Search - Swallow the Sun :: New Moon

A change in tone I don't really prefer.

Sweden Is God | 09/13/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I love Swallow the Sun to death and actually just got to see them two nights ago with Katatonia. Their music is a very unique style of doom that takes a lot from the early days of Opeth. What I love about all their previous albums was their ability to make extremely slow-paced music interesting and beautiful, something too many doom bands simply can't do. Usually you have the slogging drum beats and a lot of reverb/atmosphere, some sparse guitar parts and a lot of moaning vocals. Swallow the Sun basicly only take the slow tempos from that formula.



The reason I compare them to Opeth is that, in the early days, Opeth began by blending a lot of clean guitar parts with black metal atmosphere, but also with some brilliant classic rock inspired single note guitar licks. Swallow the Sun loves these kinds of riffs and they are masters of them. The music is simply beautiful music like Katatonia or something comparable that began in the doom genre but eventually broke out with a more progressive leaning.



So this album....well it's not *bad* persay. The first song starts off in typical Swallow the Sun fashion but with a little more black metal style chord structures in parts, which is great in THAT song. After that, however, there is really only one other song on the album that I really enjoy. You could hear it starting on the Plague of Butterflies EP. The singular new song was amazing in parts and then there was this old-school Dimmu Borgir-style departure riffing in the middle that seemed somehow out of place with their style. Now we arrive on this album and the black metal chord progressions are starting to take the forefront.



The drumming is different as well(obviously, their former drummer left the group) and just feels less "fitting" for the music. Their original drummer Pasi Pasanen had a unique style and was pretty expressive in the few oppurtunities he was given during his tenure with the band. The new drummer, Kai Hahto(from the amazing Wintersun record, "Wintersun") is an outstanding drummer, but I just saw him play live...and it left something to be desired. He threw in blast beats in a song from Hope that never had blast beats and it didn't work. Pasi never overplayed and always added something to each song. On this album, Kai is just boring. Instead of listening for the drums like I used to, I now forget they're even there.



The main change is the riff style. Everything is more chord oriented now and there are less guitar leads. As simple to play as most of their past work is, they were so great and stood out because of their ability to place the right note in the right spot and their progression was always perfect. Now I just listen to this cd hoping I missed something and that there WERE parts that call back to their first three albums, but there are only a few songs that even attempt that. I kept waiting for a track that would redeem one that I did not like, but it just never came.



I hope this isn't due to personel changes and that the new "voices" aren't changing the bands direction because I will be very sad to lose another of my favirote groups. Swallow the Sun is finally about to hit the world stage as well with this tour alongside Katatonia, so let us hope it will find them enough of a stateside audience to let them continue exploring their craft. This album feels somehow out of place, but then again, other bands such as Dark Tranquillity have done it and bounced back, so only time will tell in which direction their music goes."