SWALLOW THE SUN
VENUE The unDerWorlD, lonDon
DATE 06/05/2019
SUPPORT oCeans oF slumber
If there’s a theme for tonight, it’s baring the soul. texan progressive metallers oceans of Slumber take to the stage in a haze of dry ice, and all eyes are immediately focused on singer Cammie gilbert, whose rich voice quietly unfurls through the building tension of Sunlight. arms outstretched and swaying to the music, she’s a calm, authoritative presence. the venue’s not full – most likely because it’s a bank holiday Monday – and the clattering drumming often overpowers her vocals, but the crowd devotedly cheer and clap along to the riffs. Most of oceans of Slumber’s set comes from their stunning current album, the Banished Heart, and they close with what Cammie describes as their “saddest song”, no Color, no Light. “if i cry, you have to cry too, that’s how this works,” she quips. Despite its chilling tone, the communal experience feels uplifting.
Finnish dark prog metallers Swallow the Sun ratchet up the drama. they similarly emerge from dry ice, but with black hoods up and accompanied by the sound of chanting monks. it’s been three years since they played London, and a lot has happened. in april 2016, founding guitarist juha raivo lost his partner, aleah Starbridge, to cancer. the band released the harrowing eP Lumina aurea last December, before putting out their seventh album, When a Shadow is Forced into the Light, in january. juha described it as a “victorious and proud” counterpart that proves “love is always stronger than death”.
they open with the title track, moving between the shadows and blue light onstage, wrapped in the grandiose guitar parts. it is arresting. Soon the album’s doomy-yet-catchy single
Firelight is greeted with a singalong, already sounding like a classic. there’s a sense that everyone here is rooting for the band, as well as being unafraid to experience their own catharsis.
During Cathedral Walls, from 2012’s emerald Forest and the Blackbird and featuring a recording of ex-nightwish singer anette olzon, a hardened-looking metalhead bellows out the lyrics. But the most heart-wrenching moment is new track Stone Wings, featuring some achingly beautiful lyrics: ‘the fires are burning, under starlight/ through veils of golden light/the sails so pure, so white/through the river of death/i carry you, my love.’ at its close, singer Mikko kotamäki’s scream merges with juha’s.
new members juho räihä (rhythm guitar) and jaani Peuhu (keyboards) fit seamlessly into the line-up, but the finale is a callback to Swallow the Sun’s more extreme past, with the windmillworthy Deadly nightshade and usual closer Swallow (Horror Pt. 1). as the lights come up, we’re left emotionally drained but satisfied.