Customer Reviews

Salvation

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I made a good choice when purchasing this album. No, a great choice. It's very similar to those artsy post-metal bands that we all love, with a tweek. The ambience in the songs are amazing, and remind me of Mogwai and Godspeed You Black Emperor!, but when it gets heavy, it gets HEAVY. You can tell right off the bat why they toured with Death by Stereo and Mastodon, but then again, they could just easily be lumped with any post-rock spacey prog band.

For fans of all that hydrahead crap, please buy this. And they're on earache, how can they suck? [I take that back, Adema are hideous, but I digress].

Sigh... someone needs to step up and do this album justice. I came across Salvation right when it came out, and over a year later I have yet to grow tired of it. I keep putting it down and moving onto something else, but like a fat man at a buffet I just keep coming back for more. And the musical buffet known as "Salvation" has plenty to keep me satisfied.

This is technical, heavy, atmospheric metal at its best. The way that Cult of Luna layer and build their music gives it a largeness that you rarely find anywhere. This music is heavy and HUGE! The album starts off with "Echoes" which begins as a strange yet captivating spacey song and slowly rises into typical Cult of Luna bludgeoning. From there on Cult of Luna weave a complex array of sound, ranging from quieter interludes to crushing riffs. The album is really intended to be listened through, and it works the best that way, as the songs complement each other and build into each other.

Cult of Luna may not have invented the "wall of sound" concept to metal, but they sure have perfected it. I suppose that having seven band members helps in that regard. They mix their heaviness with an atmospheric undertone, so that even in the quieter moments you can still sense the crushing climax waiting around the corner. The songs themselves are masterfully constructed, retaining progression and unity without becoming too boring or too random. There is a certain amount of *apparent* repetition to this kind of music, but after a few listens you realize that it is really a progression and not repetition at all.

Comparisons of Cult of Luna to ISIS are unfair and lazy at best. The bands do share the same genre, but Cult of Luna bring a different style, and a greater anger and intensity. Just listen to "Adrift" and notice that incredible, sludgy, chugging bassline and try to tell me that sounds like ISIS. That being said, most ISIS fans should love Salvation. Personally, it's a toss up as to which band I like better.

No new music I found in 2005 came close to topping Salvation. The crushing intensity and emotion of Cult of Luna just cannot be matched by most bands. No fan of noisecore, or atmospheric metal, or just plain great music should live without Salvation.

Salvation is possibly one of the greatest album's i've ever heard,I have it a while now and I just can't stop listening to it!It surpasses they're self titled first album cult of luna and they're second the beyond(not that i don't rate they're first two album's)I think they just nailed the sound they were looking for right on the head with this release which leave's me itching for they're forth album which is tiltled Somewhere along the highway and to be released april 24th 2006!But Back to Salvation It's nearly 74 minute's and for 8 tracks might seem a bit long for some but trust me it's perfect,every minute of salvation is amazing it'll take you to dark place's then bring you back to the light and when the 74 minute's are up you'll want to start the madness all over! So if you don't already own it i urge you to buy it now!!!!!

If you have ever wondered what a massive tour bus crash between Radiohead, Pink Floyd, and My Dying Bride/Type-O-Negative would sound like its all on disc here including the tortured screams.

With their sophomore album, The Beyond, Cult of Luna got their foot in the door of English-speaking audiences. Their third offering, Salvation, will kick it wide open. If there's one thing this seven-piece knows how to do, it's how to craft a glorious noise. The heavier moments on Salvation are so loud and dense and hulking it could collapse stars. The lighter moments, meanwhile, are full of eerie ambiance and surprisingly textured instrumentation. The lulls, though, are just lulls... and there are a few of them on this album. Make no mistake about it, the trail Cult of Luna are forging have already been paved by Neurosis, but there's something to be said about the sheer trippiness and monolithic grandeur of this type of music. If you don't mind having your brain blown out the back of your head, put on Salvation and get ready for a truly mind-bending experience.

Cult of Luna's _Salvation_ is highly derivative of later Isis. Yet if you really like Isis and you want more music that like that, this is a great choice. It is an extended, slowly-developing mix of scintillating stardust and oceanic mass. The music moves at a glacial pace -- nearly every song is 10 minutes, and the rising-and-falling shape of the music contains only gradual slopes. The band seems to unleash incredible cosmic forces at its peaks! Its quieter moments are as lovely as Explosions in the Sky's. The production is mammoth, but definitely has a less polished side than Isis' recent _Panopticon_ (do you have that one?). One part brutish, and one part spiritually enriched, _Salvation_ will go nicely with your Isis cds.

...which is actually Neurosis whom Isis "ripped off" too. So it's just natural that all these bands sound alike in a way. Regardless, "Salvation" is of much higher quality than the new Isis (which is too metalcore-ish and one-dimensional) or Neurosis albums and maybe the band's best offering yet. Essential doomcore/post-metal!

I am neurotic. I really want to give this less than three stars but above two-and-a-half. I don't mean to nitpick, but something about this album makes it worthy, and on the other hand doesn't make it worthy. Of course I review this album objectively. Personally I don't care for it much (although I still like it enough to keep it around). If you've seen the way I do other reviews you know I cover all albums by a band in one review (saves tons of time and really there is no need to do otherwise). But concerning this particular band, I have only heard "Salvation" all the way through. I never waste my time reviewing something I hate (pretty much anything on the radio)because the fans of maroon five will be fans no matter what-and that's fine. But I chose to review this band so the potential buyer knows it's not quite worth the hype. I do this because COL have been getting a lot of press (underground of course) in magazines, etc. Now obviously since reading about this band, you know to expect something different, melodic, and experimental (but you also know it's heavy b/c the band has had huge articles/interviews in metal mags). So you know you're not getting some death metal album. My guess is you're thinking Radiohead meets heavy metal. Sounds sweet right? Well, I think in putting the band in this category of something new and experimental (even though Neurosis was doing similar things earlier), they lose some musical credibility. When, listening to COL you expect to hear a lot of soundscapes, effetcs, programming and just overall interesting sound engineering. Maybe something like Incubus's new stuff. But the thing is, Mike Eizenger can pull it off and make it innovative (cuz he's a [...]). They have two guitar players, keyboard player, and a guy who just does like programming/samples and stuff like that. They hardly use any of these members for anything worthwhile. The slow, supposedly innovative, experimental side of their music is extremely simplistic and lethargic in it's approach. It's redundant and abuses its time extension. The heavy side is doom-ladden and repetitive. The production is clear, but the eq and effects makes the guitars and aural soundscapes somewhat dirty and buried under mirk. It's almost is if they tried to make that album I mentioned but fell a bit short. However the heavy parts are catchy and the eq makes it interesting. I find Isis more interesting as something similar musically. Good, but not worth all the new attention.

Wow, this is pathetic. Blatant Isis imitation. Not only is the music a second rate Isis knockoff, but the vocals especially sound so much like older Isis stuff. This band is a joke. Well at least we know if Pelican is ever unable to fulfill their duties as redundant Isis wannabes we'll have Cult Of Luna to fall back on. I'd rather listen to Transmission0 though.

I didn't much care for this CD when I wrote the previous review...and then I had a revelation: to fully appreciate "Salvation" it is necessary to be on heroin, or at least presciption painkillers! I mean, the thing is so SLOW we non-junkies can't comprehend its pretentious "beauty". I am sure its true genius is revealed when the listener's brain is pumped full of opiates.