Live Review : Swallow The Sun + Saturnus + Opia @ Rebellion, Manchester on December 16th 2025

There is a divine beauty in darkness. In the shrouded bleakness, if you look hard enough, you will always find hope, redemption, and immaculate splendour. For respectively thirty-four and twenty-five years, Saturnus and Swallow The Sun have been mining the melancholic gloom for the glimmers of positivity. They both operate in a corner of the doom metal universe that is melodic and tinged with sadness as opposed to sadism. It is doom metal in the fact that it is slow and pendulous in its delivery, but it has an emotive and poignant core, focusing on affairs of the heart instead of the more fanciful and fantastic. Whilst Rebellion is not as full as last time Swallow The Sun passed through town, the euphoric desire emanating from those gathered is just as potent and heightened. Those who have assembled on this cold Tuesday love these bands with an unbridled passion, and the front section consists of swooning devotees mouthing the words back at their idols.

Opia don’t seem to have much luck when they pull into our city. Last time they were in town at the Star and Garter, bassist Aidan Rutter almost missed the show due to delayed rail connections; tonight, he isn't here at all, having been summoned home to deal with a family emergency. Opia weather the adversity magnificently. They are astonishingly good this evening, existing in a parallel universe of simultaneous pleasure and pain. Tereza Rohelova has the air of a goth matriarch. She is sensual and alluring but also stern and austere. Her voice fluctuates from guttural abominations to sweet melodic pronunciations. It is the juxtapositions achieved by just one setoff human lungs that make the band and their material so interesting.

Like all of the acts tonight, they deal headfirst with loss, grief and the harshness of mortality but also, like the others acts tonight they do so with hints of salvation. No matter how bleak and oppressive their soundscape, there is a sense of optimism trying to bubble to the surface. Ethereal and highly atmospheric, they may not necessarily have been the name drawing people here tonight, but their take on Gothic doom greatly excites those present.

There is a massive sense of expectation in the room as long-standing Danish doomsters Saturnus wander onto the stage. Despite having been around since 1991, this is the first ever time they have made it to Manchester and only ever their 6th visit to this country. Whilst they may just be filling the special guest berth it is immediately obvious the level of esteem that they are held in. There is a lot of similarities to be found between them and the headliner. They share their roots in brand of doom that is sensitive and highly intellectual. Thomas Jensen may well be reading his words off a massive cheat sheet positioned at the base of his microphone stand, but he utters them with such conviction and enveloping warmness.

There is an astonishing intricateness to their musicality, it may well be slow and forlorn but there are great depths and textures to be found. The heaviness and harsh undertones are almost exclusively provided by Thomas’ vocals when he plunges into the harrowing death growls as the music remains consistently melodic and harmonious. It is laced with melancholy and haunting refrains, but it is never claustrophobic or overbearing. It is very difficult to avoid overusing the word beauty, because it is exactly what is at the heart of their tracks. Grim and charred beauty, but beauty, nonetheless. There are probably fewer than a thousand people in this country who know who Saturnus are and if you do a bit of fan maths, at least a hundred of them are likely in the room today. It is therefore very probable that these hundred people have gone away very very happy indeed as Saturnus prove that the inordinate wait for them to visit the city was well worth it.

Swallow The Sun have always described themselves as being the juncture of three distinct styles; Gloom, Beauty and Despair. Tonight, as ever, they exhibit all three. They are the true experts of mournful melodies; harrowing tracks that are drenched in harmonies. Mikko, Juha and Matti are all robed in their characteristic black hoods, adding to the atmosphere of dark foreboding. The only one of the front four that hasn't got the memo is relative newcomer Juho Raihia, who seems quite happy to let his as Aslan-like locks billow around and not get involved in the Dungeons & Dragons-esque cosplay. Those who have gone through dress up option live and breathe every one of the tracks. He may not be on vocals himself, but as the author of every word uttered by Mikko, Juha Raivio sings along incessantly, mouthing the lyrics at anybody who catches his eye.

That perfect balance between gloom, beauty and despair is at the heart of each and every song they dispense. There is an exquisite and fragrant core present in all their songs, full of mysticism and melody, but it is concealed within a crust of catastrophic gloom and heart-wrenching despair. Whilst his verbal crowd interaction is reserved purely to guttural pronunciations of the titles of preceding songs, Mikko has an astonishingly vivid presence. He looms over the audience as he barks out the harsh contents of the tracks and then recoils back as he morphs into the more restrained refrains. There is not an inch of platitudes uttered, but he still manages to bond with the starry-eyed evangelists upfront.

The set list itself is full of interesting choices. As would be expected we get five tracks from the album they are nominally on the road promoting, but after that they choose to make a quite impressive jump backwards, concentrating almost exclusively on the first four records they made, all released during the noughties. In fact, the only remaining vestige from their modern era, is the hauntingly evocative Stone Wings off the insanely good ‘When A Shadow Is Forced Into The Light’. Because we are concentrating on their earlier incarnations, there is definitely a feeling of increased heaviness and aggression. ‘These Woods Breathe Evil’ is virtually spat out, full of characteristic malevolence and malice. ‘Don’t Fall Asleep’ is also evocatively creepy, harbouring all sorts of bad tides.

But as I keep saying, this is the holy Trinity of gloom, beauty and despair and whilst there are tracks full of threatening intent, you are never far away from exquisite revitalisation. There is no charade of an encore; instead, we get a passionate finale of ‘Swallow’, the single visitation to their debut album. It astonishingly ties everything up, balancing the all-consuming darkness with the euphoric restoration of the light. It is that constant juxtaposition that makes Swallow The Sun so enticing and so tantalisingly beguiling. The time just flies by, every song feels like its own sealed world of dark claustrophobia and mesmeric abscondment. They are just untouchable this evening. The last word in emotional cerebral metal. An absolute masterclass.

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Swallow The Sun + Saturnus + Opia