Vera: Since the release of their debut ‘The Morning Never Came’ in 2003 it was obvious that Swallow The Sun was a class on their own. The melodious doom/death metal with marvellous guitar parts and soaring keyboard pads still included proper My Dying Bride influences at that time, but on the next albums ‘Ghosts Of Loss’ and especially ‘Hope’ they perfected their sound to the ultimate level which made me use lots of superlatives in the review of ‘Hope’. What is next for a band? You try to find new challenges. Founder and main composer Juha Raivio got an offer to write music for a big ballet and he did, however without any musical compromises. That is clear when listening to ‘Plague Of Butterflies’ today.

Unfortunately the ballet went awry, but one can find the music now on this EP (at least, they call it an EP) which is filled up with the first demo of the band and all together it makes one hour breath-taking music. It is on purpose that I do not say doom/death, since Swallow The Sun included much more influences in this magnum opus. ‘Plague Of Butterflies’ is a mammoth composition of thirty-five minutes, divided in three parts but they flow smoothly into each other. Swallow The Sun has always been a master in working with contrasts - fragile, soft passages fluently roll into growling eruptions of rage and frustration - on this masterpiece they even go deeper. There are more clean vocal parts and vocalist Mikko Kotamäki does it well. The ferocious grunts - sometimes with a semblance of black-ish screams and naturally backed by wilder instrumentation - seem even more raucous than ever. There are still similarities with My Dying Bride in guitar work, but according to Juha this song is also inspired by old progressive rock bands and I agree on that. That is why this composition needs no label or genre; it is a masterpiece that will not disappoint any Swallow The Sun fan.

After this tour de force we take a dive into the past: the demo ‘Out Of This Gloomy Light’. It was recorded in a short time in 2003 to catch a deal with a label. They succeeded: Firebox Records immediately signed them. Now we know why. This is not a demo; at least it does not sound like a demo. These recordings could have been put on the debut album without changes. After being revisited they ended up on ‘The Morning Never Came’ indeed. No big differences, maybe a bit rougher. These four songs did not contain any clean vocals, but they already showed the huge potential of the band. And because there were only three copies sent out, this addition has a true value. Swallow The Sun once again presents themselves as an exceptional accomplished band with this extensive varied song and the first demo is now within everybody’s reach.

97/100

Lords of Metal