Local Review: Sympathy Pain – Swan Dive

Sympathy Pain
Swan Dive
The Ghost is Clear Records
Street: 01.24
Sympathy Pain = Crystal Castles + Joyce Manor

It’s trying times like these (the last three months of 2024) that leave us existential folks wanting to pull a Bella Swan from Twilight: New Moon and just sit comatose in a chair while haunting instrumental music drowns out our thoughts of impending doom. Look no further than Sympathy Pain’s Swan Dive to be the soundtrack for your downward mental spiral this dreary winter.

The album starts off hauntingly strong with the track “Ellipse.” An eerily static recording of a gaspy breath and deliciously crackling feedback loop through the track as the band slowly builds to an epic payout that fuzzes to an end. Even though it’s a seven minute track, it goes by far too fast. It’s followed up by my personal favorite, and arguably the standout from the album, “Swell.” Though not as hardcore as “Ellipse,” “Swell” is a rewarding ten minute track that starts off with that same sort of feedback, but this time superimposed over the ambient sounds of children running, playing and screaming at a park—bringing to mind all those indescribable feelings of melancholy and nostalgia that I felt when I discovered Crystal Castles on Tumblr as a teen for the first time and came to the harsh realization that youth is fleeting. To call it a “gut-puncher” would be an understatement.

The next track off the album, “Swan Dive,” plays off the ending instrumental of “Swell.” It’s a crunchy drum-heavy track that does indeed, swell, into a heavy head banging tune. Though cuts off abruptly leaving you with that swan dive induced concussion of emotions. It’s towards the latter part of the album that we start to get vocalization, starting with the track “Wynn Bruce” and ending with “Heaven + Hell.” Between those two tracks, we get acquainted with “Six Grandfathers.” Not to sound like a “percussion-holic,” but this is, again, where the drums standout acting as star of the show—loud and vibrating in your head long after the track ends. 

The album’s finishing move, “Heaven + Hell” is another standout, not only because it’s the only track to have full blown vocals and lyrics, but the subject matter it touches on. It features guest vocals by Madeline Johnston of Midwife (who also provides the vocalization on the track Wynn Bruce). Johnston’s delicate voice starts off slow over a beautifully plucky guitar and feedback, singing to us: “If there’s a heaven, I know it’s lonely / ‘Cuz everyone I’ve ever known is burning in hell,” and “If I’m a vessel, Why am I empty? / ‘Cuz everybody I’ve ever loved holds nothing in my heart” before plummeting into a distorted guitar riff. It’s reminiscent of a certain popular Mark Twain quote about Heaven and Hell, but this time more emo. 

Like mentioned before, find yourself a quiet little corner with a comfy chair and put on your best headphones. Let Sympathy Pain consume you whole and spit you back out a completely different person. It is in fact, one hell of a “swan dive.” Make sure to enjoy the ride before you plummet. –Yonni Uribe

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