Liste des groupes Doom Death Swallow The Sun Plague of Butterflies

"Plague of Butterflies" is Swallow the Sun's latest release, featuring four tracks from their demo in 2003 as well as the title track, lasting about 35 minutes. The main track consists of three chapters: Losing the Sunsets, Plague of Butterflies, and Evael. This release, to me, is maybe not their best but definitely the most epic they've written to date.

The first few seconds of the title track feature some wind howling and other atmospheric sounds to try to set the cold, dark tone and scene that the story told by this track is trying to evoke. Shortly thereafter the guitars come in very quietly and undistorted, slowly getting more and more intense. The other guitar, bass, and drums come in at about the 2 minute mark and the track really gets going. It's very heavy, very well produced, and comes full force. It's still at the typical death/doom speed, (which is not fast at all) but isn't so slow that it's going to put you to sleep. Mikko's vocals in this track start clean and calm, and by the pre-chorus they go to his typical low, grumbling death growl that he uses in all the previous releases. His growl is probably the most inhuman one I've ever heard by anyone, with the exception of maybe John Paradiso from Evoken in some instances. The vocal work on this album, I would say, is very good and matches the style well.

The drumming in this is well produced, and Pasi Pasanen proves to be one of the best doom/death drummers out there. To me, his cymbal work is always worth some attention, as well as his fills. He doesn't always do the typical "around the kit" fill that most guys do, just playing from the highest to lowest tom and then finishing it off with a bass and crash. He has sort of a sporadic, "random" fill style that incorporates the entire drum kit. The end of the second chapter of the first track, he plays a real unique splash cymbal fill that ends the track well.

The guitar and bass work in this are indeed slow in a lot of places, but are also still able to keep you interested throughout the track. The bass is very prevalent in the second chapter of the title track at the "bridge" section where the guitars and drums really slow down and get quiet, and the bass has a section where it stands out and carries the song along. Overall the guitar work is very good, you have to hear it to really appreciate it.

This isn't the best review on earth, but it's also my first one. I would give this album probably a 19/20 at the lowest, and is definitely one of the best death/doom releases in a while.