Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Swallow the Sun - Moonflowers (2021)

The tragedy that encompasses the content of this album is an impossible level of suffering for me to understand, both for Aleah Stanbridge herself and also Juha Raivio.  The album makes a strong case for helping me to at least try to fathom the anguish and desolation that the horrible loss of someone you are really close to and the ongoing grief.  Indeed, part of the success of Moonflowers is that it does not simply dwell in acoustic ballads draped in gothic shrouds.  The album takes time to explore a variety of genres and styles whilst still staying true to it melancholic and melodic gothic/doom tropes, as the band seek various pastures from which to showcase the tumultuous emotion at the centre of the record.

For the most part it works.  I am going to go on record as saying that my least favourite aspect to the album are Mikko Kotamäki vocal's.  However, the instrumentation is absolutely sublime in all of its shadowy textures and ethereal melodicism.  I cannot help but be absolutely enchanted by those guitar leads and those chunky, simplistic and yet so effective riffs. The elements of symphonia are presented so eloquently that it is impossible not to be taken in the dense mournful atmospheres that they create.  Tracks like Woven Into Sorrow and All Hallows' Grieve are absolute masterpieces of constantly shifting form and growing elements, some of which I miss after even a few listens through and continue to identify on later listens even now.

I do however get the sense that Mikko is tested beyond his capabilities on more than one occasion.  This is not necessarily a challenge of his range (no Halford heroics needed here folks), more that I find his vocals at times lack conviction.  This is especially true of the death metal vocals he deploys which border on contrived for me.  Were it not for the obvious brilliance going on virtually everywhere else on the album then this could become an issue that would certainly pull down the rating of the record by a couple of stars.  Thankfully the combination of the musicianship and the guest appearances (in particular Cammie Gilbert form Oceans of Slumber on All Hallows' Grieve) offer more than sufficient compensation here.

Moonflowers is my first venture into the music of Swallow the Sun and despite my vocal gripes there is more than enough here to snare my interest in the wider discography of the group.