Swedish Suis La Lune takes the (underground) stage

I was standing with my girlfriend Emily and our friend/band-mate Phil in The Warren, which was actually just the tiny, crowded basement of Brendan’s house in Frostburg, Maryland, after spending two hours traveling and three hours exploring the town. What did we find there? Frostburg State University, a Sheetz, and absolutely nothing else.

By Jessie Farine

Staff Writer

I was standing with my girlfriend Emily and our friend/band-mate Phil in The Warren, which was actually just the tiny, crowded basement of Brendan’s house in Frostburg, Maryland, after spending two hours traveling and three hours exploring the town. What did we find there? Frostburg State University, a Sheetz, and absolutely nothing else.

What were we doing crammed up against 50 or so other people in some random guy’s basement? Anxiously waiting for four, fair-skinned, blonde guys from Sweden to pick up their instruments and make this night worthwhile. Henning began to play the opening arpeggio to “With Wings of Feather and Glue,” and everything, from killing time in a small college town to waiting two years for a US tour, was instantly worth it.

Suis La Lune, from Stockholm, is a four-piece screamo band. Their sound is an oscillating blend of frantic, chaotic, complex whirlwinds of emotion with soft and beautiful atmospheres of floating melody lines from guitars that seem to play poetry rather than notes. One can almost hear the cold, dark loneliness of Sweden during their more mellow and contemplative moments.

In 2006, Suis La Lune released their debut full-length album, “Quiet, Pull the Strings!” The opening track is entitled “Desperate Times…” and sounds like the first morning of spring, with birds quietly chirping melodiously and light, twinkling guitars that yawn and stretch in the sunlight. This leads into “Utter Silence is Fragile,” which swells with a meditative guitar line and sudden crescendos with overlapping calm speech and impassioned screaming, and then the fury is unleashed with chaotic complexity that is pulled off tightly and retains its beauty under the distortion and cries.

“Eris Flies Tonight” starts out loud instantly and rages consistently through a hardcore punk anthem overlapped with musical poetry and ended in violence, and then the album’s title track begins. “Quiet, Pull the Strings!” contains a beautiful melodic breakdown that sounds like an ensemble of church bells and one of the most climatic and energizing endings to a song that I’ve ever heard.

The album ends with “My Mind is a Birdcage,” a seven-minute epic about a friendship that faded away but will never be released from memory, like a “bird in a cage.” All around, this album is absolutely gorgeous and powerful. They have painted a musical masterpiece with their complex, dynamic, and melodic arrangements – there is never a dull or ugly moment.

Recently, the band released a vinyl 10-inch album entitled “Heir,” which contains the instant classic “With Wings of Feather and Glue.” A few of the aforementioned songs can be heard instantly on their MySpace page. If you want their records and CD’s, be patient, as they sell out soon after pressing, and be prepared for outrageous shipping costs from Sweden. Such are the problems of enjoying underground music – deal with it.