If you want to move forward you must be able to reflect. On their new album, the former hardcore punks Swain take this premise to heart and transform the uncompromisingly aggressive sound of their early days into an introverted frame of mind composed of mysteriously prancing harmonies and varied timbres. The band does not perform this style change in total negation of its past, but on the contrary creates a record that is clearly conditioned by its painful prehistory. The influences? The spherical moments of Radiohead - intertwined with the bulky charm of Sebadoh - all performed with a chameleon-like mutability, as they last offered Title Fight. "Negative Space" is the hope after a long period of self-hatred and a much-needed ray of light in times when Billie Eilish or Xxxtentacion dominate the charts with lyrics about depression and suicide, mirroring a generation that is controlled by doubt and disorientation. Swain's transformation is no coincidence. Already in 2014, the Dutch had abandoned their old name "This Routine Is Hell" because they no longer felt it was a good fit. "The Long Dark Blue", the first album under the name Swain, stylistically broke out to new shores already. The band mixed the hardcore chunks that had been typical for them with rough-melancholic grunge ballads that paid tribute to early Nirvana and made the sound much more diverse and differentiated. What followed were tours alongside those post-hardcore bands whose fans celebrate the break-up of the genre and continued development: Touch? Amor?, Defeater, Modern Life Is War and others
