Cult of Luna, Vertikal (Indie Recordings)
This Swedish band have been about a bit now and my first introduction was 2003s "The Beyond". That album came at a time bands like Neurosis and Isis were really taking up much deserved metal publications space.
Now at album number five they are still going strong and from what I can hear they are still sounding fantastic. This album is reported to be influenced by Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis. After listening to a few tracks you can get that feeling of repetition and how frustrating seeing everything looking the same. Fritz Lang was heavily influenced after seeing the city of New York for the first time and seeing the large skyscrapers. That is how this album sounds like trying to get to the top of one of those buildings. The intro track "The One" is like the foyer to one of the skyscrapers. Welcoming but simple but that is over when "I: The Weapon" starts, the growling vocals making me think of classic hardcore metal but this soon passes for some well thought out melodic structures.
With the band wanting to simplify the album much of the sound and feel has been done with very little. With "Vicarious Redemption" simple little dark spaces of sound show how progressive this band can be. It does take me back to the early sounds of black metal where some bands only had a few instruments and a keyboard to make the sound they want.
With the sound at times taking me back it can also look into the future much like Metropolis being set in the future this album also seems to explore this. Adding in sounds that remind me of robots and machinery much more than a soundtrack album but it feels like a trip in itself. "Synchronicity" keeps the simple band sound but has the full compliment of ideas that they want to show in this album building on the atmosphere and still making music like how the film was made with very little. Simple chugging guitars and experimental guitar sounds intrigue and entertain all the way much like "In Awe Of" that keeps building momentum for the whole track but retains a real sense of emotion with the sounds coming over like a full orchestra it is amazing that this is listed in the metal section.
Cult of Luna seem to be happy to make each album sound different from each other and here they have made this sound different from there discography and just about anything I have heard in this style of music.
Concept albums can really be a hit or miss, they have to take you for the whole album or not at all. This 68 minutes really is refreshing.
9/10
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