https://www.last.fm/music/A+Swarm+of+the+Sun/_/Lifeline
Carcharodon and Cherdâs Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Carcharodon
Carcharodon
Iâve been writing here since 2018. This has been the hardest year to date. I feel like I say this every year right around this time but, for whatever reason, Iâve really struggled this year to find the motivation and inspiration to write. Indeed, Iâve often felt that I lacked the passion for the music. Rather than exploring the murkier depths of Bandcamp, I was often to be found in the company of old, non-metal friends like Nick Cave, 16 Horsepower and Tom Waits.
Despite my disappointment with the world, most of which is on literal or metaphorical fire, and my disillusionment with people, whose choices have caused most of that, there were bright glimmers. The phenomenal response to our Gondor-esque call for aid, when Kenstrosityâs life was ripped apart by Hurricane Helene, reassured me there are still a few good people out there, a good number of whom read this blog.
Still, I managed to turn out a few reviews this year, including my first ever 5.0âmore of which belowâwhich was worth it for the Steel Ire it evoked alone. And there was the Fifteenalia, a celebration the like of which we will not see again (for obvious reasons), which I had the honour of steering from questionable inception to creaky delivery.
Ironically, despite my struggles on the writing front, This Place has played a significant part in keeping me sane. Itâs been tolerable to welcome a few new staffersâsome even raised up from the awful Place Belowâto our serried ranks, while the older hands feel almost like family at this point, with everything that that entails. As ever, particular thanks go to Steel Druhm for his tireless intimidation, which just about keeps us honest, while Dolph, Dear Hollow, El Cuervo, Grier, Maddog, Sentynel and Thus Spoke, among others, have proved adequate companions for banter and gigs.
And with that, I wish you all the happiest of Listurnalias.
#ish. Pillar of Light // Caldera â A very late entry to this list, Pillar of Light should be a cautionary tale to bands and labels: release your shit earlier! With more time, the stunning Amenra-meets-Cult of Luna post-misery of Caldera could easily have placed in the top half of this list. While I know this is an album I will come to love and fully expect to regret not placing it higher here, the reality is that other entries have had longer to sink their hooks into me. I will just say that, for me, the apparently divisive vocals are a perfect fit for Pillar of Lightâs style.
#10. Seth // La France des Maudits â Way back when,1 French black metallers Seth snuck onto my list of Honorable Mentions with La Morsure du Christ, a fantastic return to form after a lengthy absence. After a short gap, theyâre back and this yearâs La France des Maudits has cracked the list proper. Melodic, bordering on symphonic with the keys and choral arrangements, but also visceral and feral, Seth dropped an absolute banger. It doesnât hurt that, as Thus Spoke pointed out in her review, itâs âdownright impressive how rich and dynamic this sounds.â
#9. The Vision Bleak // Weird Tales â The Vision Bleak is not, to paraphrase Dr Grier, a band that has ever âgotâ me. Or perhaps, Iâve never got them. But Weird Tales resonated with me enormously. And perhaps thatâs because itâs not really like anything The Vision Bleak has done before. Structuring their gothic black metal (or should that be blackened goth metal?) into a single, flowing song (albeit one broken into parts) got my attention. But they held my attention because they actually managed to pull off this very-hard-to-execute vision. Weird Talesâ Type O Negative / Moonspell-inspired blackened sound clicked into place almost instantly for me and now I need to go back to TVBâs discography with newly-opened eyes.
#8. Necrowretch // Swords of Dajjal â The first 4.0 I delivered in an alarmingly high-scoring year, Necrowretchâs black-death fusion is something that I have returned to again. Hiding beneath the vicious, downright nasty surface of Swords of Dajjal, is a surprisingly subtle and well-crafted concept album. As I said in my review, there is zero bloat or filler on this record, which blazes with intensity, driven as much by the scything, razor-sharp riffs as the rasping, sepulchral vocals. The range of influences cited, both by me and by impressed commenters, shows how many different aspects there are to this killer record.
#7. Panzerfaust // The Suns of Perdition â Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion â After Chapter III: The Astral Drain, I was worried that Panzerfaust were running out of steam and inspiration to close out The Suns of Perdition saga. Thankfully, my concerns were misplaced. To Shadow Zion reeks of doom and destiny. Huge, brooding and intense, it is a captivating listen, with the stunning âThe Damascene Conversionsâ sitting at its heart. From the sulfuric vocals to the masterful drumming, this was a worthy final chapter for The Suns of Perdition, which must go down as one of the best executed, most consistent multi-album concept pieces in metal.
#6. Spectral Wound // Songs of Blood and Mire â Spectral Wound just canât miss. For a band that, superficially at least, plays fairly old school black metal, songwriting chops paired with brilliant execution mean these guys are anything but derivative. My favourite album of theirs to date, Songs of Blood and Mire is just tons of wicked, nasty fun. Itâs hard to say exactly why, but I feel like everything Spectral Wound does has a slight knowing wink to it, which suggests that the band doesnât take itself too seriously. For me, this is a huge positive, as a lot of black metal is so tediously earnest, where this is unflinchingly harsh, surprisingly melodic and drowning in swaggering groove. Great stuff.
#5. Mother of Graves // The Periapt of Absence â Iâm a sucker for death doom. And The Periapt of Absence is some fucking great death doom. Mother of Graves were unknown to me before I stumbled across this album but their blending of old school Opeth (think somewhere between Morningrise and Orchid) with early Katatonia and Paradise Lost, plus a sprinkling of Clouds is stunning. All wrapped up in a pleasingly tight package, Mother of Graves smother the listener in unflinching, heartwrenching misery. And I love every minute of it. Itâs that Peaceville Three sound we love, but feeling fresh, vibrant and vital.
#4. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair â Me and death metal donât always see eye to eye, and the last Devenial Verdict left only a passing impression. But Thus Spokeâs tireless tongue-bathing promotion of Blessing of Despair convinced me to give it a chance. While I enjoy the stomping thuggery of Devenial Verdictâs dissonant death well enough, itâs the sudden mood swings into what TS described as âlethally graceful restraintâ that really hooked me. Although worlds apart stylistically, on Blessing of Despair DV achieved what Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean did on Obsession Destruction: knowing precisely how far to push the suffocating, claustrophobic heaviness, before taking their foot off your throat for a minute. Then stamping on it again.
#3. Julie Christmas // Ridiculous and Full of Blood â Maddog predicted that I would lambast him as an underrating bastard for the 3.5 he deigned to award Ms Christmas. And he was quite correct. Heâs a charlatan of the highest order. However, even Iâm surprised by how high Ridiculous and Full of Blood has landed here. But, as someone not given to overly emotional reactions to music, Iâm continually stunned by the reactions JulieâCan I call you Julie? No? Okâextracts from me. Iâm often on the edge of tears by the end of âThe Lighthouse,â just like that cad Maddog, while the likes of âNot Enoughâ and âEnd of the Worldâ (the latter with CoLâs Johannes Persson) have a scary edge to them, with Christmas at her maniacal, crooning, possessed, unpredictable best.
#2. A Swarm of the Sun // An Empire â Speaking of emotional responses, A Swarm of the Sunâs stripped back melancholy is right up there. If I say that An Empire is brighter and more uplifting than previous efforts The Rifts and The Woods, understand that this is a very relative statement. An Empire is drowning in sorrow and misery, and yet there is just a hint of brightness that shimmers and hovers around the edges, like a lunar halo. Slow and deliberate, haunting and cathartic, A Swarm of the Sunâs latest outing is just beautiful. End of. No discussion.2
#1. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe â Yâall know I dropped a 5.0 on Die Urkatastophe, so itâs no surprise to find it here, sitting pretty, atop my list. Thereâs not much more praise that I can heap on Kanonenfieberâs sophomore record than I already did in my review. For me, it has everything and is more than I dared hope for as a follow up to my beloved MenschenmĂŒhle (my album of the year for 2021). It is brutal and vicious (âPanzerhenkerâ and âAusblutingsschlachtâ), anthemic (âDer Maulwurfâ and âMenschenmĂŒhleâ) and more. Craftedâand yes, that is the correct wordâwith huge skill and attention to detail, it is the storytelling, based on original source materials, that elevates this record to the next level for me. And if you donât speak German, or are simply not into narrative in your metal, just go bang your fucking head to âGott mit der Kavallerieâ!
Honorable mentions In alphabetical order by band:
Surprises oâ the Year Ordered by most astounding first:
Disappointment oâ the Year Limited to a single musical disappointment, to avoid submitting a lengthy thesis:
Songs oâ the Year
Cherd
Twenty-twenty-four was certainly a year that followed previous years and will precede still others. When I look back, Iâll likely remember it as the year I discovered the wonders of ADHD medication after decades of non-treatment, the difficult transition my poor Cherdlet experienced from kindergarten to first grade, and the incredible bucket list trip my wife and I took to Toronto to watch our favorite TV franchise filming new content courtesy of my very important Hollywood connections. No, not Robert Downey Jr. Much more important and better-looking. Hmm? Margot Robbie? She wishes. I also had the pleasure of meeting several of my fellow writers in person, and they are all much homelier than they let on with the exception of Madam X, who is a goddamned ray of sunshine.
On the musical front, I was able to check two bands off my âneed to see liveâ list in Judas Priest and Archspire, whereby I discovered that Halford does exactly zero audience banter, and Archspire do nothing but. Fun shows, both. I didnât listen to as much new music by volume this year than I have in previous years when Iâd log between 200 and 400 releases, and that was largely due to my kidâs age and the level of interaction he needs. I have a feeling, however, that 2025 will see an uptick thanks to the new Heavys headphones I got for Christmas this year. As always, I want to thank the editors, particularly Steel Druhm and Doc Grier, for not sending me a mailbomb after all the late reviews I turned in (Iâll work on that in 2025), and the man himself, AMG, for building this community and for agreeing that Deep Space Nine is the best Star Trek show.4
(ish) Chat Pile // Cool World â This is what it sounds like when Chat Pile make a âmatureâ record. As I noted in my October review, some of the most glaring weirdness and black humor the band is known for is missing in Cool World, which is why itâs here on my list instead of matching the lofty heights of my 2022 AOTY Godâs Country. That said, this is consistently bleak in a way I like, and it boasts what are in my opinion the two bestâif not most memorableâsongs the band have written to date in âNew Worldâ and âMasc.â Iâm a sucker for these Oklahomans and look forward to how their sound evolves from here.
#10. Glacial Tomb // Lightless Expanse â Iâve had an up and down journey with Glacial Tombâs sophomore record, but that doesnât mean I donât still view this as one of the best things Iâve listened to this year. To consider a record this closely means you have to listen to it a lot, and I wouldnât be surprised if I logged more hours with Lightless Expanse than with any other album. Iâve made a big deal about the one-three punch of âVoidwomb/Enshrined in Concrete/Abyssal Hostâ, but it bears repeating since itâs my favorite consecutive stretch of death metal in 2024.
#9. Replicant // Infinite Mortality â If you peel back the veneer of disso-death and blackened blasts on Infinite Mortality, youâll find a pounding hardcore heart comprised of equal parts beatdown and Converge. As technical as this music gets, and there is a lot going on here, Replicant never forget their primary duty as a metal band: snapping necks. On their third album, theyâve exquisitely composed a missive to unbridled aggression. I completely missed their previous albums, so Iâm glad our Kenfren wouldnât shut his excitable yap about this one.
#8. Spectral Voice // Sparagmos â âAlright skaters! This is the end of our free skate period. Weâd like to once again thank you for spending your Saturday with us here at Family Fun Roller Rink and Arcade. Itâs time to slow things down, down, way down, and you know what that means. Thatâs right, itâs couplesâ skate. So, find that special someone you want to be interred on a cold stone slab with, gaze into each otherâs empty eye sockets, and make your way around the rink as wave after wave of Spectral Voiceâs death/funeral doom forcefully separates you from any light, hope, or happiness this wretched world might have accidentally given you. Remember, those who survive the next 45 minutes of tectonic plates colliding will get the chance to compete in roller limbo!â
#7. Crypt Sermon // The Stygian Rose â Despite being one of the biggest doom apologists on this site, Crypt Sermon failed to grab me with their highly acclaimed debut nearly ten years ago. I chalk this up to my unfamiliarity with the traditional doom style at the time. In recent years, Iâve binged large amounts of Candlemass, Saint Vitus, Cathedral, Solitude Aeturnus et al., so I finally have the frame of reference to see just how well Crypt Sermonâs third LP captures the swagger, majesty, and grit of a style few contemporary bands seem interested in playing. After the growing pains displayed on The Ruins of Fading Light, these Philly natives have worked out the kinks and delivered an air-tight slab of doomy goodness.
#6. Full of Hell // Coagulated Bliss â I regret waiving my seniority claim to Full of Hell releases, thus allowing Dolph to snap up review duties for Coagulated Bliss. Itâs not that he did a bad job of reviewing the prolific experimental grind outfitâs latest. He did great, and he awarded it a deserved 4.0. But then he had the cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity, and the gumption to incorrectly lower his score. To make matters worse, it appeared nowhere on his year-end list. Not even a goll dern honorable mention. Iâve told him to his cetacean face that heâs wrong and Iâm likely to do so again because this is Full of Hellâs best work since Trumpeting Ecstasy. In fact, it might be better.
#5. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God â For most of their existence, Ulcerate was a highly acclaimed band that I just couldnât get into. That changed four years ago with the release of Stare into Death and Be Still. Little changed in their intricate approach to dissonant death metal, but there was something warmer and more human to what I had previously considered a rather detached style. That trend continues with Cutting the Throat of God. I find this record best when taken as a whole, letting the experience unfold over the full runtime, like dream-walking through a hedge maze or being trapped in a velvet sack and discovering itâs much larger on the inside.5
#4. Thou // Umbilical â I waited a long time for a chance to review a new record by Thou, and when it finally came, they did not disappoint. As I said in my June review, âLike their chimerical American metal brethren Inter Arma, it doesnât matter how many influences the band stuff into one album. They are all unified in sound under Thouâs banner. Bryan Funckâs acid-bit vocals are unmistakable and apparently unchangeable after 20 throat-shredding years. Also unchangeable? Thouâs ability to craft the most metallic-sounding guitar tone out there. As the standard bearer forâŠhell, as the entire sum of the second generation of Louisiana sludge, the sound theyâve forged isnât the kind of sloppy muck you may associate with the term. Itâs certainly thick, but it has a quality like two enormous steel I-beams violently striking each other.â If that doesnât sell Umbilical for you, then here is where our paths diverge.
#3. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair â I didnât listen to Blessing of Despair for several weeks after it came out in October despite the fact Devenial Verdictâs previous record, Ash Blind, made my year-end list in 2022. When I finally got around to it earlier in December, it threatened to blow the doors right off my still nebulous list, climbing fast and high until ultimately landing here at number three. There is more immediacy than on Ash Blind, which took me a while to warm up to. That doesnât mean the band skimps on the kind of thoughtful transitions and atmospherics theyâve come to be known for. Itâs just that Blessing of Despair HAZ THE RIFFS, including my favorite death metal riff of the year in âSolus.â
#2. Void Witch // Horripilating Presence â When I revisited Horripilating Presence with the purpose of sorting out this listâs pecking order, I expected death-doomers Void Witch to fall mid-to-late top 10. Obviously, the opposite happened. For the life of me I donât understand how this album didnât gain more traction amongst the other writers and you, the unwashed commentariat. As I said back in July, ââŠthe material on Horripilating Presence is Mohamed Ali levels of confident. The editing of ideas in each song and across the albumâs taut 39 minutes is masterful, especially for a debut. No song hews too closely to any of the others, but all are of a piece, locking comfortably into place like an intricate puzzle box, and Void Witch have such sights to show you.â
#1. Inter Arma // New Heaven â Inter Arma never miss. Aside from being one of the best live acts in metal, every album theyâve released going back to 2013âs Sky Burial has been one successful evolution after another. As a very wise reviewer once said, âTheyâre the same shaggy beast as ever, but beneath that matted, coarse coat is a rippling form mid-shape shift, stretching, pulling, and crossing back on itself constantly over the course of New Heavenâs shockingly concise 42 minutesâŠIf being all over the musical map sounds like a negative, youâve probably never heard an Inter Arma record before. It seems whatever they throw at the wall sticks, and the listening experience across their (usually much longer) records never feels uneven. This is because they play everything with the same smoldering intensity and volatile mean streak.â What a record.
Honorable Mentions:
Songs oâ the Year:
In alphabetical order by band:
#2024 #40WattSun #ASwarmOfTheSun #Anciients #BlogPosts #BlueHeron #CarcharodonAndCherdSTopTenIshOf2024 #ChatPile #Convulsing #CryptSermon #DevenialVerdict #FullOfHell #GlareOfTheSun #GrandMagus #InterArma #JulieChristmas #Kanonenfieber #Listurnalia #LordBuffalo #MotherOfGraves #Necrowretch #Nyktophobia #Opeth #Panzerfaust #PillarOfLight #Replicant #Selbst #Seth #Silhouette #SpectralVoice #SpectralWound #Sumac #TheVisionBleak #Thou #Ulcerate #VoidWitch #Vorga #ZealArdor
A Swarm of the Sun â An Empire [Things You Might Have Missed 2024]
By Carcharodon
âImagine the best parts of Katatonia, Anathema, My Dying Bride and Agalloch all submerged into a minimalist post-metal miasma, so thick not even the faintest ray of hope can penetrate.â This is how Steel Druhm invited us to envisage Swedish joy vampires A Swarm of the Sun, in his review of their second album, The Rifts. That review introduced me to A Swarm of the Sun and to that list I might add the claustrophobic, stripped-back sorrow of NONE. Despite being unflinchingly beautiful, The Rifts and its successor, The Woods, blanket and suffocate you, so that when you emerge after ⊠well, a period of time thatâs extremely hard to gauge, you feel like youâve been underwater, holding your breath longer than is comfortable and you surface, gasping for air. A Swarm of the Sunâs fourth LP, An Empire, is no different.
Talking to Grymm about An Empire, he said, in that way he has of cutting straight to the core of things, that itâs âincredible how gorgeous it is.â Heâs not wrong and, to be honest, I could have left this write-up of A Swarm of the Sunâs latest symphony of depression there. But, perhaps, I should attempt a long-form descriptor of why itâs so gorgeous. As with all previous outputs from Jakob Berglund and Erik Nilsson, the record feels like a single living composition, that moves, flows, and breathes. So, while it technically comprises six tracks, there was really no point in subdividing it, other than to label different movements within the whole. An Empire is not a record you pick a favorite track from to add to a playlist. The movements, spread over 71 minutes, range from sparse, haunting fare (âThis Will End in Fireâ) to heavier, post-doom (parts of âThe Pyreâ) and even mesmeric drone (title track). But separating it into its constituent elements somehow diminishes the album, while also failing to convey what it is.
As A Swarm of the Sun wend their way through An Empire, they build layer upon sunless layer. Speaking about the album, the band said that one early direction, when writing it, was to develop the albumâs instrumentation purely in terms of texture, and you can hear that. As the instrumentationâwhich includes everything from guitars, piano, and a variety of organs, through to synths, harmonium, musical saw, and tromboneâdevelops, the textures are so rich, even in the albumâs starkest moments, that you can almost bite into them. Consistent across the piece is Berglundâs distinctive crooning, which has a fragile, reedy, Billy Corgan-like (Smashing Pumpkins) quality, but one which is always threatening to crack with emotional strain. For the most part, this is set to stripped-back, ponderous keys, delicately plucked strings, and minimalist percussion falling somewhere between drone and the most post of post-metal.
However, while Berglundâs voice feels like a thread to clasp hold of across An Empire, there are extended instrumental passages to A Swarm of the Sunâs sound, which feel every part as emotive. The heavier, doom-adjacent parts of 18-minute epic âThe Pyre,â which are the closest thing to metal on An Empire, build for so long that youâre almost unaware of them, until they break over you like a wave. At which point itâs as though a valve has blown and all the pent-up pressure is released. Similarly, the rumbling drone, breathed into being by the dying gasp of a long sustained note from Berglund, which forms a chunk of the title track feels every bit as much a part of An Empire as the delicate keys that open âHeathen.â It would be easy to underestimate the songwriting skill and confidence that it takes to craft an album like An Empire. But its very simplicity is its haunting, despairing magic.
âItâs incredible how gorgeous it is.â â Grymm.
Tracks to Check Out: No, Iâm not doing this, youâll listen to the whole goddamn thing and youâll bloody well cry like I did!1
#ASwarmOfTheSun #Agalloch #AnEmpire #Anathema #AvanteGarde #DoomMetal #Drone #Katatonia #MyDyingBride #None #PelagicRecords #PostDoom #PostMetal #SwedishMetal #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2024 #TYMHM
#ASwarmOfTheSun: An Empire
https://album.link/c06hkj83hqpqt
Excellent for silent, introspective evenings, with a glass of wine in hand.
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#GhostCultMagazine
ALBUM REVIEW: A Swarm Of The Sun - An Empire - Ghost Cult Magazine
It doesnât take long at all to realize that A Swarm Of The Sun have a knack (and an ear) for the sprawling cinematic nature that absolutely thrives
https://ghostcultmag.com/album-review-a-swarm-of-the-sun-an-empire-pelagic-records/
đ Dive into the haunting beauty of A SWARM OF THE SUN's "An Empire" dropping on September 06!
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Just in time for @DXMacGuffin's #ProgTuesday:
#ASwarmOfTheSun: The Burning Wall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emjpOd7czEU
Invidious:
- AP: https://invidious.perennialte.ch/watch?v=emjpOd7czEU
- EU: https://yt.artemislena.eu/watch?v=emjpOd7czEU
- NA: https://inv.tux.pizza/watch?v=emjpOd7czEU
- SA: https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=emjpOd7czEU