Swedish post-metal duo A Swarm of the Sun have shared an epic eighteen-minute track ‘The Pyre’, taken from their much-anticipated 4th studio album, ‘An Empire’, due September 6th via Berlin’s Pelagic Records.
Returning from time apart to a world forever changed, ‘An Empire’ sees Erik Nilsson and Jakob Berglund of A Swarm of the Sun continue the compositional narrative thread seen on their breathtaking 2019 album ‘The Woods’; imbued with a brooding sense of melancholy that allows the band to dig ever deeper into ideas of desolation and despair whilst a newfound lyrical focus adds a tenderness that is as heartwarming as it is harrowing.
With the early bones of ‘An Empire’ tabled by events beyond their control in 2019, Erik and Jakob came together years later and scrapped them in favour of creating something entirely new; something distinctly different to break the cycle, defy categorisation and reflect the uncomfortable uncertainties of the times we now live in. The result is astounding, a six-track tale told in four distinct movements that are nothing short of devastating, as the band’s unique sonic palette flows from plaintive piano ballads to raw, full-band fury, whilst crucially leaving latent space for Jakob’s voice to shine.
Eighteen-minute epic ‘The Pyre’ represents Side B of ‘An Empire’ with the confessional intimacy of a waltz-time ballad; the raw, wavering emotion of Jakob’s words accompanied only by a haunting, lilting piano refrain before it too is consumed by the bittersweet wall of sound to leave only embers of the apocalyptic lyrics in its wake.
Written, composed and arranged without compromise for the sake of convenience or familiarity, A Swarm of the Sun have delicately balanced ‘An Empire’ between the familiar and alien in a significant evolution of their already indelible post-metal sound. With increasingly bleak times forcing the band to reassess their relationship with creativity and suffering, this new body of work captures all the anthemic, intimate highs and crushing, debilitating lows of modern life on a knife edge.
‘An Empire’ is released on 6th September.
‘The Pyre’ is out now.
A Swarm of the Sun on ‘The Pyre’:
“The Pyre is an encapsulation of everything we wanted the new album to be. Quieter in quiet parts, heavier in the heavy parts. We took this as far as it needed.”
