So let me begin by saying that this album is nothing short of a masterpiece. Swallow The Sun’s “New Moon” shows a band that has kept a firm grip on their sound while successfully diversifying it. The overall mix is better than previous albums and I noticed a lot of more obvious transitional parts and you’ll see where I say “progressive” a few times… it’s “progressive” for Swallow The Sun.
The Album begins with These Woods Breathe Evil and right from the start you know Swallow The Sun when you hear them. The signature tones… the signature screams. The difference? The speed! While still very much STS, the tempo is a little more upbeat, bringing with it an untapped aggression. There are some clear differences in Mikko Kotamäki’s voice here with a wide range of screams that are clearer and with a better EQ. Before the song dies out, you’ll hear a quiet solemn interlude, and finally leading into the explosive – fist raising ending.
Falling World starts off with an amazingly evil guitar riff that leads into some really well-mixed clean vocals. The haunting sound is fucking great. About three minutes in the screams commence, bringing it down as if the world truly was falling.. or as it feels to me: caving in. It then progresses into more clean vocals. While being everything Swallow The Sun normally is, this song is actually very radio friendly.
Sleepless Swans begins as a smooth ballad of clean guitars and keys that are “dreamy” if you will. This combines with more clean vocals to create a solemn feeling that is hard to not get lost in your own thoughts to. It explodes early with a balls-to-the-wall riff that concludes your early mind wandering. Complete with spoken parts, and some of the most evil riffage I’ve heard from these guys, this song is truly going to be a favorite of Swallow The Sun enthusiasts.
…And The Heavens Cried Blood enters as another upbeat song. My immediate thought is that this album is growing in aggression and like a good story, keeps you more interested as you listen further. The keys are very clean and clear for most of this piece, adding to the sad feeling. The song ends with a lot of somber instrumental sections, dying out with only keys.
Lights On The Lake (Horror Pt. III) begins with watery female vocals and clean guitars which leads into heavy distortion then back into the clean tones before exploding into screams and a more progressive guitar riff. Then, without warning, blast beats and explosive hits before slamming into a true death metal song. God damn this is evil. Clean vocals come back over distorted riffs this time. Our boys don’t forget about the doom, which incorporates a far more evil version of the intro and feeds back into the pure evil death metal once again.
New Moon is the title track and starts out more like a traditional Swallow The Sun song yet very radio friendly. It soon becomes way more than that with layered clean vocals and screams leading into a more progressive piece complete with guitar solos and all. It ends rather abruptly, and sooner than I wanted it to, but I suppose that’s the honeymoon period of something new and exciting!
Servant Of Sorrow starts off rather head-bangy and honestly I couldn’t help myself from starting to move with it. In doing so, I’m noticing the different guitar/bass movement and I’m imagining how much fun it must be to play this one. A little over three minutes in, it quiets down for a smooth interlude before slamming into a wall of “sorrow” filled with head-banging – fist-raising greatness.
Weight Of The Dead you could mistake as a black metal song with the intro and moves quickly into an upbeat version of the opening riff which then leads into…. You guessed it: a pure black metal section! …which dies after a few measures into spoken word and only keys in the most evil of ways… to conclude this very different sounding entrance is a very doomy… no… Swallow The Sun riff. It continues with more traditional STS sounding riffs, but heavy keys throughout the middle. It then leads into a beautiful sounding epic section, followed by a very doomy ethereal interlude. “Evil” is really the only thing that can truly compliment this song in words properly. In my opinion this is the song that should have been the title track of the album. With its epic overtones it is clearly the ending of something and unfortunately that something was the album.
Overall, Mikko’s accent is noticeably better and the general speed and aggression of the album moves them into a more Melodic Death position than Doom. There is a ton of variety and still the familiar Swallow The Sun sound.
Explosive, powerful and moving, Swallow The Sun has done it again. God damn this album is amazing. This is a must-have album of 2009 and FINALLY we have competition for my number one slot of album of the year.
SkullsnBones
