Isolation, misery and despair. These are the grey building blocks A Swarm of the Sun use to craft their unique soundscapes of depression and suffering. The work of Erik Nilsson and Jakob Berglund, this project has explored the human experience in harrowing ways, most notably on 2015s masterpiece of pain, The Rifts. That album cut a hole in my soul like no other album ever did, even though I was in a good place in life at the time with no particular reason to bask in the suffocating despair the band so effortlessly conjures. Their sparse brand of post-rock/metal and quasi-doom is unlike anything else out there, possessed of a grim power that drains all the light and joy from the world, consigning you to endless cancer wards and funeral parlors to witness the grace and desperation that comes at the end of life. The Woods sees the dour duo return with another dose of downer post-rock, and it’s predictably bleak and unsettling.” The hearts of darkness.
Version Studio Records
A Swarm of the Sun – The Rifts Review
“As my home gets buried under layers of ice and snow, an album arrives to bring that same bleak midwinter experience to everyone, no matter how sunny and tropical their geo-positioning. A Swarm of the Sun is a deeply depressive post-metal, atmospheric doom duo from Sweden, and their sophomore album The Rifts brings you all the isolation, cold and melancholy of being trapped in a cabin surrounded by nothing but whiteness, death and frozen silence.” Tired of feeling positive and happy? This will fix that, maybe permanently.
The Isolation Process – The Isolation Process Review
“Are you one of those people who wish Paradise Lost never strayed from the sound of Draconian Times? If so, The Isolation Process has a belated Christmas/Festivus gift with your name on it. The eponymous debut from this Swedish three-piece made up of members of Lingua and Come Sleep (neither of which I ever heard of) features a style strikingly similar to that classic album, while adding select elements of Tool, Sinamore and To Die For. As gothic-tinged doom metal goes, that makes for quite the heady stew in which to dunk your biscuits of despair and oyster crackers of unresolved childhood issues.” Do you like Paradise Lost? If so, hug this album to your breast and sing it a sweet love song.
Aoria – The Constant Review
We finally found Steel Druhm’s secret hiding place located deep below the Earth’s crust and served him with a CEASE-AND-DESIST order banning all power metal reviews for a period to be determined. This made him sad, so now we get this review of the mega-gloomy, doom rock stylings of Aoria. Composed of members of Katatonia and October Tide, don’t expect a lot of sunshine here, but Steel seems to like it quite a bit.