihä – Guitar Mikko Kotamäki – Vocals Matti Honkonen – Bass Juuso Raatikainen – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 12th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I’d already long-since had a soft spot in my heart for Finnish melodic death-doom metallers Swallow the Sun, but I’ll never forget that the band were my first show back from the pandemic, in Nov. 2021. They came all the way from Finland to play Dingbatz in Clifton, NJ (review here). I wore a mask. And sweatpants. It was a weird and in-my-case warm night, but the five-piece were absolute professionals on stage, and the show was a reminder blasted into my brain of the sustaining presence live music adds to my life after nearly two years of no gigs.
I’ve got the band’s new album, Shining, on right now, and it sounds big, produced, in a way that reminds in parts of modern Katatonia, but in the keys and the drum sounds of new single “What I Have Become,” and some of what’s happening around the guitars and bass in “Under the Moon and Sun,” the way the ambience is developed in the arrangements, I feel like you can hear what Dan Lancaster is bringing to it as producer. It moves like a modern record, and not that 2021’s way-dark Moonflowers (review here) didn’t, but it’s different and fascinating. I’m looking forward to getting to know the songs better, but when they talk about it being brighter, that comes through the melody as well. And the tracks seem to be shorter on average, so there’s that too.
This one’s out the day before my birthday. Might have to get a preorder in as a gift to myself. Here’s how that happens from the PR wire:
Finnish Death-Doom Masters SWALLOW THE SUN Announce New Album ‘Shining’ Out October 18th via Century Media Records
Unveils Heavy New Single “What I Have Become” + Visualizer
‘Shining,’ the latest full-length album from the Finnish Death Doom pioneers SWALLOW THE SUN, will be available via Century Media Records on Oct 18th. The powerful and very heavy new track of transformation and rebirth – “What I Have Become” – will take you through personal hell and back.
The new record is produced and mixed by Dan Lancaster (Bring Me the Horizon, Muse, Enter Shikari, etc.), mastered by Tony Lindgren (Fascination Street Studios), and recorded by Juho Räihä at SoundSpiral Audio, except vocals recorded by Dan Lancaster.
Juha Raivio comments on the new song:
“´What I Have Become` is about that moment when you look yourself deep in the eye from the mirror and your own eyes start to tell what your soul has become instead of what you always wanted it to be. The hardest thing is to forgive yourself and break that circle”.
About ‘Shining’ Juha Raivio adds:
“After our last album, it soon became clear to me that writing another Moonflowers album would kill me. So, I made a quiet wish to myself that if there ever will be any new music then please have a little bit of mercy on yourself rather than be that infinite black hole that will suck out the rest of your remaining light and soul just for the sake of it. Musically this album shines like a glacier diamond and has that power and punch that feels like a kick in your face! While lyrically the album deals with how fearing life will eventually kill you and how melancholy can become your God.
“We want to thank all the support and trust from Century Media, not to mention our insanely talented producer Dan Lancaster having the balls and guts to jump straight in the deep end with this band and get us out of our comfort zone. This album truly feels like a sunrise in the night sky”.
‘Shining’ Track List: 1. Innocence Was Long Forgotten 2. What I Have Become 3. MelancHoly 4. Under The Moon & Sun 5. Kold 6. November Dust 7. Velvet Chains 8. Tonight Pain Believes 9. Charcoal Sky 10. Shining
Moreover, SWALLOW THE SUN will host a very unique and exclusive event at the beautiful Aleksanterin Teatteri in Helsinki on October 16th, 2024. Their upcoming studio album ‘Shining’ will be listened to in its entirety, before its official release on October 18th. Please note the band will not perform at the event.
Anyone who wishes to attend the event can register and get their tickets via Levykauppa Äx from now until Oct 4th. To order and register, visit HERE:https://swallowthesun.lnk.to/Shining
At the exclusive pre-listening session, fans will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in SWALLOW THE SUN’s latest work with the best possible sound in one of the most beautiful places in northern Europe, the Aleksanterin Teatteri.
Mikko Kotamäki shares about the pre-listening session:
“Very excited to go back to the very special theater, but this time enjoying the music as a listener! Also cool to meet everyone and talk about the ‘Shining’ process and how it was working with such people as Dan! See you in Helsinki!”
SWALLOW THE SUN are: Juha Raivio – Guitar, Keys Juho Räihä – Guitar Mikko Kotamäki – Vocals Matti Honkonen – Bass Juuso Raatikainen – Drums
Posted in Questionnaire on April 18th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Tuomas Kainulainen of NYOS
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
Trying to be as free as possible musically and have fun with it. Been playing for a long while with different kinds of bands, but with NYOS we’ve just combined all the types of music we love, letting go of any self-inflicted restrictions.
Describe your first musical memory.
Listening to sad comforting tunes in a massive armchair to make me feel better, when I was two years old. Still doing the same thing, heh.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Getting my first pair of drumsticks!
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Regularly, it’s good to check yourself often.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Who knows, and I think that’s the best part of it all.
How do you define success?
Happiness and comfort.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
No regrets.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
Just want to be able to make music as long as possible, and be inspired. Maybe a Whitney Houston-styled power ballad, power ballads are the best.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Making sense of a mad world. Bringing perspective and content to life.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 13th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Less than a week after punctuating a currently-in-progress round of European touring with fest appearances this Spring in the Czech Republic, Romania and Austria, Finland’s Swallow the Sun will return to North American shores in their full-on push to support their late-2021 album, Moonflowers (review here). It’s already their second US stint for the record behind a headlining run last Fall (review here), and they’ll be in the company of Portuguese legends Moonspell, which is nothing if not a good fit. I cannot imagine it’s the first time these two acts will have played together.
Look at that list of tour dates though. My goodness that’s a bit of loveliness to see, isn’t it? To help mark the occasion and provide me with an excuse to revisit Moonflowers this afternoon, Swallow the Sun have posted a brand new video for “This House Has No Home.” The imagery is suitably grim — a kind of Victorian/goth vibe for the protagonist in her admirably elaborate headdress — but if you haven’t heard the record in its entirety, “This House Has No Home” makes a resounding enticement. The closer of Moonflowers, it is the moment when at last Swallow the Sun answer back the melancholy tension they’ve been amassing all the while, blastbeats and blackened screams playing off the familiar downer melodies with an aplomb that has been rare over the course of the band’s arc to this point.
That is to say, it’s always been clear they could wreck shit like this, but they’ve rarely chosen to do so. The video is a welcome showcase moment for a song that earns its place as a standout. And if you’re on the fence about heading out to a show — these guys played Clifton, NJ, and brought an all-pro, kickass execution on a night when doing otherwise probably would’ve been easily justifiable — the possibility of this turning up in the set might just be enough to get you off the couch. It was for me, anyhow.
Enjoy:
Swallow the Sun, “This House Has No Home” official video
Finnish death doom masters, SWALLOW THE SUN release their new music video for “This House Has No Home”, from their recent full-length album Moonflowers. Watch the video, which was filmed, directed and edited by Vesa Ranta & Petri Marttinen from Kaira Films, HERE.
SWALLOW THE SUN have also just announced that they will be hitting the road in Europe and North America again. After a successful U.S. Winter tour in 2021, the band is happy and proud to announce a North American Tour with Moonspell and Witherfall. In addition to the tour North American tour, the band will also play shows in Finland this summer. For all who cannot wait that long, the band is currently on a European tour with Primordial and Rome, which started last Friday. Check out the full list of tour dates below and mark your calendars. For more information, head over to SWALLOW THE SUN’s Facebook page HERE.
SWALLOW THE SUN Tour Dates: 11.04. Southend, UK – Chinnery’s 12.04. Colmar, France – Le Grillen 13.04. Lyon, France – C :C :O Villeurbanne 14.04. Paris, France – La Machine du Moulin Rouche 15.04. Pratteln, Switzerland – Konzertfabrik Z7 16.04. Mannheim, Germany – Connexion Complex 17.04. München, Germany – Dark Easter Metal Meeting 18.04. Eindhoven, Netherlands – Effenaar 19.04. Berlin, Germany – Lido Berlin 20.04. Bremen, Germany – Modernes Bremen 21.04. Copenhagen, Denmark – Pumpehuset 22.04. Gothenburg, Sweden – Valand Nattklubb 23.04. Stockholm, Sweden – Slaktkyran 21.05. Tel Aviv, Israel – Gagarin Club 26.05. Oulu, Finland – Special 27.05. Tampere, Finland – Tullikamarin Pakkahuone 28.05. Jyväskylä, Finland – Lutakko 01.06. Helsinki, Finland – Tavastia 02.06. Kuopio, Finland – Sawohouse 03.06. Joensuu, Finland – Kerubi 04.06. Seinäjoki, Finland – Rytmikorjaamo 15.07. Gävle, Sweden – Gefle Metal Festival 12.08. Fortress Josefov, Czech Republic – Brutal Assault 13.08. Caransebes, Romania – Gugulan Rock Festival 19.08. Spital am Semmering, Austria – Kaltenbach Open Air 25.08. New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge 26.08. Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage 27.08. Greensboro, NC – The Blind Tiger 28.08. Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade (Heaven) 29.08. Orlando, FL – The Haven 31.08. Houston, TX – Scout Bar 01.09. Austin, TX – Come and Take it Live 02.09. Dallas, TX – Trees 03.09. StS HEADLINE SHOW w/ Witherfall, El Paso, TX – Rockhouse Bar & Grill 04.09. Mesa, AZ – Nile Theater 05.09. San Diego, CA – Brick by Brick 06.09. Los Angeles, CA – 1720 07.09. Sacramento, CA – Goldfield Trading Post 08.09. Portland, OR – Bossanova Ballroom 09.09. Seattle, WA – Substation 11.09. Denver, CO – Marquis Theater 12.09 Lawrence, KS – Granada Theater 13.09. Joliet, IL – The Forge 14.09. Indianapolis, IN – Irving Theater 15.09. Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace 16.09. Montreal, QC – Cafe Campus 17.09. Quebec City, QC – Source de la Martinière 18.09. Boston, MA – Middle East Downstairs 23.10. Istanbul, Turkey – Doom Over Istanbul
Day Three of the Spring 2022 Quarterly Review — commence! As you well know because I’m quite certain you’re the type of person to sit around and think about these things and I’m in no way the only human who gives enough of a crap to notice, today we hit the halfway point of this particular QR, not in the middle, but at the end, as today will culminate with review number 30 of the total 60 to come by the end of the day next Monday. Is it cheating to get a full weekend to do the last installment? Depends entirely on the weekend. In any case, starting tomorrow we go downhill, numerically, not in terms of the quality of what’s covered.
Until then.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Ruby the Hatchet, Live at Earthquaker
While on tour with Kadavar in late-2019, New Jersey heavy psych rockers Ruby the Hatchet swung through Earthquaker Devices in Ohio and put these three songs to tape. In addition to being the band’s first release for Magnetic Eye Records, the EP serves these years after the fact as a still-foreshadowing glimpse at their next full-length, the follow-up to 2017’s Planetary Space Child (review here), which but for plague probably would be on its third pressing by now. At least it would be if the rolling riffs and organ shimmer of “1,000 Years” and the bluesier what-I’ll-just-assume-is-an-homage-to-the-band-of-the-same-name “Primitive Man” are anything to go by. Paired with Ruby the Hatchet‘s take on Uriah Heep‘s “Easy Livin’,” the new songs herald the awaited album in a way that seems to justify their having been kept in-pocket for just the right moment. I’m glad that moment is now, and I also kind of feel like Ruby the Hatchet need to start recording more shows and putting out their own soundboard bootlegs. This is clearly mixed, pro-mastered and all that, but still. They make every second of these 14 minutes count.
Anonymous Belgian outfit Wyatt E. return five years after their debut with āl bēlūti dārû, comprising two tracks of all-in Mesopotamian-themed drone ritualizing. The robed outfit top 18 minutes with “Mušhuššu” and “Šarru Rabu” both, and their intention toward immersing the audience in a whole-side experience isn’t misplaced as their arrangements branch beyond genre typicality in service of the Middle Easternism around which much of what they do is based. More than cinematically wrought, the two pieces here are striking in moving from the crescendos of their respective builds into richly conjured explorations, the former of saz and other instruments, the latter of percussion and voice. Likewise, with two drumkits, they want nothing for rhythmic urgency, despite the open structures of the actual material. One wonders at the Orientalism on display throughout as potentially a kind of minstrelsy, particularly with the hooded unknown figures casting themselves as decidedly ‘other’ from a European mainstream, but the same anonymity guards against the notion since it’s unclear just who these people are. I’m not sure I’m all the way on board, but they effectively convey spectacle without losing artistic presence. And if you spend the rest of your day reading about the Akkadian Empire, I’m sure worse things have happened.
My impression of Canterbury, UK, doomers Famyne‘s 2016 self-titled debut (review here) were of a band burgeoning in atmosphere anchored by strong songwriting and melodic vocals with periodic likeness to Alice in Chains and The Wounded Kings. Arriving through Svart Records, the eight-song/45-minute II: The Ground Below doesn’t do much to detract from that core impression, but the ambient “A Submarine” and the mean chug in the back half of the later “The Ai” take them to new places and demonstrate the individualization of genre tropes underway in their sound. “Once More” taps a more NWOBHM style, while “Babylon” touches on Candlemassian grandiosity, and “Gone” fluidly begins to transition from the crush of opening duo “Defeated” and “Solid Earth” before “A Submarine” takes hold, which is only further evidence they know what they’re doing.
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Humanotone, A Flourishing Fall in a Grain of Sand
Evidently a number of years in the making from front-to-back, Humanotone‘s second full-length, A Flourishing Fall in a Grain of Sand, finds the solo-project spearheaded by Jorge Cisternas Monsalves, aka Jorge Cist, working once more completely on his own save for some saxophone on 12-minute closer “Even Though.” Given the lush, progressive, and thoughtful execution of progressive heavy rock the Chile-based Cist manifests throughout cuts like “Light Antilogies” and “Ephemeral” prior — taking lessons from Elder‘s Dead Roots Stirring and applying them well for his own purposes — it wouldn’t have been surprising if he picked up the sax himself, frankly. He proves visionary throughout the proceedings one way or the other, and atop a bed of his own drumming is able to cast deep landscapes of keys and guitar and bass in “A Flourishing Fall” and a build and payoff in “Scrolls for the Blind” before the 3:45 “Beyond the Machine” goes straightforward in a way that feels like a gift ahead of the closer, while still retaining its proggy vibe vocally, melodically and rhythmically. There’s been some word-of-mouth hype around this one. Not unwarranted.
Big on vibe, crunches when it wants, spaces out with broader jams, takes its time, flows as it will but still hits with an impact — yeah, there’s no shortage of things to like about Madmess‘ Hassle Records-issued second full-length, Rebirth. If you, yourself, have been born-again semi-instrumentalist psych-prog, then no doubt you’ll relate to the careening and twisting path that the five mostly-extended tracks take, unfolding with a focus on liquefied echo on “Albatross” before the companioning “Mind Collapse” introduces the vocals that will show up again on closer “Stargazer” (not a Rainbow cover). Between those two, the title-cut and “Shapeshifter” back-to-back build on some of the mellower stretches prior at least before locking into their own heavier parts, but by then you’re long since hypnotized anyway, and the drift that serves to transition into “Stargazer” is only pushing further out as it goes. I’m not sure who in the Portugese trio (if anyone) is the vocalist, but the voice suits the songs well, even if they’re plainly comfortable going without, and reasonably so.
Mostly instrumental, the aptly-titled EP II — the second short release from Utrecht, the Netherlands, trombone-inclusive experimentalist doomers Eaters of the Soil — runs four tracks and 35 minutes and, early on, uses spoken samples from this or that serial killer about putting plastic bags over women’s heads to suffocate them. Through “V – Point of Capture” and even into “VI – Untouched, Unspoken To” (the Roman numeral numbering system continued from their pandemic-minded 2021 first EP), a somewhat slowed down version of whoever it is goes on about killing women and this and that. The second half of the release with “VII – Burrowing, Feasting” and “VIII – Subcurrent,” are both dark enough to be considered affected by the same atmosphere — “VI – Untouched, Unspoken To” has a bit of float to it, so it’s not all grim — churning, meandering and freaking out in at-least-partially improv-jazz style, but Eaters of the Soil cast a grim vision of humanity and that impression stays resonant even as “VIII – Subcurrent” lumbers into its wash of a finish. Is extreme jazz a thing? Turns out maybe.
With its just-slightly-off-beat drum loop, “Light” seems to build into a wash until even the song can’t take anymore and needs to drop out. It’s not the first take on NYOS‘ second offering for Pelagic Records, Celebration — that would be the improvised opener “First Take” — but it and the serene hum that emerges in the subsequent “Something Good” and even the shimming almost steel-drum sounds of “Tucano” demonstrate the Finland-based instrumentalist duo’s stated intentions toward dance music. The later “Gold Vulcan,” the first single, gets into some noisier fare as if to remind that guitarist Tom Brooke (also recording) and drummer Tuomas Kainulainen are coming from a harder-hitting place, but in the also-improv “Cloudberry” just before and particularly the willfully gorgeous “Rosario” (Dawson?) after, the intentions are gentler and more welcoming, and that continues into the final drone stretch and far, far back drumming that consumes most of closer “Surface” before it ultimately explodes in resonant light, reinforcing the notion of joy inherent in the album’s title, feeling like a grand finale to an aural fireworks display.
Making their debut on Heavy Psych Sounds with Impending Doom, Sweden’s Endtime are not shy about their influence from horror cinema. Their sound blends sludge and classic doom together such that opener “Harbinger of Disease” comes through like Mike IX Williams of Eyehategod stepping in to front Cathedral, and his harsh wails echo out a tolling (for thee, make no mistake) bell to foretell the harsh terrors soon to unfold. “ICBM” kills quick and lets its church organ mourn later, and the centerpiece “They Live” (a classic) adjusts the balance such that the cinematic, post-Uncle Acid vibe comes to the front still with the barking vocals overtop; a blend I can’t think of anyone else pulling off as well as Endtime do. The longer “Cities on Fire with the Burning Flesh of Men” follows and is more purely about the crunch at least until the sitar shows up — a nice curve to throw — ahead of its severe closing section, and closer “Living Graves” wraps the 28-minute LP by pushing the organ forward again and dissolving into a wash of noise before the feed seems to cut out like channel 11 just stopped broadcasting in the middle of the night. Hey man, I was watching that. Not quite revolutionary, but onto something. Impending, if you will.
By my count, Bloodshot Buffalo — the solo-project of Santa Rosa, California’s Sheafer McOmber — has put out no fewer than four full-lengths since 2019. Accordingly, the two-song Light EP is most likely a stopgap en route to the next one, but “Light” and “Don’t Follow Me” make an enticing sampler of the band’s wares all the same, digging into an energetic heavy progressive rock like a less-low-end-focused Forming the Void in the title-track as McOmber carefully weaves in a multi-layered guitar solo panning channels from one to the other and “Don’t Follow Me” reaffirms the groove on which that happens while sorting out its own languid flow. The shorter of the two, “Don’t Follow Me” doesn’t feature the same kind of midsection break as “Light” itself, and once it heads out, it doesn’t come back, unlike “Light,” which returns to the hook at the finish. Some structural play as enticement to dig further into the Bloodshot Buffalo catalog while waiting for the seemingly inevitable next thing. This being my first exposure to McOmber‘s work, I hope to do exactly that.
Swedish now-duo Oh Hiroshima present their fourth album, Myriad, as a collection of weighted, spacious and emotive contemplations. Their heavy post-rock is stylized to be patient and broad-reaching, and in pieces like “All Things Pass” and “Veil of Certainty” early on, they find a niche for themselves between harder-hitting atmospheric material marked out by droning horn arrangements and more straight-ahead melodic verses, the ambience open enough to pull the focus away from underlying structures. It’s an immersive-if-somewhat-familiar modern take, but the two-piece of guitarist/bassist/vocalist Jakob Hemström and drummer Oskar Nilsson stem into moodier vibes on “Tundra” and closer “Hidden Chamber” takes a less effects-centered, more organic-sounding approach, emphasizing the strings for its build while staying earthbound in the drums, bass and guitars beneath. Some will pass Myriad up entirely, others will worship its depth. Either way, the pair seem like they’ll keep moving forward in their well-crafted, considered approach.
Posted in Reviews on November 30th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
This was the first indoor show I attended since Jan. 2020, which is by far the longest stretch of my adult life. Probably and then some. I’ve never thought of Clifton, NJ, as my “safe space” over, say, the moon or anywhere else, but Swallow the Sun were supposed to play Dingbatz in that forgotten Spring of 2020, and I was looking forward to it since the announcement in Dec. 2019, so to see them now, almost two years and so many grey hairs later, feels a bit like symmetry in an asymmetrical time. To call it “post-pandemic” would only be wrong if one thinks about it in terms of the pandemic being over.
The last time I was at Dingbatz was probably over a decade ago. I don’t remember what or when. But the room was much as I remembered, and the bill — extra loaded with five bands, which was two locals on front of the three touring acts — was running late when I walked in. Abigail Williams was getting ready to go on, when according to the schedule I saw they should’ve been playing. Some things, then, never encounter variants. But I’ve always liked the place. Its silly bat mural was covered by Swallow the Sun‘s banner, if it’s still there at all.
Masks were rare. I had one and was warm with it on. Several others near me up front did too, and I was no less comforted by the fact that the dude to my right was also wearing sweatpants, though I didn’t see the name of his blog on the leg, which I’m not sure makes me better or worse off. Jersey metal holding its own on a Monday night. I missed Wilderun, but there was a momentary mosh while Abigail Williams played, which was adorable.
The four-piece were, incidentally, beset with technical difficulties from the outset. Before the outset, even. I kind of had the feeling when they threw up their hands and decided to go without the stage monitors that maybe it wasn’t going to be a career-highlight set for them. They ended up stopping what seemed to be early if it wasn’t, and were clearly frustrated. Sound was clipping, coming in and disappearing, vocals ultra-loud, then gone. On the way to the venue, the bluetooth in my car kept dropping out in the middle of songs. Frontman Ken Sorceron from Abigail Williams sounded like that. No fault of his own.
I don’t imagine that’s easy for a band in any circumstances, let alone one who’ve been together for over 15 years, playing a tour that’s been delayed by more than a year. I felt for the dude. He said that if anyone wanted to hear the band sound much better, to make the short trip to New York for the next show. I wouldn’t be doing that, but I wondered whether one shitty Monday night on a long tour matters to someone who’s been doing it so long, or if a couple days from now it’ll be forgotten. I guess it depends on how sensitive you are generally, how much you can write that kind of thing off. Between the bands, Saliva‘s “Click Click Boom” played on repeat, and I was reminded a bit why I felt relief when lockdown started last March. Fate is a total asshole, if you believe in that kind of thing.
My alarm had gone off at 5:30AM. I am not in “show-shape,” as I otherwise might be, and I’ll admit to being distracted by folks wearing bare faces around me, considerations of scary headlines from reputable sources, sweating in my mask, feet sore after an embarrassingly short amount of time, breathing in the fog machine, clicking, clicking, booming. Swallow the Sun‘s setup took a while. I’ve had the same headache for four weeks running. Can’t remember when I inhaled that hammer. I wished I had a bottle of water. I had downed an extra pot of coffee to prepare for being awake later than 8:30PM. Canceled a dermatology appointment in the morning. Clear my calendar. Edna, hold all my calls.
The coffee might’ve made the difference in, say, my ability to remain standing as long as I did. Despite my bizarre-headspace, there were a couple genuine moments of communion when Swallow the Sun played. The room, packed at the start of the set, thinned out as it edged toward midnight, but cuts like “Falling World,” “Firelights,” “New Moon” and the pairing of “Woven into Sorrow” and “This House Has No Home” from the recently issued Moonflowers (review here) had heads banging in more than just my own languid doomer nod. People were going for it.
Those last two finished out a regular set that had led off with “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery” and “The Enemy” from the same record, and I suppose that part of the challenge after 20 years is what to put in the set and what to leave out. I wouldn’t have minded “When a Shadow is Forced into the Light,” but you can’t have everything. The encore, with “Plague of Butterflies Pt. 2” and “Swallow,” was rightly and duly appreciated by those who remained, and I was one of them, though I’ll confess I’d moved to the back by then. No new album at the merch table. The live album, sure. Alas.
A show. With hoo-mans. I’ll spare you the list of gigs I’ve missed since concerts started happening in the face of covid, but there have been plenty. I don’t know if it was the fact that the band came from Finland to play Clifton or what, but there was something about this show that finally got me out of the house. Does that mean I’m about to become Johnny Outandabout? Yeah probably not. But this was a moment out of my own head that I haven’t had in too long and from here I’ll take it one at a time; show, day, minute. One thing — I was not surprised in the least to find out how much I’ve missed love music. I’ve known that all along.
Close eyes, pull out earplugs just a little bit for “Swallow” while they build that chug into sudden oblivion. “Thank you. Good night.” Indeed.
This tour rolls on — New York next, as Ken Sorceron from Abigail Williams assured — and when it’s done, Swallow the Sun will go back to Europe for an even longer stretch there supporting Moonflowers. Who the hell knows if those dates will happen, and who the hell knows when I’ll get myself out again to another venue, another town, or hell, to Dingbatz again for who knows what. I certainly don’t. But at least for the next few minutes I’m not going to worry about it, because if there’s a lesson amid all the bullshit of the last two years, isn’t it to be thankful for what you have while you have it because it can all evaporate faster than you ever thought?
When the show was over, I went outside, took off my mask. Cold air on my face. Felt like I could breathe a little bit, you know?
Posted in Reviews on November 8th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Moonflowers is the eighth full-length from Jyväskylä, Finland-based Swallow the Sun, who’ve worked with Century Media since issuing their 2015 triple-album, Songs From the North I, II & III (review here). Comprised of founders Juha Raivio (guitar), Mikko Kotamaki (vocals) and Matti Honkonen (bass), as well as drummer Juuso Raatikainen, guitarist Juho Raiha, and keyboardist/backing vocalist Janni Peuhu (who’ll sit out the touring cycle for Moonflowers owing to commitments to his other band, Mercury Circle), they celebrated the band’s 20th anniversary earlier this year with the release of 20 Years of Gloom, Beauty and Despair: Live in Helsinki, captured at Tavastia Club in Feb. 2020, but Moonflowers feels no less like a victory lap when it comes to their stylistic accomplishments, sweeping grandiosity — looking at you, the solo in “Keep Your Heart Safe From Me” — emotive resonance and melding of slower extreme metal, death-doom and lush melodicism.
On paper, this has been their aesthetic foundation all along, since 2003’s The Morning Never Came brought such revitalizing energy to a modus that bands like Katatonia and My Dying Bride, even Paradise Lost, had largely left behind at that point, but it says little of the craft Swallow the Sun bring to their material, their refinement across offerings like 2005’s Ghosts of Loss, 2007’s Hope, 2009’s New Moon (review here) and 2012’s Emerald Forest and the Blackbird (discussed here) commitment to challenging themselves in songwriting and performance two decades on from their inception, and the ensuing influence they’ve had on European doom in doing so.
At 52:40, Moonflowers is the second-shortest album that Swallow the Sun have ever made by all of nine seconds — 2019’s When a Shadow is Forced into the Light (review here) ran 52:31 — but that brings into emphasis the efficiency of a track like second cut “Enemy” or the opening semi-titular “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery,” which vary in structure between gracefully flowing sections and smashes between loud/quiet tradeoffs, and along with the subsequent, longer “Woven into Sorrow” and “Keep Your Heart Safe From Me,” welcome the listener back into the morose world the band are so adept at creating.
What might seem like novelty, a bonus instrumental version of Moonflowers that features the orchestral sections of the tracks performed by Finland’s Trio NOX further serves to highlight Swallow the Sun‘s songwriting. “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery,” or the later “The Void” — which is plenty flowing in either incarnation — as even the melodies that in the “full” versions fill out and complement the songs prove memorable enough to stand on their own. On Moonflowers proper, it is the earlier tracks that do the bulk of the work in carrying forward the lasting impression; the choruses of “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery,” “Enemy” and “Woven into Sorrow” acting like the more straightforward fare ahead of the atmospheric side B that begins with “All Hallows’ Grieve,” which features Oceans of Slumber vocalist Cammie Gilbert alongside Kotamaki, and continues into “The Void” and “The Fight of Your Life” ahead of the striking, black metal-adjacent finish of “This House Has No Home,” which is something of a sucker-punch after the immersion preceding.
In the overarching structure, Moonflowers doesn’t operate so differently from When a Shadow is Forced into the Light, but where there it was the opening title-track as the standout, here the material after lives up to the high standard that “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery” sets. “Enemy” hits hard at the outset but sets its course initially led by the melody before the crash cymbal and the growling prechorus take hold, shifting to the hook itself, which is also clean-sung. The growl of Kotamaki and his arrangements of melodic and brutal vocals aren’t to be understated when it comes to the crucial aspects of Swallow the Sun. On “Woven into Sorrow,” he moves between a verse that brings to mind the Queensrÿche radio hit “Silent Lucidity” and a set back chorus, building to an eventual release of tension in the second half that is a defining moment for the record as a whole, let alone the first four of its eight component pieces.
It’s worth noting that the vinyl edition of Moonflowers breaks down across four sides with two songs each. As to how flipping platters between “Enemy” and “Woven into Sorrow” or “The Void” and “The Fight of Your Life” might change the listening experience, I can’t say, but the linear progression from the first half of the album into the second is such that Swallow the Sun effectively lead their audience farther down a path until the forceful delivery of “This House Has No Home” acts as a lash-out payoff for everything that preceded it.
That the band remain so identifiably themselves across the span of Moonflowers is a joy and a triumph in itself, if perhaps an expected one given that they are 20 years on from first getting together. Whatever the format in which one might encounter it, what Moonflowers adds to Swallow the Sun‘s legacy, pedigree or whatever you want to call it is another representative forward step in their steady growth. They are not revolutionizing their sound or the genre as a whole — they weren’t the first in their style by any means — but they have over time made themselves a standard-bearer in melodic death-doom precisely because of efforts like this, and the reward for the listener comes in letting go and trusting the band to lead the experience as they do.
Because there isn’t really an aspect of Swallow the Sun that’s left to chance at this point, but for every layer of depth in the mix of a track like “The Fight of Your Life” and for every fluid shift in “Woven into Misery,” the construction supporting it is likewise thoughtful and complete. There is never a doubt as to the band’s control of the procession — that’s not to say “dirge,” but one could — and whether one engages with it on the level of mood or simply delights in the cathartic pummel of its heaviest stretches, Moonflowers is a stirring reminder of why Swallow the Sun have endured as long as they have and why they’ll hopefully continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Swallow the Sun, “Woven into Sorrow” official video
Swallow the Sun via Trio NOX, “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery” official video
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 4th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Before everything went to shit, I was going to go see Swallow the Sun at Dingbatz in Clifton, New Jersey. And after the pandemic hit and of course the tour got canceled like everything else, I thought to myself, “well there’s no way that chance will ever come again. A band coming from Finland to play 20 minutes from my house at a club with a big goofy bat painted on the back of the stage.”
And here we are. I’ll be honest, playing Dingbatz, on a weeknight, a few days after Thanksgiving, does not sound to me like it’s going to be a banger night for the tour. Maybe not packed. But you know what? I’m gonna go. I’ll probably buy merch too, unless it’s all longsleeves or whatever. I’ll go because it’s a show the loss of which I was feeling for more than a year (yes, really; I’ve been listening to this band since their first record) and because they have a new album coming out and I’m looking forward to that too. There’s a video for one of the songs at the bottom of this post. It sounds a little like Queensryche early on, but they do well with it.
So yeah. I’m glad this tour and this show are happening:
SWALLOW THE SUN ANNOUNCES U.S. MOONFLOWERS TOUR 2021
Finnish death doom masters, SWALLOW THE SUN, have just announced their Moonflowers Tour 2021, which will included support slots from Abigail Williams and Wilderun. The band will be touring the U.S. starting November 20th in Mesa, AZ and wrapping on December 19th in West Hollywood, CA. Tickets are available for purchase, HERE:https://www.facebook.com/swallowthesun
SWALLOW THE SUN will be on tour supporting their forthcoming full-length album, Moonflowers, which will be released worldwide via Century Media Records on November 19th. Moonflowers will be available as Ltd. Deluxe sky blue 3LP+2CD & Art Print Box Set, Ltd. 2CD Mediabook, Gatefold black 2LP+CD and digital album (incl. Bonus album) and can be pre-ordered, HERE:https://swallowthesun.lnk.to/Moonflowers
Just last week, the band released their first track and music video off the album for “Woven Into Sorrow”. “Woven Into Sorrow” is the first heavy version to be released off the record, as the band already released classical editions of the songs featured on Moonflowers. Check out all of the released classical/instrumental Trio N O X versions of tracks off Moonflowers for “Moonflowers Bloom In Misery – Classical Version”, “Enemy – Classical Version”, “Woven Into Sorrow – Classical Version”, “Keep Your Heart Safe From Me – Classical Version”, “All Hallows’ Grieve – Classical Version”, “The Void – Classical Version”, “The Fight Of Your Life”, and “This House Has No Home”.
SWALLOW THE SUN U.S. TOUR DATES: w/Abigail Williams and Wilderun November 20 – Mesa, AZ – Nile Theater* November 21 – Albuquerque, NM – Launchpad* November 22 – Dallas, TX – Trees* November 23 – Austin, TX – Come and Take it Live* November 24 – Houston, TX – Scout Bar November 26 – Orlando, FL – The Haven November 27 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade November 28 – Baltimore, MD – Angels Rock Bar November 29 – Clifton, NJ – Dingbatz November 30 – Brooklyn NY – The Monarch December 1 – Montreal, QC – Cafe Campus December 2 – Quebec City, QC – La Source de la Martiniere December 3 – Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground December 4 – Rochester, NY – Montage Music Hall December 5 – Detroit, MI – The Sanctuary December 6 – Pittsburgh, PA – The Crafthouse December 7 – Joliet, IL – The Forge December 8 – Madison, WI – The Crucible December 9 – Minneapolis, MN – Cabooze December 10 – Kansas City, MO – The Riot Room December 11 – Denver, CO – Herman’s Hideaway December 12 – Salt Lake City, UT – Liquid Joe’s December 14 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon December 15 – Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre December 16 – Portland, OR – Bossanova Ballroom December 17 – San Francisco, CA – DNA Upstairs December 18 – Santa Ana, CA – Stages December 19 – West Hollywood, CA – Whiskey A Go-Go *no Abigail Williams
2022 Jan-24 München, DE – Backstage (Halle) Jan-25 Ljubljana, SLO – Orto Bar Jan-26 Milano, IT – Legend Club Jan-27 Montpellier, FR – Secret Place Jan-28 Barcelone, ES – Bóveda Jan-29 Madrid, ES – Sala, Caracol Jan-30 Toulouse, FR – Le Rex Jan-31 Lyon, FR – CCO Villeurbanne Feb-01 Paris, FR – Backstage Feb-02 Köln, DE – Essigfabrik Feb-03 Bochum, DE – Matrix Feb-04 Copenhagen, DK – Pumpehuset Feb-05 Stockholm, SE – Nalen Feb-06 Oslo, NO – Parkteatret Feb-07 Götebord, SE – Valand Feb-08 Hamburg, DE – Headcrash Feb-09 Leipzig, DE – UT Connewitz Feb-10 Luzern, CH – Schüür Feb-11 Martigny, CH – Caves Du Manoir Feb-12 Meyrin, CH – Undertown Feb-13 Nantes, FR – Le Ferrailleur Feb-14 London, UK – Underworld Feb-15 Glasgow, UK – Slay
SWALLOW THE SUN is Mikko Kotamaki (vocals), Matti Honkonen (bass), Juuso Raatikainen (drums), Juho Raiha (guitars), and Juha Raivio (guitars).
