Swanlike

Please bear in mind that this review is written in retrospect, and I currently have all of their albums. So this review will be based on this album in view of what their later releases are like.

Dark Suns are the masters of the atmospheric progressive metal genre. With "Existence" one got the soaring, epic style with good use of ambient strings and synth, combined with the deep and rich vocals (and no death metal growls.)
Then along came Grave Human Genuine, a masterpiece of psychedelic insanity, which took the band to a completely different style again. However, one must look back to the debut full length to see where this fascinating blend of styles and genres came from.

Swanlike establishes the wonderful ambient and atmospheric style that was so noticeable in Existence, with good use of soaring synth combined with driving riffs. Yet Swanlike shows a darker and heavier side of Dark Suns. In much evidence is the growling vocals of Niko Knappe. I personally prefer his cleaner vocals, but on Swanlike, there is a wonderful blend of the two, taking the listener from moody and brooding to angry and passionate, often within the same song.

Now, Swanlike is not the best progressive album ever, and there is much wrong with it. Some of the songs get boring quite quickly, and it appears that the band are trying too hard. However as a debut full length album, it establishes them as something good, and when combined with the absolute genius masterpiece that is Existence, one can see that Dark Suns have set themselves apart from so many other bands trying to gain the "progressive" label.

Swanlike is a fantastic album to begin with, and I would recommend it to anyone, providing they get the whole discography. The album itself flows, but when put with the other albums, one can see the Dark Suns are taking steps forward with their music, and I for one thank them for it.