We are nearing the end of summer. The sun is setting earlier each day, nighttime staying longer.  It’s during these times where the melancholy sets in, the onset of the quiet begins to lift its head. It’s in this space where A Swarm of the Sun (A Swarm) exists, its newest release An Empire captivating the listener by keeping them bound to its soundscape.

Now, I think An Empire is better experienced and enjoyed blind – it would be a disservice to this album if I were to simply review it. So if you can indulge me, I have a lot of things to say in a manner best described as a stream of consciousness.

When I first listened to An Empire, I expected this album to be more akin to labelmates The Ocean’s Phanerozoic II or Playgrounded’s The Death of Death, intense albums with a vast sonic palette that extends beyond the confines of its themes. I was expecting an album that was grand and filled with walls of sound that would render me speechless. Post-metal is an exciting genre to me, one where there is always something new to discover. An Empire does not fit this descriptor. It is at its core pure sonic intensity, its palette remaining confined in elements of drone and ambient post-metal that speaks of both solace and desolation. This is a mainly instrumental album, carried along its current by the various instruments A Swarm uses to create a quiet, lush soundscape. What vocals there are are used sparingly – moving things forward, punctuating certain music passages. For example, about halfway through “Heathen”, Jakob Berglund’s voice appears as if out of the void, a small reward for not getting lost. The vocals never take away from the music’s immersive nature, becoming more and more of an instrument than just a voice singing a lyric. This distinction carries into other tracks, where the voice is a part of a whole, rather than just its own isolated descriptor.

An Empire is a slow burn, music that drags, but not in the same way as something like Norna would do. It’s slow because it wants to present an idea and continue building while it has the time and space to do so, not because it has acid left to spew. It wants you to invest your time in it, to sink deep into its comfortable darkness. It’s through this darkness that A Swarm manages to pull more tricks from its sleeve: it begins to incorporate more and more traditional post-metal elements. It begins to show teeth, the music becoming intense and heavy halfway through. Things begin to pick up on “The Burning Wall,” a song whose main shift lies in its tempo change and the usage of more instruments. The music then picks up more and more distortion, until it culminates into this cacophonous wall of sound that gives An Empire a pulse. Granted, you knew something was coming, but you were not expecting this intensity of sound.

It’s hard to compare An Empire to anything else out there. You search for musical references in similar bands, like Caspian and Cult of Luna, but the closest connection I can think of is Sólstafir. An Empire is a highly spiritual and reverent piece of work that shines because of what came before, a stunning album that showcases so much within its runtime. Dynamic, melancholic, and ethereal, An Empire is best experienced blind – let it take you below the surface and immerse you in the lake.

–Hera

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An Empire is available September 6 on Pelagic Records. For more information on A Swarm of the Sun, visit their official Facebook and Instagram.