Swallow The Sun's latest album is an impressive one. Expecting a standard doom release, the diversity and quality of the music was a nice surprise. This is the third CD from the Finnish band.
Hope takes the listener on a nearly hour long journey through many styles, tempos and emotions. Sometimes dark, heavy and plodding, sometimes introspective and delicate, it's an epic that's melancholy and somber. The heavier parts of the songs have a death metal influence, and the melodic parts are almost progressive. You'll be reminded of everyone from Katatonia to Opeth to Novembers Doom.
The vocals on the album are just as diverse as the music. There's a combination of death metal growls, higher pitched screams and mellow melodic baritone singing. A great mix of darkness and light, heaviness and melody, this is an outstanding metal album.
