Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Swallow The Sun – The Morning Never Came – Century Media 2005

Track Listing 1.Through Her Silvery Body 2.Deadly Nightshade 3.Out Of This Gloomy Light 4.Swallow (Horror Pt.1) 5.Silence Of The Womb 6.Hold This Woe 7.Under The Waves 8.The Morning Never Came 9.Solitude (Bonus Track)

Swallow The Sun is in essence a new band that formed in 2000. They released a demo and their debut album The Morning Never Came in 2003. Unfortunately it took 2 more years after its release to hit the US. This Finnish band has put together one of the best Doom/Death albums I have heard in recent memory, maybe even to date. If you take the best elements from both genres, a nice touch of originality and melody, combined with the most hopelessness you have ever felt you have Swallow The Sun.

Opening track ‘Through Her Silvery Body’ gives you great insight in what is to come in this dark opus. Haunting piano sets the mood which is quickly crushed by dark driving guitar riffs. Then Kotamaki bellows out, to remove any hope you may have had left in your life. ‘Swallow’ contains a great melodic disposition that would almost be uplifting if it were not for the darkness that “swallows” it half way through thanks to the slow pummeling by drummer Pasanen. This also happens to be the shortest track here clocking in at 5:25. ‘Hold This Woe’ shows the softer side of Kotamaki’s vocals and really showcases the band as a whole in this dark dirge. The Morning Never Came closes out with the title track offering more dual vocals, dark guitar melodies and atmospheric elements that come together and drive for 9:21 to sum up this harrowing experience, but a very enjoyable one at that.

Not that the 8 tracks of melancholy torment are not the best things to hit Doom metal in years but the cover of ‘Solitude’ has to be the best Candlemass cover I have ever heard, what a perfect choice for this band. Kotamaki’s clean vocals and death metal styling blend to make this version even more somber than the original.

Something really has to be said about a band that can create songs that last 8 minutes plus and can hold your attention everytime for the duration. The main reason maybe due to the fact that when Kotamaki sings he really has you feeling pain and suffering. The riffs wrenched out by Jamsen & Raivio really create the atmosphere while everything is sharpened by the murky keys of Munter.

If you took everything Opeth has ever done and rolled that into one album you could almost get a grasp of what Swallow The Sun is about. Close your eyes and prepare yourself for a full hour of crushing despair and overwhelming melodies. Don’t expect rays of sunshine or moral boosting material here. Swallow The Sun have come to recruit you to wallow in their misery. A definite must have for the Doom metal enthusiast.


-1evil1 05.15.05