Review by Vinny for Swallowed - Lunarterial (2014)

“Caverncore”, the 2010’s movement borne out of bands taking the sounds of Incantation and maxing out the reverb was my bag at the time. Having notched up around two decades of listening to death metal already, this sub-genre at least gave me something new to listen to that walked the fine line between blackened death metal and death doom. Except, depending on the levels of saturation the average death metal fan was willing to go to into this realm, the frantic squall of Portal was to be found in the darkest corners of this new soundscape. Bands like Finland’s Swallowed, had zero qualms about taking the extremity of metal’s most alienating sounds and incorporating them alongside more traditional tropes.

My theme for the feature releases I have picked this month has been single album bands who split thereafter. A “tragedy” themed month, I guess. This certainly resonates with Swallowed. The duo of Ville Kojonen (drums and vocals) and Samu Salovaara (guitars and vocals) employed a dirge of bassists for Lunarterial as well as guest drummers, guitarists and vocalists. In essence they created a real moment in time record given that not all those same musicians (five of them) would likely be in the same studio as the two mainstays of the band. As such, Lunarterial is a one-of-a-kind record within a one-of-a-kind sub-genre. I have no idea who is babbling the tormented vocals on each track, who is torturing the guitar, punishing the drums or contributing to the maelstrom of chaos that constitutes this beastly record.

Far from being a total abandonment of order, Lunarterial had a very set and individual path set out for itself. The fact that this path may have been an aberration to many potential listeners mattered not. You can easily hear the death metal, you can track the doomy pacing and reel at the blackened, caustic guitar sounds, but can you fathom the depths of depravity behind the heinous mix that is done across the record? Unlike an art-based project, which is how I view Imperial Triumphant, Swallowed simply strive to immerse the listener in chaos, leaving them to fathom what they can. Tracks like the twenty-five-minute closer, ‘Libations’ are a stretch too far even for me, yet I absolutely am not surprised that this album not only takes me to the limits of my love of extremity but also seeks to push me out of my comfort zone.