I reviewed both “Songs from the North” (2015) and “When a Shadow is Forced into the Light” (2019) by Swallow the Sun, and what impressed me was the control of mood and depth. “Moonflowers” is the band’s eighth full release, noting that “Songs from the North” was a triple album.
Just the title of the opener gives an idea of the direction that Swallow the Sun come from. “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery” is patient and melancholic, calling up a symphonic sound to support the heartbeat of a guitar rhythm. But the scene erupts and darkest growls take over momentarily before we return to the melancholic world. These contrasting soundscapes are how this epic song continues. “Emotionally heavy” applies to “Enemy” in every sense. The lyrics are racked with pain, but so too the music is imbued with weighty drama, heaviness and symphony as well as melodically sung and spoken words. When you look at it closely, there’s doesn’t seem to be any light with Swallow the Sun but there are many nuances in the music. And who or what is The One, as depicted in the next song “Woven into Sorrow”: “Blinded by the dark, I stared into the eyes and turned into The One”? The gloom is piled on. I am to some extent reminded of old Finnish bands Poisonblack and Charon in the intensity of despair as expressed here in “the heart of wonder laid down six feet under”, but unlike those bands the intensity spreads into the heavy sorrow of the music. This is a powerful metal ballad of sorts.
The emotional battering continues with “Keep Your Heart Safe from Me”, a plea accompanied by weighty drums, harshness, expansive instrumentals and a constant atmosphere of sadness. “All Hallows” Grieve” is another sorrowful piece, marked by alternating rich male and female vocals, and a doom-like drum tone to add the weight. “Save me from myself”, bewails the vocalist on “The Void”, possibly the most haunting song of this album. I reflected that this album is like Katatonia in many ways but more entrenched in gloom and more introspective. Where with Katatonia, it’s reflections on what might have been, here the full force of vulnerability is in the present. Luckily the music is powerful or we’d drown. Harsh tones and a guitar solo enhance the wistful “The Fight of Your Life”, another masterfully constructed piece before “This House Has No Home” completes the collection. After the opening “this house has no home, this house has no heart”, the song explodes into fiery death growls for a short while. Alternating between melancholic gloom and deathly harshness, this book is brought to a dramatic close.
It’s grey outside and so is “Moonflowers”, except that as ever Swallow the Sun manage in their own way to extract colour and majesty from the gloom. Because of its overpowering weightiness and depression I found this album hard to swallow, and there is no sun, but there is power and beauty here.
(7.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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