Cult of Luna - The Long Road North

Angry Metal Guy

Since AMG Industries Inc. resolutely refuses to pay me market value anything at all for my Indispensable Thoughts on Music^TM, I am forced to hold down a day job. In that day job, I am a lawyer. And lawyers love disclosures and disclaimers. So here’s one for you: I am an avowed Cult of Luna fanboy. My relationship with these Swedes goes all the way back to the moment I heard “The Watchtower” (from 2003’s The Beyond) on a sampler CD that came free with a magazine. I was blown away by the long-form, post-hardcore bombast. Since then, they’ve released at least four masterpieces in Somewhere Along the Highway (2006), Vertikal (2013), Mariner (2016’s stunning collaboration with siren Julie Christmas) and their last full-length, A Dawn to Fear (ADtF), which was my album of the year in 2019. I like to tell myself, however, that I am not an unthinking fanboy. Despite—maybe even because of—my high expectations of Cult of Luna, last year’s ‘EP,’ The Raging River featuring Mark Lanegan (whom I also love), was something of a disappointment to me, as I said at year end. As the band returns with eighth full-length, The Long Road North, however, allow me to gush.

The Long Road North feels like the perfect companion to ADtF. Similarly crushing and visceral in places, there are also many more mellow and contemplative moments baked in, seeming to set Cult of Luna‘s latest effort on a grander scale, feeling almost cinematic in scope. While The Long Road North opens with a foghorn-like blast in the first moments of “Cold Burn,” this is quickly replaced by a pulsing, yawing riff and shimmering keys through which rip Johannes Persson’s gravel-edged roars. It’s every bit the equal of “The Silent Man,” which opened ADtF. Where the likes of “The Silver Arc” and the monstrous “Blood upon Stone”¹ follow the devastating pattern set by the album opener, “Beyond I” and album closer “Beyond II” are hypnotic, ambient compositions. The former, stripped of percussion and guitars, is driven by the poignant, almost chanted, vocals of Swedish songstress and multi-instrumentalist Mariam Wallentin of Wildbirds and Peacedrums, while American saxophonist Colin Stetson (who has worked with the likes of Tom Waits and is responsible for the Hereditary OST) offers his reinterpretation of that piece on the haunting “Beyond II.”

Stetson also contributes to the stunning centerpiece of The Long Road North, “An Offering to the Wild,” which builds and builds, gathering momentum like a storm out at sea, which you watch pull in darkening clouds and grow in power. Even on the uncharacteristically somber and restrained “Into the Night,” which finds Persson (or possibly fellow guitarist Fredrik Kihlberg, who is also credited with vocals) switching to hoarse, almost Lanegan-esque cleans for much of its run, the dissonant screaming end of that track feels hugely cathartic. Throughout the record—and indeed for much of Cult of Luna‘s career—the unsung hero is drummer Thomas Hedlund. His constantly evolving and deftly progressive rhythms add an almost imperceptible layer of complexity beneath the more in-your-face, post-hardcore sludginess with which the band made its name.

The Long Road North is massive in scope and vision. The restrained, slow-burn melodies and brooding atmospherics balance perfectly against the ruinous heaviness (the title track perfectly encapsulates both aspects of the sound). It’s a record that finds Cult of Luna in possibly the best form of their long career. Persson has spoken about writing and making this album, which saw him move back to Umeå after 15 years in Stockholm, making it a much more collaborative process. This comes through in the music, which is immersive and cohesive. I would argue The Long Road North flows probably better than anything Cult of Luna has produced since Somewhere Along the Highway. Cult of Luna don’t do short, but at ‘only’ 70 minutes, they’ve shaved a full ten minutes off ADtF‘s runtime. And where that last album could definitely have withstood some editing, not a second is wasted on The Long Road North. Produced, like its predecessor, by Magnus Lindberg, The Long Road North also sounds fantastic. Just as Huck n Roll said of ADtF, here every “instrument is in its place on the soundstage,” with the guitars perfectly balanced against the keys and synths. The drums, which underpin everything, are so clear as to be almost crystalline but without sounding clinical or overbearing.

When Huck n Roll messaged me—on New Year’s Day no less—to say he wasn’t going to have time to review The Long Road North, I thought Christmas had rolled round again. I also got anxious though, reflecting on the (relative) disappointment of The Raging River. I needn’t have worried. Cult of Luna have delivered possibly the best album of their much-vaunted career. “An Offering to the Wild” and “Blood Upon Stone” are already vying to be my Song o’ the Year, and I have no doubt at all that The Long Road North will sit very high, if not atop, my end of year list.



Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Metal Blade
Websites: cultofluna.bandcamp.com | cultofluna.com | facebook.com/cultoflunamusic
Releases Worldwide: February 11th, 2022

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