Search - Swallow the Sun :: Morning Never Came

A fine debut

Hugo Guiral | France | 05/25/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Depressing, bleak, disheartening, dismal, sombre, dreary, and dispiriting, are some of the words that can attempt to describe the mood set on The Mourning Never Came. Firstly, the production and instrumentation is top notch, nothing lacking in those departments whatsoever. The second thing that deserves mention, is that all the band members can be heard, nothing seems to outweigh anything else. This sometimes is not the case for a lot of doom bands, where sometimes the keyboards will be too upfront, or the guitars too loud or whatever.



Most of the vocals delivered are deep and guttural, although there are some nicely written clean vocals lines in some songs, and sometimes they even delve into more mid-ranged vocals and even higher, pain-filled screams. I dont know what much I can say about the guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. They each have such a great sound, and all work together so perfectly, they really help the music to flow. The songs are long (nothing under five minutes here) and neither the individual songs, nor the album become boring. Even though the speed is generally slow there is enough innovative variation to keep the listener interested. The album, like I mentioned before, flows very nicely. An album of strong atmospheric doom...heavy, and gloomy. A fine debut - 4 stars"

Gothic Doom Metal

D. Knouse | vancouver, washington United States | 07/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Fans of My Dying Bride should now begin salivating...okay, now that's just gross! Swallow the Sun's most obvious influence is that of their soon-to-be legendary Doom Metal pioneers My Dying Bride (sans the violin). There are keyboards washing across the background of most of the songs here, the occasional piano section adding a nice variation in texture, but the guitars are the driving force overall. Many of the tracks would feel right at home on My Dying Bride's "The Light at the End of the World" or their following album "The Dreadful Hours." The vocals range from snarling Death Metal inflections to clean vocals; there are even times when the vocals are layered with all the variations intact, screeching Black Metal vocalizations mixed with Death Metal snarling that then switches to clean vocals. The exeptional track "Hold This Woe" is a superb example. This sort of suspended expectation is refreshing. The production value on this CD is excellent, the guitars high in the mix but never at any time burying the other music. The result is that the guitars serve equally as added atmosphere as they also provide direction. There are only snippets of lyrics provided in the packaging, though I visited their website and found complete lyrics for four of the songs here. With the types of vocals they employ it would have been nice to have all the lyrics provided within. Regardless, the music and texture of this album is one of absolute darkness and beauty, oftentimes existing simultaneously. The American release has the bonus cover song "Solitude" from Doom Metal forefathers Candlemass. Swallow the Sun has been heralded as a potential second-coming of Doom Metal. I certainly hope so. "The Morning Never Came" is certainly a promising statement for the future of the genre."