CULT OF LUNA

7/10

Pixillated Sludge Metal That Still Rocks.

At their sixth album, Cult Of Luna once again keep their roots solidly untouched, experimenting more with sound and exploring new sonic territories they'd yet to venture in. 'Vertikal' hasn't pleased all fans because of these reasons, or because it's been thought that these new ideas haven't been developed in a better way. Opinions vary, but in my eyes this is one of the better albums by the Swedish band, and it's good to see that experimentation in Metal bands today is still very embraced.

On this new album, Cult Of Luna take a step forward especially with the sonic decorations, these bursts of electronic layering that in the past were present, excellent, but not essential, are now pretty prominent, and sound quite different as well: the rough production creates these razor-sharp synth pulses that come and go throughout the album, some of them are not at all accompaniments and play a major, if not completely essential role for a track. This peculiarly rough production compliments also the crushing guitars, here more crushing than any other Cult Of Luna LP so far, and that is saying a lot.

But Cult Of Luna have not distanced themselves from their original style enough to not sound like Cult Of Luna: the riffs are overall crafted in the same fashion as their previous compositions, and anyone who has heard their previous work can confirm.

As for the album itself: it's an album that at first feels a little generic and familiar, but with further listens, it reveals a sophistication that was heard only on the band's better albums. Every song has its unique role, and they all do the job done well, some times, excellently. 'I, The Weapon' and 'Synchronicity' are the catchiest and at the same time better structured songs, in spite of the eighteen minute monster 'Vicarious Redemption', which is nicely arranged and structured but doesn't quite justify its length. 'Mute Departure' has nice, heavy moments, 'The Sweep' is an interesting divisive interlude of the album and 'Passing Through' closes everything quite well, a calm, tense piece that ends it all with a suspended note.

'Vertical' is the living proof that Cult Of Luna have not stepped down their game just yet, and are willing meander into new paths and directions, sounding a whole lot more interesting than many Sludge Metal bands today, who merely model a sound that is perhaps too familiar nowadays.

7/10

A Rock Solid Shell.

After the success of 'Somewhere Along The Highway' Cult Of Luna come up with 'Eternal Kingdom' two years later, an album that was inevitably anticipated because of its predecessor, and unfortunately inferior in quality. More straightforward and much less atmospheric than their previous two albums, this is an LP focused mostly on songwriting and musicianship, which, although always right on spot, was never an especially highlighted characteristic in Cult Of Luna's music. Because these musicians have talent, the second quality works fabulously, leading to an interplay between group members that was not heard before by them, because of how they've now gained much more experience in working with each other. The song-writing, however, is relying less on emotion, more on logic. In other words, 'Eternal Kingdom' has a lot less heart than other Cult Of Luna albums, even though there's not really a bad song here.

8/10

Desolation In Its Roundest Body.

"Somewhere Along The Highway" is recognized as the magnum opus of Swedish Sludge Metal band Cult Of Luna. Although an album like "Salvation", which was the band's previous effort, would be a good competitor to the honorable title, this fourth album showed a quality that "Salvation" didn't have in great abundance: a distinct, extremely original sound that can only be of COL. Turns out in the end that "Somewhere Along The Highway" is not only the best Cult Of Luna LP so far, it is also THE Cult Of Luna album by definition.

This is one of those albums in which every song stands out for being different from the rest of the tracks, in some form or the other, and one of those albums that has an extremely peculiar structure. There are as usual strong, heavy moments alternated with softer ones, but there is a greater sense of dynamism and interplay than in what was heard in "Salvation", making it an even more elaborate listen. In its more atmospheric moments, the music brings to life feelings of loneliness and despair, without ever being depressing, almost as if it were an album that has accepted its solitude long ago, and is simply manifesting it to an audience.

From the syncopated claps that begin "Finland", the second track of the album, the listener already familiar with the band's previous work notices the change in direction COL has faced, and appreciates how high the level of finesse the band has reached in both production and song-writing. This song might just be the best thing Cult Of Luna has ever done, and this is just starting the whole experience. "Back From Chapel Town" is another excellent track, with a handful of smooth transitional moments and an explosive middle piece. "And With Her Came The Birds" is the song that separates the two halves of the album, a tense, quiet track that however unveils a sense of beauty Cult Of Luna probably never have shown before.

Now the second half of the album is inferior to the amazing first half, but it has the advantage of having " Dark City, Dead Man", probably the most well-arranged and structured song the band has recorded so far, extending across a impressing arch of fifteen minutes.

The so-called Atmospheric Sludge Metal/Post-Metal movement owes a lot to this album. It's one that many can find themselves loving even though not necessarily being fans of either the band or the genre. Calling it a landmark in 21st century Metal music would probably be close enough to enclose its stellar value with one sentence.

8/10

Tides Of Distortion, Waves Of Emotion.

The first two albums from Cult Of Luna were interesting and promising, but missing of sophistication, maturity, and overall replay value. Many Metal bands start with releases of this sort, even the great bands. Cult Of Luna as a matter of fact might just be one of these bands; in 2004, only a year after their sophomore album, "Salvation" hits the metal community like a thunderbolt.

Like many Sludge Metal bands, the Swedish decided to fill their music with shades of Post- Rock and mixing them with their basic Sludge roots, resulting in a music that has been labeled by some Post-Metal, with acts such as Isis and Neurosis being principal pioneers. Cult Of Luna's music now is distinct and unique, despite not being particularly innovating. The length of the songs has stretched, the recording is clean and generous to details, but not clean enough to ruin the body-crushing riffs that domain most of this album. The songwriting here is the massive improvement, as songs such as the opening track "Echoes" clearly proves, an eleven minute monster that for the first five minutes beautifully builds up to an eventual climax. It's a perfect summary of what the remaining hour of the album has to offer, which is a complex pattern of Post-Rockish crescendos and bursts of crunchy riffage, occasionally veiled by bold electronic sounds to further enrich the music.

Other noteworthy songs include the towering, eleven-minute, rhythm-heavy "Vague Illusions", The long build ups of "Waiting For You" and "Crossing Over", and the shorter, to- the-point catchy and heavy songs like "White Cell" and "Leave Me Here". Then there's "Into the Beyond", the final settlement, one of the best moments Cult Of Luna has ever accomplished, full of ups and downs and emotional swings.

"Salvation" doesn't deny its influences from bands like Isis, but its sound is fresh enough and its level of musicianship is high enough for it to be generally considered to be one of the most successful, complex, and elaborate Sludge Metal albums ever released. Also, the fact that Cult Of Luna still today have other great things to say makes them one of the best Sludge Metal acts.

5/10

An Average Transitional Album.

Swedish Sludge Metal band Cult Of Luna release their second album, "The Beyond", in 2003, two years after the band's debut. Little however seems to have blossomed quality-wise: the band's style hasn't changed its ways, but some influences, such as Post-Hardcore and Metalcore, are a little less felt. Also a better production, and a greater focus on arranging the songs more ambitiously, are clearly a top priority. "the Beyond" is overall a step forward towards a more mature and developed sound (which will be acquired with 2004's "Salvation"), as the band clearly goes towards a more Progressive-related sound, with longer songs, greater relevance to slower moments, and interesting electronic/ambient sounds. The step forward is admirable and unquestionable, but the album itself lacks a lot of memorable material, furthermore, it drags on for an inappropriately long time (almost 75 minutes), and the sense of boredom might catch up on the listener more than a few times throughout.

5/10

Mediocre Beginnings.

Swedish act Cult Of Luna already had their roots planted in their debut album of the same name. Like many debut albums, however, "Cult Of Luna" has nothing but a skeleton, a basic sound, and no original skin to cover it, to make it appealing. Casually produced, this album shows an interesting and somewhat promising blend of Post-Hardcore, Sludge Metal, and Metalcore and together assemble a few interesting tracks such as the closing "The Sacrifice", definitely the most multi-faceted and well structured out of the entire LP, or "Circle", which proudly earns the compliment of heaviest song here. Looking at the album as a whole, it's easy to see the talent, but the casual production dooms the LP down to very average levels. Only for the fans.

An album loosely based on Fritz Lang's science-fiction classic 'Metropolis'. It's a dark, brooding, heavy and synthesizer-laden epic. Yes, it's just another post-metal album, but it's in a style I've not quite heard before; certain parts wouldn't sound out of place in a Nine Inch Nails album, others Godspeed You! Black Emperor, then the slow-burning epic riffs that Cult of Luna have become known for. But what's most original about an album of this genre, is it's use of synthesizers; the closest I can compare it to is Klaus Schulze or Tangerine Dream.

I've always found post-metal albums a little hard to digest. The way they interchange from instrumental/post rock to sludge metal often means I struggle to find a 'mood' that can accompany the music. However, Vertikal is almost all I've played for the past few days. In between the mostly 8-to-20 minute songs I find myself involuntarily and almost hypnotically swaying my head. The way they've managed to portray this dystopian soundscape in each and every song, truly is, something very special.

In my eyes, or by my ears, this is the best Cult of Luna album to date, and perhaps even the best post-metal album that I've ever heard. 5 stars out of 5.

Cult of Luna might have invented a cool story for their latest album (come on, you don't seriously believe that yarn about them just happening to stumble across the story in someone's diary do you?), but on the whole it seems to be business as usual for them on the musical front. A harder-edged and more clearly metal release than the preceding album, Eternal Kingdom does have its quieter moments - such as Ugin, which puts me in mind of Neil Young's avant-garde soundtrack to Dead Man - but on the whole the album presents a heavier, scarier incarnation of post-metal which might alienate fans of the band's more peaceful side but will probably win over most metal listeners.

Cult of Luna keep their post-metal sound fresh on Somewhere Along the Highway by, in essence, not using it so much - on the whole, the album is split between passages of post- metal mayhem and gentler sections of music more reminiscent of post-rock. The risk of such an approach is, of course, that the end product will come across as an attempt at straddling the fence between the two sibling genres without committing to one or the other, but in this case I think it works well - Cult of Luna essentially draw on the sonic toolkit of both genres in order to diversify their sound and use the right approach at the right moment in their compositions. The end result is an album which would appeal to fans of either genre, and sounds far more diverse than most works in this line.

At first I wasn't so sure about this album, but it turned out to be what I think of as an "instant grower" - when I started listening to it for the first time I wasn't so impressed, but even in the middle of that first listen I started hearing more and more that I liked until by the end I was very enthusiastic about it. A capable and competent piece of post-metal with expertly judged compositions combining tormented, outraged death metal and mellower post-rock segments, Salvation is one of those rare 73 minute albums which feel much, much shorter than they actually are - simply put, absolutely nothing here outstays its welcome.