where riffs? where growls?

WHERE METAL?

This isn't very good

@starboystargirl

They swallowed those too

Not really for me

This sucks

I cry back Ghost Brigade every night.

hope this is better than their last two albums

was waiting for someone to post this so i could dunk on it

sts has become one of my favorite bands with a lot of repeated listens of Moonflowers and Shadow, so to say this was a shock was an understatement

i described it to a friend as sts covering an imagine dragons song that doesn't exist

the fuck is this

The gothic version of Sound Of Silence

the vibrato effect on the vocals made me wince

this is so awful that it's almost fascinating - i wanna know what the fuck they were thinking

produced and mixed by a guy best known for working with Bring Me the Horizon, blink-182, Starset, and Enter Shikari

how does a collaboration like this even happen

tbh i do get the drastic change - after several albums of exactly the same vibe it makes sense for them to try something new. this just... ain't it though lmao. the extremely polished production really doesn't flatter them and if anything only highlights the flaws in their sound even clearer. not only that but there isn't much of a song beneath all that. extremely hollow and one-dimensional. you can't just pump everything up to 11 and expect your song to be good if there was nothing worthwhile there to begin with.

as a professional contrarian ill actually kinda like this song, just the drum sound is pretty horrenous.

the drum sound i think i can get used to but the vocal effects are hideous

Yeah expected something way worse, judging by the comments.

The ongoing guitar part reminded me of mid/end 90's Katatonia.

Production aside, song is pretty forgettable.

Production not aside, the whole mix is pretty bad. Too much crap on the verse vocals and ridiculously spaced. Snare sounds too flat for the verse and chorus. Chorus is so compressed, listen to the vocals drop and the whole thing pumping. Band deserves better, but the song itself is so bland it doesn't even matter.

no good

Katatonia vibes.

Really not that bad tbh, I'm pretty sure people were complaining when Paradise Lost, Anathema or Katatonia made softer music and people like these albums now.
Still it's fairly unremarkable for a lead single.

Song is fine, I don't really have a problem with it. I think the main thing holding it back is that it doesn't live up to the insanely high quality of everything Juha's put out since 2015 with StS (Songs from the North, Shadow, Moonflowers), Trees of Eternity and Hallatar. But you can't really keep up a high bar like that forever.

Also saying it sounds like modern Katatonia as if that's a bad thing tf are yall on

nah man, it's awful and you're being too charitable. the dude just isn't a good singer and all those extra effects only highlight that fact. not to say he isn't a good vocalist, his harsh vocals are great, but clean vocals just aren't one of his skills. cranking the production up to 11 just highlights the weaknesses in the band even further. the verses are legitimately hard to listen to and he does not have a powerful enough voice for a chorus like that. sts are a good band but they're lost when they don't play to their strengths and write songs other bands would perform a lot better.

it does sound like modern katatonia and that in and of itself isn't a bad thing but the difference is that katatonia would 100% perform this song better than they would. not saying katatonia are necessarily a better band but a song like this is does not suit StS whatsoever.

at best it's mid and at worst it's bewilderingly awful.

I think ya'll are being a bit dramatic about the tune, it's fine. That video though... fuck me. Terrible.

The drums sound like absolute ass. The vocals have this weird kind of sharp auto tune and phaser like effect going on, feels really awkward, considering I think that the dude is able to sing. That being said, the chorus and solo are solid. I think that it's funny that nobody stopped them from sounding this bad

i think mikko's cleans are pretty solid - at least as far as being utilized in how sts usually utilize them - but strongly agree that removing that context highlights that they don't work everywhere

"I think ya'll are being a bit dramatic about the tune, it's fine." [2]

Although I do agree with some points @DarkNoctus

"not to say he isn't a good vocalist, his harsh vocals are great, but clean vocals just aren't one of his skills." he's a solid if unexceptional clean singer but yeah they do work best in contrast to his growls

"it does sound like modern katatonia and that in and of itself isn't a bad thing but the difference is that katatonia would 100% perform this song better than they would. not saying katatonia are necessarily a better band but a song like this is does not suit StS whatsoever." also agree with this. if StS gave this song to katatonia they would crush it. I think I interpreted those comments made throughout this thread as "song is bad bc it sounds like new katatonia and new katatonia is bad" like yall. we've been over this.

Listening to it again, if I had any qualms with the song, it would be those above, along with it sounding a bit too polished and simple. I still think it's fine though. At best, good and at worst, mid.

Sounding like 2007 metalcore

yeah i think it's fair for me to correct what i said about mikko - what i meant to say is that he cannot sing what this song is expecting of him. he sounds fine when the writing compliments him. stand by everything else i said though - dreadful song.

This record is shaping up to be the biggest dissapointment of the year.

MelancHoly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq5Ho6NkqH8

even worse, holy fuck

like 'what i've become' grew on me because it was probably the best poppy tune they've done but this and the new song are legitimately horrible

'what i've become' would be the worst track on a good swallow the sun album

the other two wouldn't even be redeemable as B-sides

Sounds good to me