{"id":563,"date":"2021-11-20T00:34:13","date_gmt":"2021-11-20T07:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sdmetal.org\/msm\/?p=563"},"modified":"2021-11-20T18:22:58","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T01:22:58","slug":"swallow-the-sun-moonflowers-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sdmetal.org\/msm\/swallow-the-sun-moonflowers-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Swallow The Sun – “Moonflowers” Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Beautiful Gloom<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I was late to the Swallow The Sun<\/a> party. I initially waved them off as emo, melo-death garbage – which was extremely popular in the early 2000s when they released their first record, \u201cThe Morning Never Came<\/a>\u201d. My true introduction was their nearly 3-hour epic, Songs From The North<\/a> in 2015. I have listened to the rest of their catalogue since, \u201cEmerald Forest And The Blackbird<\/a>\u201d being my favorite of the bunch, that record will be my point of reference for their newest album, \u201cMoonflowers<\/a>\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

STS is at its heart, a dichotomy. Dark and light. Sorrow and bliss. Fear and courage; they are masters of sorrow and despair. You can hear the heartache in Juha Raivio\u2019s guitar, doom in Mikko Kotam\u00e4ki\u2019s vocal passages. Yet, it’s all beautiful at the same time. Now, I haven’t listened to “Moonflowers” yet. I’ll be back in an hour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Will The Dark Side Of Your Heart Make Amends With The Light?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So, the album starts off with the track Moonflowers Bloom In Misery with 2 minutes of melancholy, clean vocals and echo-y guitars. Then BOOM. The chorus punches you in the gut with hard, crunchy guitars, a screeching howl from Mikko then continues with his signature death growl. The chorus driven by a catchy, synth guitar riff. The track alternates between these soft, clean interludes and the death growls. Good start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next two two tracks are the singles, Enemy and Woven Into Sorrow. And…these tracks are kind of weak. I’m not sure why they released these as singles, there has to be a better song on the album, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Hallow’s Grieve touts the vocals talents of Cammie Gilbert<\/a> who you might know from Oceans Of Slumber<\/a> and does a good job, Mikko and Cammie compliment each other really well. Props. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Void is a turd. Skip it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first half of of the 7 minute track of The Fight Of Your Life is an uninspired acoustic guitar and clean vocal passage but does pick up at the 3:30 mark with some double-bass and growls, but returns to that boring opening passage to close out the song. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally we are at the end with This House Has No Name and also happens to be my favorite song on the album. It’s also the most interesting song on the album, it includes some black metal tremolo picking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Thoughts<\/strong> – Not So Beautiful<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“Moonflowers” overall is ok, it’s not so terrible that I regret the purchase demanding a refund; there are more misses than bangers on this album. In my opinion when you take in all of the STS catalogue, this is their worst release yet. Have they lost their fire? I hope not, but its a possibility. Maybe I should have reviewed the new Adele album, “30” instead. I blame Brian Parker for recommending me for this review \ud83d\ude09 Maybe I’m a little harsh? Perhaps this album is a grower and needs a few more listens? We’ll see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I give this a 2.5\/5<\/p>\n\n\n\n