About 5 years after its monumental release ‘The Woods’ (2019, Pelagic Records), A Swarm Of The Sun — the duo of Erik Nilsson and Jakob Berglund — emerge from silence with ‘An Empire’, a towering, slow-burning post-metal opus still released via Pelagic. It’s less an album than an emotional reckoning.
Picking up where ‘The Woods’ left off, the band expands in both scale and scope, crafting a brooding, tender, and often apocalyptic listening experience.
“With An Empire, we are aiming wider—both sonically and emotionally. The guiding rule is to be honest and truthful. It’s not a handful of songs, but something singular, meant to be experienced from start to finish.”
Clocking in at 71 minutes across just six tracks, An Empire is built for immersion. It rewards patience with richly layered compositions that blur the boundaries between post-rock, ambient, and cinematic doom. This is music meant to be felt as much as heard.
Opening track “This Will End in Tears” unfurls like a prayer in slow motion—ghostly synths and funereal organs setting a somber tone. “Heathen” pulses with tension across twelve minutes of swelling drones and trembling piano before erupting into a wall of distortion that recalls Swans or early Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
At the album’s core is “The Pyre,” an 18-minute epic that evolves from whispered restraint into a massive, melodic storm. It’s terrifying, beautiful, and redemptive—an embodiment of the album’s stark emotional contrasts.
The album is self-produced and engineered by the band, with powerful contributions from Karl Daniel Lidén (drums, mixing/mastering), Anders Carlström (bass), and Minna Larsson Heimo (pipe organ). Their presence deepens the sonic landscape without overwhelming its minimalist core.
Berglund’s vocals—sparse, fragile, and spectral—drift through the mix like fleeting warmth in a frozen expanse. Even at its most intense, An Empire favors restraint and contemplation over bombast. Climaxes are earned, not expected.
Though rooted in metal, A Swarm of the Sun’s vision transcends genre. ‘An Empire’ rises slowly, looms large, and finally collapses—gracefully—into silence.
