From sparse, crystalline, sparkling moments of magic to combustible sonic vistas, the new album from Swedish post-rockers Final Days Society is a sprawling, audible adventure.
Opening with Feel Something, which is reminiscent stylistically of a combination of The Kissaway Trail and Death Cab for Cutie, it starts impressively. The atmosphere on this one is ambient and calm, and, as an opener, it feels like it sets the tone. But as track two begins, it becomes apparent that that couldn’t be further from the truth
The yin to the prior songs’ yang, You Are is a forceful, impactful behemoth full of chaotic, distorted guitars, deep bass, thunderous drums and inspiring musical scope, at least at first. It starts turned up to 11 and stays this way for about the first quarter. At this point, the bubble bursts, and the work of Explosions In The Sky, Mew and Mercury Rev comes to mind. The dynamics work wonders here, the quiet, more refined parts providing respite from the onslaught that came before. In fact, by the end, it feels like we’ve experienced two different songs, such is the difference in the two sonic palettes. Both parts feel massive and anthemic, but in very different ways.
Not Even Death follows and starts gently. Classic indie guitar tones are quickly – and somewhat surprisingly – joined by an instrument that sounds like a cross between an accordion and a harmonica. “Stay where you are, we will come, we will come”, sings frontman Suwat Khanh, and the song as a whole feels like a plea. A heartfelt cry to listeners, wherever they may be, to hold on, to reach out, to get up after being knocked down and to “go again”. The emotional, cacophonous conclusion feels like an outburst. The soundtrack to a cup running over, heard in real time. A cathartic explosion of earnest, heartfelt, motivational positivity. As Khanh shouts “Let’s go again, yeaaaaah! Go again, yeeeaaahh!” over and over again, the song feels like it could actually lift you up. This is music at its most powerful – Sigur Rós, Mogwai and now, Final Days Society.
Signals ease into your ears like the sun’s morning rays through the cracks in the curtains. Stirring slowly, it blossoms gradually, at its own pace. Syrupy synths and glittering guitars are joined in due course by a gentle, reverberating vocal. The song builds in this way, growing almost without you realising it, venturing eventually into almost shoegaze territory. Subtle and self-assured, the band clearly knows its way around a song structure. In the majority of the moments where you feel like it could – or will – go stratospheric, it doesn’t. It holds on. As do you. A perfect example of discipline and restraint, they make you wait for it, with bated breath. And when the release comes, it’s that much sweeter – when it explodes, it really goes for it. At its eventual apex, the music is shoegazey, and the vocals are almost screamo-esque in their ferocity, somewhat reminiscent of, say, Bert McCracken of The Used.
Up next is Waterfalls, one of the shorter songs on the album at only 5 minutes and 10 seconds(!) long. It’s extremely melodic from the outset and, similarly to the rest of the album, it’s all about the dynamics – the balance between the light and the shade and the highs and lows, one perfectly balancing out the other. We think we might be able to hear a 12-string acoustic in the mix at certain points, which is a nice tonal shift.
It’ll Be OK follows and starts with an impressive, but brief, rolling drum break. An extended instrumental introduction leads into a rather indie-feeling opus. Part U2, part Kings Of Leon, but with a decidedly wonky, woozy Scandi-influence, it is a bit of a sleeping giant. By the time the end comes, you feel like you’re waking up out of a beautiful dream. You know when you can’t quite remember what came before you woke up? There are fragments, and they’re hazy and unclear, but you know it was something stunning. Where this song ends and where it began feels worlds apart. And how it gets there is magical and mystical, like the small gulf between dreaming and waking.
Up next is Gone. With a slow, methodical, purposeful pace and sturdy, steadfast execution, it pulls the album forward with what sounds like the incorporation of a brass section. Eventually introducing layered vocals as well, this is gloriously textured stuff. The drums again are worth a special mention on this one – shout out again to Victor Galeano behind the kit.
Hide continues at a similar pace to the previous song. It’s almost shy in its approach, cute and unassuming as it begins. Reminiscent, a bit, of The Flaming Lips and their combination of an almost childlike naivety and wonder, and the obvious influence of psychedelia, the song opens up over time, almost imperceptibly so, for the most part. Eventually, at around halfway through, a buzzsaw guitar tone is introduced to the wide-eyed, innocent soundscape, and it is the flash paper that sets the whole thing off. For the next three minutes, it burns bright, the blaze spreads until it absolutely roars, awash in a sea of musical flame. It fades out as it concludes – after the inferno has run its course – the embers dance and the fire burns, cracks and smoulders as we move on – warmed from the outside in – to the last song.
Jag Älskar Dig (which translates to “I Love You”) is the most upbeat the band have been so far. As it starts, it’s almost jaunty in its rhythm and is a frankly perplexing change of pace at this stage of the album. We’re sure there is a method to the madness, but we don’t know what it is. If we had to speculate, maybe it’s the sound of the band being born again. Perhaps it’s the newest of the songs, and it therefore represents growth and development and symbolises evolution for them? The end of one chapter and the start of another? Maybe their next record will be jovial and spirited and spritely. Maybe. Or maybe it just would’ve upset the flow of the album if it were placed basically anywhere else? Who knows? What we do know is that it’s a revitalising outro to a piece of work that has enthralled from start to finish. At over 11 minutes long, it’s pretty much the pièce de résistance, incorporating all the sounds that the album has seen so far and adding a bit of Bloc Party agitation to the mix and also venturing into slowcore territory in the latter stages before cataclysmically climaxing in a dramatic, trademark wall of noise.
In 2025, the band signed to Angoal Music in China, making a significant impact on their international presence. In recent years, the band have performed in Asia with shows in Bangkok (in 2024) and at Offside Festival in China last year.
I’ve never wanted to go to China so badly. Do whatever you can to make seeing this band a reality.
Written by Kinda Grizzly
