Swallow The Sun - Ocean Of Grief - Shattered Hope in Istanbul

Swallow the Sun is a Finnish death-doom band founded in 2000 by Juha Raivio. The current line-up is guitarist and founder Juha Raivio, vocalist Mikko Kotamäki, drummer Juuso Raatikainen, guitarist Juho Räihä and bassist Matti Honkonen. The band's death-doom style emphasises melody and atmosphere and at times moves into gothic and black metal.

As of 2026 the band has released nine studio albums, one triple album, one EP, one demo, one live album and seven singles. The name comes from the long Finnish winters, when the Sun is blocked for months, and also refers to Nordic myths about creatures swallowing the Sun from the sky, usually signifying the end of the world. Swallow the Sun formed in early 2000 through Juha Raivio, soon joined by Pasi Pasanen; both had played together in Plutonium Orange.

They rehearsed a couple of songs, one of them "Through Her Silvery Body", which ended up on their first demo, Out of This Gloomy Light. In 2001 Markus Jämsen joined as second guitarist, Mikko Kotamäki from Funeris Nocturnum as singer, and then Aleksi Munter on keyboards and Matti Honkonen on bass, also of Funeris Nocturnum. In spring 2002 they began arranging songs for the demo Out of This Gloomy Light, recorded in January 2003 at Sam's Workshop with Sami Kokko, who also mixed it.

A record deal with Firebox Records was signed a few months after the demo recordings, and the band entered the studio in late July 2003, recording their debut album, The Morning Never Came, over the following three weeks. In February 2005 the band released their second album, Ghosts of Loss. The single "Forgive Her...

" reached fourth place on the Finnish singles chart in its first week and stayed on the chart for six weeks, while the album entered the chart at No. 8. Some of the album's songs have connections to the TV show Twin Peaks. During 2006 the band signed to Spinefarm Records and did a small European tour.

In January 2007 they released their third album, Hope, which includes a cover of the Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus song "Alavilla mailla", translated as "These Low Lands", as a bonus track on the digipack edition, sung by Tomi Joutsen of Amorphis. Jonas Renkse of Katatonia guests on the song "The Justice of Suffering". In late 2007 they toured the US with Katatonia, Scar Symmetry and Insomnium.

In September 2008 they released an EP, Plague of Butterflies, followed by a December UK tour of ten live shows supporting Apocalyptica. Juuso Raatikainen replaced Kai Hahto as full-time drummer on this album, as Hahto was working on Nightwish's 2015 album Endless Forms Most Beautiful and its subsequent tour in place of Jukka Nevalainen; Hahto has not been kicked out or resigned. Benevento.

The track embodies Raivio's bereavement and other emotions after the death of his partner Aleah Stanbridge in 2016, and contains the title track plus an instrumental version of it. In November 2018 the band announced their seventh album, When a Shadow Is Forced into the Light, and its track list on their official Facebook page. The album title is a quote by Stanbridge.