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

New Album ‘Shining’ Out October 18th via Century Media Records — Pre-Order HERE: https://swallowthesun.lnk.to/Shining

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

https://www.facebook.com/swallowthesun
https://www.instagram.com/swallowthesunofficial/
http://www.swallowthesun.net/

https://www.facebook.com/centurymedia
https://www.instagram.com/centurymediarecords/
http://www.centurymedia.com/

Swallow the Sun, “What I Have Become” visualizer

Swallow the Sun, “Innocence Was Long Forgotten” official video

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

Pre-Order HERE: https://swallowthesun.lnk.to/Shining

‘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

https://www.facebook.com/swallowthesun
https://www.instagram.com/swallowthesunofficial/
http://www.swallowthesun.net/

https://www.facebook.com/centurymedia
https://www.instagram.com/centurymediarecords/
http://www.centurymedia.com/

Swallow the Sun, “What I Have Become” visualizer

Swallow the Sun, “Innocence Was Long Forgotten” official video

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

Swallow the Sun, Moonflowers (2021)

Swallow the Sun website

Swallow the Sun on Facebook

Swallow the Sun on Twitter

Century Media website

Century Media on Facebook

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?

Thanks for reading.

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

Swallow the Sun website

Swallow the Sun on Facebook

Swallow the Sun on Twitter

Century Media website

Century Media on Facebook

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

PRE-ORDER THEIR FORTHCOMING ALBUM MOONFLOWERS HERE: https://swallowthesun.lnk.to/Moonflowers

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).

http://www.swallowthesun.net
https://www.facebook.com/swallowthesun
http://www.centurymedia.com/
https://www.facebook.com/centurymedia

Swallow the Sun, “Woven into Sorrow” official video

Swallow the Sun via Trio NOX, “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery” official video

How do you make a new Swallow the Sun album even more melancholy? Add a bonus version of the songs redone in string arrangements, I’d think should do it. Such is the case with the long-running Finnish death-doomers’ upcoming work, Moonflowers — which is about the most Swallow the Sun-esque thing I can think of for them to call a record — which is set to release on Nov. 19. They’ve linked up with Trio NOX, also from Finland, and are going to be piecemealing out one instrumental track at a time in a series of animated videos ahead of the first single from the album proper, which is a pretty clever way to build momentum leading up to a release when, say, you can’t tour.

Oh, and apparently the moon on the album cover is painted in guitarist Juha Raivio‘s blood. Maybe that’s true, maybe not, but it’s a fun claim to make either way. I know you don’t really care, but this band is great.

The PR wire has all the preliminaries and release dates and thisses and thatses. Dig:

SWALLOW THE SUN ANNOUNCES NEW STUDIO ALBUM ‘MOONFLOWERS’

BAND ANNOUNCES BONUS INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM; WATCH “MOONFLOWERS BLOOM IN MISERY”

Finnish death doom masters, SWALLOW THE SUN, announce their new album Moonflowers. The album, which they have written, recorded and mixed is set for release on November 19th, 2021.

SWALLOW THE SUN will also be releasing a bonus album featuring instrumental versions of all the regular album tracks off Moonflowers. The instrumental album has been composed for strings and was recorded at Sipoo Church in Finland. The strings were performed by the group called “Trio NOX” from Finland. Watch the animated video for “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery”, the first instrumental version and animated video released off the forthcoming bonus album, HERE. Each instrumental song will have an animated video, which were created by Dronicon Films, released every week, leading up to the first single release of the main album.

“I know well that I should not say this, but I deeply hate this album. I hate where it takes me, how it makes me feel and what it stands for me personally. I wish it wouldn’t. But for all its honesty I got no option than also love it. That is all that matters to me with the music anyway and it doesn’t matter how it makes me feel, as long as it does. For me this album is like a mirror of a deep self-disappointment. Even I still want to believe that there is and could be more than this in me. But I don’t need or want to talk more about it. After all music means so different things to each one of us by how we have walked our own paths, and that is a beautiful thing about music. There is no right or wrong,” states SWALLOW THE SUN guitarist Juha Raivio.

“After I had finished writing all the music for this record in the fall of 2020 I started to write these small instrumental versions of the album songs for the violin, viola, cello and piano. Mostly because I was wondering how it would feel like to hear all these songs first as these intimate versions instead of a full band album. It was really beautiful to see and hear these songs come alive in this way and form, recorded live in this big church in Finland. To be able to hear the echoes of this music reflecting from the church walls and feel the very soul of these old wooden instruments played by real people in this sacred place. Something about hearing the strings breathe this fragile beauty into these songs that carry so much pain otherwise. Now looking back, maybe I wrote these versions just for myself to be able to hear and feel at least some kind of a beauty and solace in these songs, maybe…

I wanted to create the cover art of this album myself this time, so it would stand as brutally honest for me as the music is. So I painted the moon on the ‘Moonflowers‘ cover with my own blood and I decorated it with the flowers I picked up and dried on the spring of 2016. Maybe it isn’t the most outstanding looking piece of art ever made in this world, but for me it is everything. I wasn’t going to write any new music before I would have moved towards the right direction in my life, but finally all this music just forced itself out of me during the long nights of this hope crushing and neverending lockdown prison. Something grew out from that void eventually and writing these songs made me think a lot about moonflowers that bloom at the darkest hour of the night, so that name felt right to call the album also.”

Moonflowers tracklist:
1. Moonflowers Bloom In Misery
2. Enemy
3. Woven Into Sorrow
4. Keep Your Heart Safe From Me
5. All Hallows’ Grieve (Featuring Cammie Gilbert)
6. The Void
7. The Fight Of Your Life
8. This House Has No Home

Raivio further states, “In other news, unfortunately our busy brother Jaani will step aside from the band at least for this new album cycle, but we are happy to tell that you can hear Jaani’s backing vocals on the new album anyway.”

Jaani Peuhu adds, “Sadly, COVID-19 messed up everything including the release schedules of my bands. Both the Mercury Circle and Swallow The Sun albums are being released at the same time, making it impossible for me to tour with both bands. For this reason, I decided that it’d be better for me to solely focus on MC for this release cycle. That being said, the upcoming Swallow The Sun album will be amazing, and I am so happy we could still do it together. I wish the best of luck to StS on their tour with it!”

Band painting by Doppelganger-Art

SWALLOW THE SUN is Mikko Kotamaki (vocals), Matti Honkonen (bass), Juuso Raatikainen (drums), Jaani Peuhu (keys and vocals), Juho Raiha (guitars), and Juha Raivio (guitars).

http://www.swallowthesun.net
https://www.facebook.com/swallowthesun
http://www.centurymedia.com/
https://www.facebook.com/centurymedia

Swallow the Sun via Trio NOX, “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery” official video

I was very, very, very much looking forward to seeing Finland’s Swallow the Sun come through Dingbatz in April 2020 on an anniversary tour that, of course, was canceled. And of all the shows missed out on over the last year-plus, that was continues to sting as very few do. What a special night that would’ve been. A band with a sound so huge in a space small enough that the floor would’ve vibrated under your feet. For those who showed up, it would’ve been a gig to remember for decades. Swallow the Sun are undervalued anyway. Too extreme for the rock crowd, to melodic for the extreme metallers. I’ve seen them before, but still. What a night. What could’ve been.

They did manage to get a few anniversary shows in before lockdown hit though, and it’s from those that the upcoming live album, 20 Years of Gloom, Beauty and Despair – Live in Helsinki, is made. Set to release July 30 through Century Media, maybe it’ll give me some idea of what I missed out on, because it seems like too damn much to hope that that show might ever get scheduled again.

Alas:

SWALLOW THE SUN ANNOUNCES LIVE ALBUM – 20 YEARS OF GLOOM, BEAUTY AND DESPAIR – LIVE IN HELSINKI

PRE-ORDERS START TODAY

Finnish doom stars SWALLOW THE SUN announce their first ever live album 20 Years Of Gloom, Beauty And Despair – Live in Helsinki! The live album is set for release on July 30th via Century Media Records.

“Finally some good news after a year of cancellations and shitshow! We managed to play only 10 of these special 20th anniversary gigs before the whole world shut down in March 2020 and the rest of the tour got cancelled. Luckily we filmed and recorded one of the gigs, which we now release as our very first live album as we wait to be able to get back on stages again,”, states Swallow The Sun vocalist Mikko Kotamäki.

About the production Kotamäk adds, “We played the whole ‘Songs from the North II’ with a string quartet—comprised of very professional musicians, two of whom played on our previous album and appeared with us on the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise in 2018. For the first time, we also asked our fans on social media to vote for their favorite songs from each album. We then played the most-voted songs from every album.”

20 Years Of Gloom, Beauty And Despair – Live in Helsinki will be available as Ltd. 2CD+DVD Digipak, Gatefold 3LP+DVD and as digital album. All physical formats are available for pre-order HERE: https://swallowthesun.lnk.to/20YearsOfGloomBeautyAndDespair-LiveInHelsinki

The vinyl version will be available in the following colors:
– Black vinyl, unlimited
– Golden vinyl, limited to 200 copies worldwide, only available at Levykauppa Äx
– Dark green vinyl, limited to 200 copies worldwide, available at CMDistro
– Deep blood red vinyl, limited to 200 copies worldwide, only available at EMP
– Mint colored vinyl, limited to 200 copies worldwide, only available Nuclear Blast
– Glow in the dark vinyl, limited to 200 copies worldwide, only available at the official band store

Swallow The Sun is Mikko Kotamaki (vocals), Matti Honkonen (bass), Juuso Raatkainen (drums), Jaani Peuhu (keys and vocals), Juho Raiha (guitar), and Juha Raivio (guitars).

http://www.swallowthesun.net
https://www.facebook.com/swallowthesun
http://www.centurymedia.com/
https://www.facebook.com/centurymedia

Swallow the Sun, “Lost and Catatonic” Live t 70,000 Tons of Metal 2018