2006-05-16
Seven men made this seven track album, which is a lot more ethereal than their former releases (though close the last, 2004’s “Salvation”), loaded with distortion being played with – stretched, tossed, kneaded, Scrambled and layered – filled with noise and electronic effects to make it a heavenly way to spend your time.
Defining Cult of Luna’s music as just noisecore or post-hardcore and even as post-rock is far from satisfying, nor is calling it progressive; the Swedish seven-piece manages to create such a sophisticated mixture of all the above through hazy, melancholic, soft and floating moment and explosive, sober, sharp and tense ones that the only definition I can give it is “Sweeping”.
The opener, “Marching to the heartbeats”, has a certain
Mogwai-like vibe, and is also close to what
Red Sparowes and Harvesman did with their debuts; it is no secret that cult of luna have a common denominator with
Neurosis,
Isis and the related/similar acts – this point of view is also strongly evident in “Back to Chapel Town” and in “Thirtyfour”.
“Finland” jumps in with an almost industrial drumbeat, so sharp and mechanic, and the added string-like effects really give it some extra flavor; this one displays Cult at their best, being innovative enough while sticking to what they do best.
“And with her came the birds” is more melancholic, especially via the vocals; loneliness would accompany it well and country-like banjo that takes a part here would farther sharpen it.
The two remaining tracks “Dim” and “Dark City, Dead Man” both have a great fuzz, fat bass sound/lines, electronic effects which enrich and connect between them and the subtle melodies created by repetitions and rephrases close the album very gracefully.
Each song here is an individual highlight, it would offend the music’s value to refer to the tracks as just “good” or “bad”. Cult of Luna knows what it’s doing and that’s just one reason why this album is the way it is.
The addition of second keyboardist Anders Teglund (focusing mainly on samples and effects), back in 2004’s “Salvation”, did well with the band, they’ve managed to create yet another excellent effort, perhaps even topping its predecessor.
Ofer Vayner
