Swedish metalcore band Imminence has been around for almost 15 years now, having toured all over Europe and the USA. The band, consisting of lead vocalist Eddie Berg, guitarists Harald Barrett and Alex Arnolddson, drummer Peter Hanström, and bassist Christian Höijer, just released their latest single ‘Continuum’ on the 9th of February.

A ‘Continuum’ can be defined as something characterized as a sequence of values that gradually change, with each value having particular characteristics on its scale. The song never mentions its title in its lyrics, but they seem to take it to sing about life leading up to death. The track opens with a heavy instrumental of guitars and drums before diving into a screamo-based first verse. “The pain remains” Berg sings – or rather, shouts into the void. The instrumentals die out before the first chorus; only the guitar is softly strummed before the sounds of a violin are added. Clean vocals make for a beautifully haunting sentiment about awaiting death as Berg sings “Chasing time under the sun ‘till Kingdom come” – Kingdom presumably referring to the afterlife, as in the second verse he shouts that “Death is a constant”.
For quite a long track – over four minutes – it does not have a lot of lyrics. The song is mostly based on its intense instrumentals, soul-stirring strings and the contrast between the dirty vocals of the verses versus the clean vocals in the choruses. Especially emotive is the high-pitched mix of vocalizing and violin in the bridge, broken by grunts. It feels like it displays both the fear of as well as the beauty in death, as the only thing in life one is sure of, but about which one’s feelings can change over time.
‘Continuum’ follows up other recent singles ‘Death by a Thousand Cuts’ and ‘Heaven Shall Burn’. So far, no new album has been announced, but when it is, it will surely be a great one – from Sweden with love.
Written by: Mandy Huibregtsen
Edited by: Sem Van Poucke