meri's Almostopster: Swallow the Sun - Songs from the North I, II & III

A tough one to swallow.

Swallow the Sun are a band whose particular brand of melodic doom and gloom has always appealed to me. You can see this through my overrates in the discography run and the presence of their debut The Morning Never Came in my topster. My introduction to the band was through New Moon, around the time Emerald Forest and the Blackbird was released, when I was exploring a few different bands with somewhat similar sounds (In Mourning and Insomnium, from memory). Swallow the Sun stood out more to me and they have clearly held up to the test of time better. A few years after I got into them they dropped their magnum opus, the monolithic triple album Songs from the North (SftN). I love this album regardless of its flaws, but it will never break into my main topster. I hope this review will detail why I love it, why it won’t make it into my topster (which should be obvious), and why it is a worthwhile listen, despite its overwhelming length.

SftN tells the story of Gloom, Beauty, and Despair, the three components of the album should the back of the boxset be believed1. There are heaps of reviews out there for this album that go through these different sides of the album, and here I will present yet another one from my basic bitch perspective. After all, it is the main gimmick of the album. I have provided scores for each disc as well as an overall score and a few cheeky pics from my vinyl box-set.

Gloom: Starting out with the death/doom side of the triple album, ‘With You Came the Whole of the World’s Tears’ sets the tone for not just this part of the triple album, but all parts – slow, mournful, and melodic, with what I would personally consider powerful and catchy choruses. This is a continuation of the classic Swallow the Sun sound from their earlier albums. It also introduces recurring themes for the rest of the album, namely the different vocal styles Mikko Kotamäki will employ throughout - cleans, spoken word, and mournful growls - as well as some musical and lyrical refrains. It even borrows from earlier albums, with the main riff of ‘Rooms and Shadows’ being a slightly modified version of the main riff of ‘Servant of Sorrow’ from New Moon.

My main issue with Gloom is the length – each song ranges from just shy of 6 minutes long to 9 minutes, for a total of 59 minutes. This means that while I do enjoy all of the songs, it is apparent that some songs could do with a bit of a trim (‘With you…’, ‘The Memory of Light’, and ‘From Happiness to Dust’, for example) and others could be left on the cutting room floor entirely (‘10 Silver Bullets’). That’s not to say it is a bad song, it’s just unnecessary.

Several female guest vocalists are also featured throughout the album, including the beautiful voice of Aleah Stanbridge (guitarist and primary songwriter Juha Ravio’s girlfriend who sadly passed away from cancer in 20162) on ‘Heartstrings Shattering’. These vocals add even more depth and sorrow to the sound. All of the guest spots throughout the album are also relatively minimal, so as to not take the spotlight off Swallow the Sun.

I come back to the songs on here relatively frequently, mainly for the morose hooks presented throughout. ‘From Happiness to Dust’ features a melody in the introduction that reappears in the chorus; the interplay with the female vocals on ‘Heartstrings Shattering’ is, as intended, heartbreaking; the power of the second pre-chorus and catchiness of the chorus on ‘Silhouettes’ gets the fist pumping, as does the pounding rhythm and gorgeous chorus of ‘Lost & Catatonic’. Despite this praise, I believe Gloom, as a whole, is the weakest side of the triple album. Again, due to its overall length, the length of the individual songs, and the fact it is most similar to their sound on previous (sometimes better) albums.

(7/10)

Beauty: The second disc is entirely neofolk, not a single harsh vocal to be heard. Some of it isn’t even in English, which I typically dislike! The album starts with a repetitive keyboard progression that transitions from the harsher gloom of disc 1 into something lighter, wolves howling in the background, hopeful synths, and then it fades into bells and finger-picking. What follows is a set of songs with sparse instrumentation and lots of room to breathe, thanks in no small part to Juuso Raatikainen’s drumming. It transports the listener to the sapphire lakes of Finland, taking in the glow of its midnight sun, gazing out at the yellow leaves in Autumn, and gazing up at unspoilt starlit skies.

It is about the timeless Beauty of Finland throughout the seasons, providing an insight into what the country and their ancestry means to the band – something a sunburnt resident of the sub-tropics has never experienced, but can glimpse through the music. Of particular note on this topic is the title track, which includes a Finnish chorus written to honour the memory of Juha’s father who passed away during the writing of the album3. The music states that there can be beauty following monumental sadness, life blooming anew after the frost of winter.

There is nothing overly complicated going on in this disc, there are eight songs, two of which are instrumentals, and the lyrics are fey and simple, delivered in a style that could be hit or miss. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if people are completely indifferent to this disc. But the tight, airy compositions and the varied vocals (which I personally love) perfectly set the mood and act as an intermission between Gloom and Despair. If this disc was separate, it would be in my topster, but alas, here we are with more justification for my choosing SftN for this project.

(10/10)

Despair: There is a review of this disc on Metal Archives4 that states this “is the perfection of funeral doom in my ears”, from someone who in the preceding sentences made clear they are “not that familiar with funeral doom metal” and that the only fun doom band they know is Ahab. So to them this disc may in fact be “dark, very dark. No, it is black! Blacker than black metal could ever be, black metal is grey compared to this. This is a void! A void captured with instruments and musicality, this is funeral doom metal.” But I digress.

This is simple fun doom done adequately enough, it isn’t perfect, it isn’t a void, it isn’t even particularly dark. At times it is crushing, but it always has the melodic gloom of Swallow the Sun built-in, so it is still funereal, but never particularly slow, plodding, and heavy5, with ‘7 Hours Late’ being the closest to classic fun doom.

‘The Gathering of Black Moths’ signals a sudden end to Beauty, with low and slow vocals pairing with a plodding riff and tremolo leads from Juha and Markus Jämsen, excellent drumwork from Juuso, Matti Honkonen is presumably playing bass in there somewhere, and an epic, almost battle horn sound, out of Alekso Munter’s keyboards. All of which enhance Mikko’s guttural screams in moments like “For a thousand years of suffering”.

‘Empires of Loneliness’ is one of my all-time favourite songs, buried deep within this triple album. The song is interlaced with some spoken word sections provided by Nathan Ellis (of Daylight Dies fame, not the Australian cricketer) that will likely annoy people and provide a bit of a laugh at the cringiness (e.g., the part with the butterfly), but to me this song is the highlight of the album. The melodic sections are cranked to 11, the guitar solo is lit, the pinch harmonics punctuate the weight of the lyrics, and the double kick gets the head banging. The way Mikko screams and provides emphasis on lyrics like “Like birds so black, high above with their all seeing eyes, the halo of their stares” and “The low rumbling sound of a train”… Goosebumps.

What makes this disc so tight is the interweaving themes in each song and recurring motifs from earlier in the album. ‘7 Hours Late’ calls forward to ‘Empires of Loneliness’, which itself refers to the black moths. ‘Abandoned by the Light’ screams out to Saint Peter for salvation like in the opening lines of ‘With You Came the Whole of the World’s Tears’. ‘The Clouds Prepare for Battle’ is about possessing the strength to overcome fear, and taking winter’s throne, established in ‘Songs from the North’. These recurring motifs help coalesce this monolithic, 2.5 hour piece of work into something easier to stomach.

‘The Clouds Prepare for Battle’ is an epic closer to an epic album, with Mikko’s on fleek screams, punctuated by tremolos and plodding guitars, telling the listener that they have overcome their fear. Likely the fear built up in all of you when my choice of album was revealed to you. All you have left now is your anger and strength, rallying against me, rising up to take my throne.

(8/10)

I do feel somewhat bad for choosing a 2.5 hour album for this project, but no other album meets the brief better for me. Besides, last year’s project (not chosen by me) featured several albums of greater length and significantly worse quality, so I also don’t care. If I can listen to this album several times in a week, you can all listen to it at least once6.

Parts of this album are easily perfect in my mind, and while I doubt anyone will get the same enjoyment that has built up over years of listening for me, I hope that perhaps a couple of the songs will leave their mark on people. As it stands, this is an album to return to in parts, either seeking out a single disc or a handful of songs depending on mood. Listening to the entire album in one-sitting could be considered folly, and while that is what we do here and that is the desire of the band, I do not recommend doing so without at least a piss break in between discs.

Songs from the North is a portfolio of what Swallow the Sun, and in particular Juha and Mikko, can do and stand for. It gives a good insight into their capabilities and in some ways is the pinnacle of what the band will ever achieve – they have certainly descended into mediocrity since its release. In my opinion SftN contains Swallow the Sun’s highest highs, it’s just a shame there is so much of it in one package7.

Verdict: 8/10

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1 Mind the creases in my bed linen. Clockwise: Gloom, Beauty, and Despair, with Despair looking especially judgemental, like the Skinner ‘Pathetic’ meme.

2 See: Hallatar in the beautiful and well endowed Abso’s topster. Aleah also took the cover photos for the albums, featuring model Valentine Reltien.

3 See: https://www.rockeramagazine.com/exclusive-interview-with-juha-raivio/

4 See: https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Swallow_the_Sun/Songs_from_the_North_I%2C_II_%26_III/534606/Dying_Hope/277680

5 So no fucking complaints from the fun doom haters.

6 Or not, depends how weak you are.

7 No woman has ever complained about that with me.