Southampton industrial post-metal duo SUNSWARM will self-release their debut album, Those Who Do Not Build Must Burn, independently on July 22, 2026. A crushingly heavy, bleak, and unflinching statement that runs a focused 34 minutes with no second wasted. Operating from a place of complete self-definition, the band construct immersive experiences where sound, light, and texture collide. Defined by sensory overload, stark monochrome aesthetics, and overwhelming physical intensity, SUNSWARM create work that explores heaviness as emotional terrain rather than mere aggression.
Across six tracks, SUNSWARM construct dense, layered soundscapes from metallic textures, sample work, and black-metal-inspired vocal performances, set against a brutalist, dystopian atmosphere exploring the creeping strangulation of modern power structures and technology. SUNSWARM examine the tension between construction and annihilation, asking what remains when meaning erodes and the urge to tear down becomes stronger than the will to build.
Musically, the record is built on industrial foundations laid down by the godfathers of industrial metal; acts like GODFLESH, MINISTRY and NINE INCH NAILS, but it isn't an exercise in homage. Extreme, dissonant layers of guitar cut into near-silence. Swirling, atmospheric electronics are used to build tension rather than simply decorate it and the post-metal influence of AMENRA and THE BODY comes through clearly here. Dynamic range functions as a compositional tool: songs move with weighty mass rather than conventional structure that sees distortion build and crumble into eerie stillness rather than following verse-chorus logic.
Delivering that vision onto record owes a great deal to producer Wayne Adams (Bear Bites Horse), whose work with acts like PETBRICK and IAN made him a natural fit for such a record built on extremity and control in equal measure. The rawness that gives SUNSWARM’s two-piece sound its scale is expertly preserved and honed as the album twists and turns. The result is a mix that never collapses under its own weight, however dense it gets.
Throughout Those Who Do Not Build Must Burn, moments of ferocious heaviness sit alongside vast spaces of dissonance and unease. The album occupies the territory between creation and collapse; documenting what happens when systems fail, identities fracture, and the instinct to destroy becomes easier than the effort it takes to rebuild. For SUNSWARM, heaviness isn't simple aggression; it's a vocabulary for pressure, absence, grief, frustration and endurance.
Far from a conventional album opener, "Erasure" unfolds across eight overwhelming minutes of industrial post-metal. It begins with a single, repeated dissonant guitar chord ringing over pounding drums, rumbling noise building until it unleashes the full weight of distortion: then cuts to silence. A moment to breathe before the next wave crashes. That structural use of dynamics, swinging between violent noise and stark space, is what gives the track its suffocating psychological weight, building to a final crescendo of sweeping synth noise and dissonant guitars and tortured vocals scream “Erasure. Erased.”
"Sunswarm" strips things back to a slow, pounding rhythms and sludgy guitars, with lyrics that function less as narrative and more as ritual invocation: “Sunswarm. How to die. Sunswarm. Look into the light.” A Joseph Campbell sample threads through the track as if a warning sent back in time from the future, as it menacingly builds toward a huge chorus, kick drums landing like heavy artillery.
A low, pulsing synth introduces a minimalist, whispered verse before "Inside the torn apart" erupts into fierce, chaotic bombardment: heavy distorted rhythms, metallic textures, and monstrous harsh vocals. Where earlier tracks build through ebb and flow, "Inside the Torn Apart" cuts jarringly between eerie quiet and violent loudness, never letting the listener settle. Thematically, it’s a cry from the individual against the real and symbolic violence that tears society apart: an act of catharsis and rebellion. “I am here. Alive. Inside the torn apart.”
"With your beautiful mind you deserve much better than this" opens in a bleak realm of swirling, reverberating electronics and a narrative voice unfolding through the void before discordant rhythmic hits strike. Built more around a driving drum loop and bassline, drawing comparison to MINISTRY, this track is dedicated to everyone who deserves better than the pressure and hurt closing in around them.
"Sour///" is the album’s thematic and sonic pivot. Where earlier material dissected the internal collapse of self-worth, "Sour///" turns outward: confronting the lies, posturing and moral decay embedded in today’s social and political machinery. Driven by a distorted breakbeat and jagged rhythmic shifts, it introduces a sharpened edge to SUNSWARM’s sound: the industrial weight remains crushing and oppressive, but rhythmic precision now slices through the density with cold intent. The verdict, delivered with blunt directness, is simple "You can shut your mouth".
"Rended" brings an unexpected end to the album. Largely instrumental aside from a spoken-word section, "Rended" rides a slow, relentless drum filtered through cavernous, reverberating distortion until it sounds like an explosion. A haunting, simple melody on clean guitar and a repetitive pulsing bass sit inside a cacophony of swirling noise, ending the album not with resolution, but with weight and unease.
About SUNSWARM:
SUNSWARM is vocalist and bassist Rich Lee-Davis, and vocalist and guitarist Neil Sutton. Together they construct an immersive environment where sound, light, and texture collide. Their creative world is defined by sensory overload, stark monochrome imagery, disorienting strobe work, and the feeling of being enclosed within an atmosphere that is both vast and hostile. Everything they create is intended to overwhelm, to blur the line between performance and encounter.
Born from the UK’s South Coast underground scene, from their earliest ideas, SUNSWARM have operated from a place of complete self-definition, forging a language of heaviness that goes far beyond mere aggression. They approach sonic weight as an emotional terrain; a landscape shaped by pressure, absence, and the darker edges of lived experience. Drawing from the industrial blueprint of GODFLESH, the spatial textures of AMENRA, and the suffocating sludge of THE BODY, SUNSWARM merge industrial noise, post-metal density, and extreme vocal expression into an immersive, deeply physical experience.
SUNSWARM is:
Rich Lee-Davis - vocals, bass
Neil Sutton - vocals, guitar
Connect with SUNSWARM:
Bandcamp: https://sunswarm.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sunswarmband
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunswarmband/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SUNSWARM
Those Who Do Not Build Must Burn Track List:
1. Erasure
2. Sunswarm
3. Inside the torn apart
4. With your beautiful mind you deserve much better than this
5. Sour///
6. Rended
Across six tracks, SUNSWARM construct dense, layered soundscapes from metallic textures, sample work, and black-metal-inspired vocal performances, set against a brutalist, dystopian atmosphere exploring the creeping strangulation of modern power structures and technology. SUNSWARM examine the tension between construction and annihilation, asking what remains when meaning erodes and the urge to tear down becomes stronger than the will to build.
Musically, the record is built on industrial foundations laid down by the godfathers of industrial metal; acts like GODFLESH, MINISTRY and NINE INCH NAILS, but it isn't an exercise in homage. Extreme, dissonant layers of guitar cut into near-silence. Swirling, atmospheric electronics are used to build tension rather than simply decorate it and the post-metal influence of AMENRA and THE BODY comes through clearly here. Dynamic range functions as a compositional tool: songs move with weighty mass rather than conventional structure that sees distortion build and crumble into eerie stillness rather than following verse-chorus logic.
Delivering that vision onto record owes a great deal to producer Wayne Adams (Bear Bites Horse), whose work with acts like PETBRICK and IAN made him a natural fit for such a record built on extremity and control in equal measure. The rawness that gives SUNSWARM’s two-piece sound its scale is expertly preserved and honed as the album twists and turns. The result is a mix that never collapses under its own weight, however dense it gets.
Throughout Those Who Do Not Build Must Burn, moments of ferocious heaviness sit alongside vast spaces of dissonance and unease. The album occupies the territory between creation and collapse; documenting what happens when systems fail, identities fracture, and the instinct to destroy becomes easier than the effort it takes to rebuild. For SUNSWARM, heaviness isn't simple aggression; it's a vocabulary for pressure, absence, grief, frustration and endurance.
Far from a conventional album opener, "Erasure" unfolds across eight overwhelming minutes of industrial post-metal. It begins with a single, repeated dissonant guitar chord ringing over pounding drums, rumbling noise building until it unleashes the full weight of distortion: then cuts to silence. A moment to breathe before the next wave crashes. That structural use of dynamics, swinging between violent noise and stark space, is what gives the track its suffocating psychological weight, building to a final crescendo of sweeping synth noise and dissonant guitars and tortured vocals scream “Erasure. Erased.”
"Sunswarm" strips things back to a slow, pounding rhythms and sludgy guitars, with lyrics that function less as narrative and more as ritual invocation: “Sunswarm. How to die. Sunswarm. Look into the light.” A Joseph Campbell sample threads through the track as if a warning sent back in time from the future, as it menacingly builds toward a huge chorus, kick drums landing like heavy artillery.
A low, pulsing synth introduces a minimalist, whispered verse before "Inside the torn apart" erupts into fierce, chaotic bombardment: heavy distorted rhythms, metallic textures, and monstrous harsh vocals. Where earlier tracks build through ebb and flow, "Inside the Torn Apart" cuts jarringly between eerie quiet and violent loudness, never letting the listener settle. Thematically, it’s a cry from the individual against the real and symbolic violence that tears society apart: an act of catharsis and rebellion. “I am here. Alive. Inside the torn apart.”
"With your beautiful mind you deserve much better than this" opens in a bleak realm of swirling, reverberating electronics and a narrative voice unfolding through the void before discordant rhythmic hits strike. Built more around a driving drum loop and bassline, drawing comparison to MINISTRY, this track is dedicated to everyone who deserves better than the pressure and hurt closing in around them.
"Sour///" is the album’s thematic and sonic pivot. Where earlier material dissected the internal collapse of self-worth, "Sour///" turns outward: confronting the lies, posturing and moral decay embedded in today’s social and political machinery. Driven by a distorted breakbeat and jagged rhythmic shifts, it introduces a sharpened edge to SUNSWARM’s sound: the industrial weight remains crushing and oppressive, but rhythmic precision now slices through the density with cold intent. The verdict, delivered with blunt directness, is simple "You can shut your mouth".
"Rended" brings an unexpected end to the album. Largely instrumental aside from a spoken-word section, "Rended" rides a slow, relentless drum filtered through cavernous, reverberating distortion until it sounds like an explosion. A haunting, simple melody on clean guitar and a repetitive pulsing bass sit inside a cacophony of swirling noise, ending the album not with resolution, but with weight and unease.
About SUNSWARM:
SUNSWARM is vocalist and bassist Rich Lee-Davis, and vocalist and guitarist Neil Sutton. Together they construct an immersive environment where sound, light, and texture collide. Their creative world is defined by sensory overload, stark monochrome imagery, disorienting strobe work, and the feeling of being enclosed within an atmosphere that is both vast and hostile. Everything they create is intended to overwhelm, to blur the line between performance and encounter.
Born from the UK’s South Coast underground scene, from their earliest ideas, SUNSWARM have operated from a place of complete self-definition, forging a language of heaviness that goes far beyond mere aggression. They approach sonic weight as an emotional terrain; a landscape shaped by pressure, absence, and the darker edges of lived experience. Drawing from the industrial blueprint of GODFLESH, the spatial textures of AMENRA, and the suffocating sludge of THE BODY, SUNSWARM merge industrial noise, post-metal density, and extreme vocal expression into an immersive, deeply physical experience.
SUNSWARM is:
Rich Lee-Davis - vocals, bass
Neil Sutton - vocals, guitar
Connect with SUNSWARM:
Bandcamp: https://sunswarm.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sunswarmband
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunswarmband/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SUNSWARM
Those Who Do Not Build Must Burn Track List:
1. Erasure
2. Sunswarm
3. Inside the torn apart
4. With your beautiful mind you deserve much better than this
5. Sour///
6. Rended