Swallow The Sun - Songs From The North I, II & III

When band says that they will release new - triple album, you know one thing. They're brave and confident enough, or stupid. In that case - it's this first.

First disc isn't very "amazing". It's some good played doom metal. I would even say that it's a bit generic. But it's kinda "light".
Second disc - magical experience. Folk vibes and this "cold" atmosphere is amazing. Melodic, calm. Great music to drink a chocolate at winter night.
Third disc - the best disc. Heavy and depressing as fuck. Growls sounds so fucking masive, guitars too. Drums are crushing walls and keyboard makes a good background. And damn - this riff in "Empires of loneliness" or gregorian chant in another track. Just wow.

You DEFINITELY have to be in the mood for this or you probably won't get into it like I couldn't for several weeks. When you are in that mood, you can actually start to distinguish what each song has going for it without if just sounding boring. Overall it's quite a satisfying journey and each disc is a little more interesting than the last.

I only really have two issues. Mikko's growl and scream vocals are kind of shit a third of the time even though his clean singing is much better. I also think this band would benefit greatly from ditching the whole verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus song structure more often. They could make things a lot more interesting if they had a chorus near the beginning and another at the end with a bunch of non-repeated sections in between.

A really ambitious effort, and one that pays off for the most part.

Disc 1: I've heard (and generally liked) their previous albums, but am only really familiar with The Morning Never Came, so I don't quite know how it compares to recent efforts, but it feels broadly similar to what I remember, albeit perhaps with more prominent clean vocals. Not anything stunning, but pretty competent and fairly enjoyable throughout.
Disc 2: An all-acoustic, soft effort, that is for the most part suitably picturesque and atmospheric. Occasionally the sheer mopey feel of it can make it slightly underwhelming but broadly a good disc as well.
Disc 3: I'm very much a funeral doom outsider, but this was a solid listen too. The growls felt a lot stronger here than on disc 1, and, probably because it keeps the tempo up higher than the few previous FDM albums I'd encountered, there's enough bite and menace to this to keep it engaging. It has just enough pace to work for me, and the use of guitar leads and percussion alongside the heavy riffs straddles the line between menacing and longing well.

Pretty much every disc hovers around between a 7(.5)-8 throughout, and to maintain that consistency across three long and stylistically different albums is an impressive effort by the band.

There is a deep grief in these songs from the north...

Disk 3 is fucking great. I love Empires Of Loneliness. I'll need to gather some will power to listen to the other two since I don't like their mellow side much, but I'll try.

Written by Unhealer on 03.03.2016 at 05:01

Disk 3 is fucking great. I love Empires Of Loneliness. I'll need to gather some will power to listen to the other two since I don't like their mellow side much, but I'll try.

If you didn't like their mellow side before, you'll hate it now. Just stick with disc 3

Written by Unhealer on 03.03.2016 at 05:01

Disk 3 is fucking great. I love Empires Of Loneliness. I'll need to gather some will power to listen to the other two since I don't like their mellow side much, but I'll try.

Man I think exactly the same. Disk 3 and especially this song is absolutely one of the best ever.

These were not the comments I was expecting after i've listened to this album for a few days!

Disk 1 is by far my favorite, i'm really loving it. I personally love the combination of the light and dark parts of the band. They entwine them together so well in the first album and it feels so well polished and well done. Rooms and Shadows and Heartstrings Shattering are both big highlights for me.

Disk 2 is awful. I can barely get through it. The vocals are weak and the lyrics can be cringe at times.

Disk 3 is good, but I struggle to get through it as well. I just get bored. There are some solid tracks though like Empires of Loneliness.

Swallow the Sun to me is the combination of Disk 2 and Disk 3. Removing one of those parts and making a whole album without it just isn't Swallow The Sun anymore. Might as well listen to another band that does those exclusive Doom or Gloom parts better. Swallow the Sun is incredible at mixing both elements together like they do in Disk 1 but apart... ehhh.

Just my opinion though.

Disc 1 - 9/10
Disc 2 - 8/10
Disc 3 - 8/10

Overall: 8.5 leaning towards an 8.

First cd is 7 for me, second cd 9, third cd 5... average grade: 7

Love it. It's a 10 for me, but the third disc isn't my thing (sometimes I can enjoy it tho), that's why I can't rate it 10.

Overall a good but long listen. Disk 2was my favourite.