SWALLOW THE SUN

When A Shadow Is Forced Into The Light CENTURY MEDIA

Created in the depths of the grieving process, STS’S founding guitarist Juha Raivio raised the bar for emotional intensity with this bleak masterwork, sharpening all of the tools that made gothic doom-death the most affecting and profound of metal’s many subgenres. Every level of the elegant recording rammed home the anguish and melancholy, but the album’s sumptuous quality elicited joy amid the pain.