Swallow The Sun: A Light In The Dark

“Winter is coming,” asserts Juha Raivo, bandleader and main songwriter of SWALLOW THE SUN, with more than a dollop of typically dry Nordic wit, when asked how he’s doing. “Winter is beautiful when there’s ice and snow but we’re in that bit where it’s just rain and mud so it’s rough. But yeah, I’m okay,” he chuckles. Originally from Finland, he now lives among the forests of neighbouring Sweden, and despite the onset of a long and brutal winter, he has a lot to be cheerful for. His band have just released their ninth studio album, Shining, an epic slab of crystalline death-doom that while retaining their trademark melancholy, also saw them experimenting with a wider, more accessible sonic palette.

As is often the case when a band who, like SWALLOW THE SUN, have an established and devoted fan-base built over the span of a couple decades, decides to mix things up a bit, the response has been mixed. While generally lauded for the brilliant piece of work it is by critics, some fans have apparently found things to complain about.

“Some people love it and some people hate it. I think for some it has come as a bit of a shock. But for me it’s amazing to get that kind of feedback from both sides. I love that about art and music. It shows that people care. For me, we do music for ourselves so the feedback doesn’t matter that much. It sounds cliched but that’s the way it is. That’s just the way I write music. It comes from a personal place and my process as a songwriter has never been to think about what people will like or what’s popular at the moment. There’s always been a huge variety in the music we make and it’s clear that we don’t ever play it safe.”

The inevitable haters aside, the majority of SWALLOW THE SUN‘s fanbase will have embraced the fact that Juha and his bandmates have continued to push their sound forward.

“I never have any particular vision for an album and I always say the newest album could be the last as I don’t know whether the music will come to me again. I don’t sit at home writing thousands of riffs. I live in the forest surrounded by nature and the music is in my mind. I don’t try to force it and when the time comes to put the music down it all happens so fast that I barely remember it happening.”

Shining does act as a natural progression from its predecessor Moonflowers in that it is much melody driven than the band’s earlier work, which were all about crushing riffs. “I love riffs. I’m a riff guy and I love the riffs on those first three albums. But recently I’ve been seeing the music as more of a palette and trying to look more at the bigger picture.”

Helping him to translate that picture into a fully realised piece of art was producer extraordinaire Dan Lancaster, whose CV includes the likes of chart bothering rock acts MUSE, BRING ME THE HORIZON and DON BROCO. It was the master touches of a world class producer that elevated Shining above its predecessors.

“The guy is a genius. It was amazing working with him. He didn’t touch the music either. 99.9% of the music on the record is what I handed to him on the demos but with everything else he made a huge difference. It would be a very different album without him. He gave it that modern, crisp sound. This album needed to have a different kind of power and he comes from a completely different world from a band like us. I said to our management that we want to work with someone who wasn’t just another metal producer making a million of the same songs, or what would be the point?”

Parallels have been drawn between SWALLOW THE SUN working with Dan Lancaster to when METALLICA began working with Bob Rock on their self-titled album to achieve a much more commercial but no less heavy hitting sound, that wasn’t without its fair share of detractors at the time. “When we got the first mixes back, Matti [Honkonnen, bass] said it was like the Black Album of death-doom and I loved that. I remember those times when the Black Album came out and a lot of people were like ‘what the fuck is this shit?’ But that’s the way it is sometimes when you love a band, you feel like you own it in a strange way. And that’s why it can bring these emotions out. It’s like if you suddenly have a family member that walks in with a different haircut. It’s the same person that you love but with a different hairstyle. And with a band it might be a shock but there is still beautiful things in the music.”

While the crisper sound and modern production techniques may be a point of difference for listeners, Juha doesn’t feel it’s too drastic a departure from the band’s tried and tested approach to songwriting. “For me as a songwriter this album is totally normal. There are other things in the production that might catch your ear and you’re like ‘what’s going on there?’ but as for the music it’s strange to me that it is seen as being so different.”

One thing that does stand out is the attention to detail that has been placed on the vocal melodies provided by singer Mikko Kottamaki and the layers upon layers of haunting harmony that give them a rich and otherworldly feel.

“Dan was a huge part of that. He brought an element of QUEEN to the album. If you hear in the choruses they sound huge. We have always had harmonies and backing vocals but now it’s like times 100. He’s an amazing singer and comes from a world where melody is king and that’s what we wanted because I love ALICE IN CHAINS and DEPECHE MODE mode where there’s lots of harmony. There’s been a lot of people who think it is autotune and have complained about the amount of effects on Mikko’s voice but it’s actually Dan singing layers of harmony and blending them together so it almost sounds like a keyboard.”

One thing is for sure, Shining sparkles with life and newfound energy, bringing a beacon of hope to SWALLOW THE SUN’s otherwise melancholic oeuvre.

Shining is out now via Century Media Records. 

Like SWALLOW THE SUN on Facebook.