In the quarter of a century since starting life as a death- doom band in the Finnish city of Jyväskylä, Swallow The Sun have let their love of prog slowly seep in. The five-piece’s ever more expansive sound, together with the growing complexity of their arrangements and 2015’s three-disc concept piece Songs From The North, all attest to that.
But their most progressive characteristic is their inability to sit still. Always seeking change and reinvention, they follow 2021’s emotionally and musically heavy Moonflowers with a record that’s more accessible than anything they’ve made before.
While the melancholia remains, the aptly-titled Shining finds light within the gloom, resulting in their most positive-minded songs to date. They’ve enlisted British producer Dan Lancaster, who has previously worked with bands such as pop-punk clowns Blink-182 and metalheads Bring Me The Horizon.
Lancaster hasn’t turned Swallow The Sun into something they’re not, but he has helped them dial back the abrasiveness in favour of a smoother sound that swings between the dark and the light, while still retaining their progressive edges.
November Dust’s hypnotic din is awash with post-rock flavours, and while What Have I Become possesses a spirited, straightforward chorus that almost veers into pop, the unsettling piano cadences woven through it give it an undercurrent of low-key strangeness.
Only three tracks run beyond the five-minute mark. But they’ve made the brevity work for them
Elsewhere, the grinding Kold has an off-kilter feel to it, its wonky chorus giving way to a metallic chug and growled vocals that bring the darkness back, only to emerge from the depths and back into the sunlight.
Lyrically, Shining is centred around the battle between singer Mikko Kotamäki’s desire to free himself from darkness and the struggle to accept that there’s life beyond the gloom. ‘Wake all the demons in me/Let me believe that is all there will be,’ he sings on Under The Moon & Sun, though the song ends with something approaching peace,: ‘On my shore/I’m shining dark.’
The record’s lightness is reflected in the running times of its songs – only three of the 10 tracks run beyond the five-minute mark. But they’ve made the brevity work for them: MelancHoly contrasts the cold, clean tones of its verses with euphoric guitars and a simplistic yet memorable vocal hook. It’s a world away from dark epics such as Songs From The North III’s 13-minute The Gathering Of Black Moths.
This album might not be Swallow The Sun’s most progressive release, but it’s full of some of their sharpest and most uplifting music yet, making for another unique addition to the band’s ever-evolving canon.
Shining is on sale now via Century Media.
