Then Comes Silence - Hunger
Full Album
Released July 1st, 2022
Nexilis (Europe) and Metropolis (America) Records
Hunger | THEN COMES SILENCE (bandcamp.com)
Lineup:
Alex Svenson - Vocals, Bass, Synthesizers
Jonas Fransson - Drums
Mattias Ruejas Jonson - Guitars
Hugo Zombie - Guitars
Formed in 2012 in Stockholm, Sweden, “Hunger” is the Then Comes Silences’s sixth studio album and follows a 2021 four EP release of covers curated around the themes of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Throughout their discography, this band has shown their range of sound from the heavy “Warm Like Blood” to the more radio friendly album “Machine”, all featuring Alex Svenson’s distinctive voice. This band has a large bombastic goth sound that is very modernized, and I think is going to be one of those bands that will epitomize the sound of goth rock of this era.
Anyway! On to the album. Across Then Comes Silence’s discography one thing I’ve had a bit of an issue with is that the albums fall into a very samey trap where they start to run together with a few standouts on each album despite the great vocal hooks. But “Hunger” breaks with this, and I suspect that it’s in part due to the covers series they did. You hear a much wider variety of sounds and motifs that are sometimes reminiscent of classic bands we love like Siouxsie and Echo and the Bunneymen, but also modern bands like She Past Away and The Bellwether Syndicate. I like the use of electronic elements in songs like Chain and Tickets to Funerals alongside the use of amazing guitar riffs on tracks like Days and Years and Worm. And this album has an all star cast of backing vocalists including William Faith, Karolina Engdahl of Swedish band True Moon, Gözde Duzer of Aux Animaux (a Turkish transplant to Sweden), and Mikkel Borbjerg Jakobsen of The Foreign Resort.
Tickets to Funerals
Rise to the Bait
Cold from inside
Worm
Chain
Weird Gets Strange
Days and Years
Blood Runs Cold
Pretty Creatures
Close Shot
Unknowingly Blessed
Fave tracks:
Rise to the Bait - with a really sing along able chorus, great synth elements, the bouncy guitar
Worm - great bass, great hooks and lyrics, and a guitar tone and beat in parts that hits the jangly Siouxsie vibe but is counterbalanced by the throbbing bass.
Cold From The Inside - The guitar work is just so so nice and the lyrics are lovely and melancholy which is pretty much me lately. I think this may also be the slowest song on the album.