A DAWN TO FEAR

Cult of Luna is an Experimental/Post Metal band from Sweden, formed in 1998 by Johannes Persson (guitar) and Klas Rydberg (vocals). They released their self-titled debut album in 2001, and in August of 2019, they released their 8th full length album 'A Dawn to Fear'. The current line up for this album consists of founder Persson (guitar and vocals), Gredrik Kihlberg (guitars and vocals), Kristian Karlsson (keyboard and vocals), Andreas Johansson (bass), Magnus Lindberg (drums), and Thomas Hedlund (drums and percussion. Since the band members live in several different locations, they have to work individually a lot, so when they do get together, the time they do have is critical, so they do their best to make it count. Persson comes up with the ideas and then the band together creates a song out of it by adding their input. This large album consists of 8 tracks, but has a run time of just under 80 minutes. The band debated whether to remove one of the tracks, but felt in the end that they were all needed on the album.

'The Silent Man' (10:36) starts off with fuzz and controlled feedback, and a hard and heavy, chunky, moderately fast beat is added and we are on our way. The vocals start, and they are dirty, growling and gritty. The music itself has a very heavy post metal sound, but the beat is surprisingly quick for such a heavy track and it continues to push the track forward. After 3 minutes, it takes a more progressive turn and synths are added as the beat slows a bit and more growling/screaming vocals come in. What is nice here is the addition of the keys which even darken the music more. After 6 minutes, things calm down a bit, the music becomes mysterious and remains dark, yet spacious. Soon, an organ comes in which entices the guitar to push forward again, and the music builds in solidity. The vocals return after 9 minutes with a dark synth line and layers of guitar, and then it all falls apart at the end.

'Lay Your Head to Rest' (6:23) has a moderate and direct beat, almost between a march and heavy industrial sound. Thick layers push it until the dirty vocals start remaining solid and darkly heavy. The layers push down on you making the 'heavy' seem literal. But the music is quite good in the instrumentals, but I have a hard time with the extreme vocals, however, the musicianship keeps me interested. Things get really loud and heavy in the 2nd half, but calm down to pensive organ and a chaffing effect. 'A Dawn to Fear' (8:53) begins with slow, muffled percussion and dark, yet jangling guitars. The singing is more melodic on this one, but is sung softly which, along with the music, seems even more threatening than the louder tracks that came before. At three minutes, the percussion stops, the guitars drone along while an organ plays and the low quiet vocals continue, you feel like you are walking through a tomb. At 4 minutes, the drums and guitars come in a bit more solid, but things still remains quiet, yet very threatening. Then an unexpected guitar solo moves slowly along with the music. Intensity moves up a few levels after 5 minutes, and the growling vocals return. The music continues along slowly, yet remains intriguing as the post metal sound pushes forward.

'Nightwalkers' (10:48) stays with a slow beat which is established right away as a guitar plays a repeating riff and another guitar comes in on top making things darker. The music is a bit reminiscent of the heavy folk metal of Agalloch, but with a definite post metal edge. The music builds as heavy guitar layers come in and the dirty vocals come in well into the 2nd minute. At 5 minutes, there is a sudden change in direction as the percussion speeds up quite a bit with a tense pattern and the guitars take advantage of this by adding power to their melodies. Vocals return after 6 minutes. More intensity and a great, stately guitar theme plays, and then it all breaks down before 8 minutes, then builds back up again. 'Lights on the Hill' (15:07) takes its own sweet time as it crawls along quietly and menacingly. This floats along until minute 4 when the band comes crashing in full force with a powerful and crunchy riff shared by the guitars and the synth. Vocals come in around 8 minutes and a very thick and heavy sound comes together for an extended climactic passage. This one will knock your proverbial socks off. The music cools off after 10 minutes, and you think it's going to just float along again, but suddenly everything just takes right off again, this time with a little more synth embellishment and eventually the growling vocals return. It's not until around the 14 minute mark that things finally cool down.

'We Feel the End' (7:06) is slow, pensive and atmospheric with soft vocals. It's a nice change of pace that comes along right at the right time, especially after the previous barnburner track that came before. This has an Ulver feel to it with a sort of accordion synth sound droning along. Some intensity starts to accumulate before the 5 minute mark, but it still stays relatively soft, yet continues to have that threatening atmosphere. 'Inland Rain' (7:00) continues on the more restrained side of things, but there is a marked increase in intensity here, and the vocals are rougher. The 6/8 rhythm gives it a bit of a swaying feeling and it moves along a bit more, but again stays a bit on the softer side until it hits the 3 minute mark and the heaviness kicks in and remains for the rest of the track crashing drums, thick guitar layers and some nice synth, but overlaid with dirty vocals. The final track is 'The Fall' (13:13) and it uses it's time wisely summing up all of the styles, dynamics and emotions of the album into one long epic track. Hard and heavy with some slower, thoughtful, yet equally evil moments.

The biggest problem I have with this album is personal, and it all has to do with the dirty vocals which are present pretty much throughout. The musicianship is excellent however, and because of its strength and the power in the tracks, it almost allows you to see around the dirty vocals. The fact that there are growling vocals, however, doesn't always completely ruin a band for me since I am able to still appreciate some of the better bands out there like early Opeth, Orphaned Land or Agalloch, but they all have variety in their vocals where this album is mostly dirty growly vocals. This album is solid though, loud mostly and quite emotional with some impressive passages in the guitars and an excellent use of keys that don't take away from the power or heaviness of the music whatsoever, but actually add to it. So, in the end, it's a solid 4 star album, but be warned, if you don't like your music heavy and dark, you probably won't like this.

7th January: Cult of Luna - A Dawn to Fear (atmospheric sludge metal, 2019)

Something awoke in me when Mariner came out. I went from honestly never enjoying anything from this band, or if I'm honest most of the entire atmospheric sludge metal genre, to steadily enjoying them more and more as I revisit each album. This one is the first post-Mariner and although it's obviously missing that album's star player, it does contain a pretty captivating mix of dark, riffy metal and atmospheric post bits. It is thunderously long though, and as with much of this genre, there are vast stretches of absolutely nothing, but I do like quite a few of the recurring riffs, and although this is metal blasphemy, the spots of clean vocal are actually the highlights. This still isn't really my thing genre-wise, but it's getting closer to it by the day.

6.1 (2nd listen)

Part of my listening diary from my facebook blog: www.facebook.com/TheExoskeletalJunction