Customer Reviews

Somewhere Along the Highway

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Cult of Luna's fourth album Somewhere Along the Highway was miraculously recorded in merely seven days. Given their amazing back catalog and how their previous effort Salvation was considered their peak, this is certainly interesting. How can you follow up such a masterpiece with an album recorded so quickly? Well, Cult of Luna have once again achieved it. Though too early to form a final opinion, Somewhere Along the Highway may end up being most of their fans' favourite release in more than one way.

While accurate to a certain extent, comparing Cult of Luna to Isis, Pelican, and Neurosis constantly would be unfair. It is true that all of these bands have a lot in common musically, but upon careful listens, beautiful subtleties emerge on each band's work. Of the four bands though, Cult of Luna's music is arguably the most linear one. Never for a moment do they sacrifice song structure in hopes of impressing the listener with their meandering instrumentals or oft-changing chord progressions. That said, complex arrangements and monstrous soundscapes are aplenty on any of their albums, including Somewhere Along the Highway. However, Cult of Luna songs are always masterfully constructed, mixing heaviness with an atmospheric undertone. Churning rhythms are repeated to generate a feeling of unity before unleashing massive cosmic forces at the most unexpected breaking points. The aggressive hardcore type of scream vocals are less prominent on this disc. Actually Klas Rydberg sings in his calming clean voice on several tracks, which sounds a lot more mature and improved this time around. The drone approach also takes a back seat, giving way to a more open sound through most of the album, where the band successfully creates spacey atmospheres and flashes of uplifting enlightment.

Starting with the ambitious "Marching to the Heartbeats", Rydberg's clean vocals and the dreamy ebb and flow on the musical landscape, along with beautifully strummed acoustic guitars, bring to mind the serene moments heard on Mogwai albums, before the vocalist graces the piece with his tortured screams, not too different from his work on The Beyond. The riffs and continued brutal vocals on "Finland" suggest that the previous track was just a lengthy intro to the piece, as the drone effect is almost nonexistent, leaving its place to much welcome heavy passages. Drums roll while guitars form an ethereal mood on "Back to Chapel Town", with soul-crushing screaming, and big, wall-of-sound guitars.

"And With Her Came the Birds" is utterly depressing and minimalistic. Completely clean-sung, the song features echoic guitar arpeggios, emphasized lyrics, a slowly-developing keyboard mix in the background, and a beautifully performed acoustic guitar-like instrument that has an odd exotic feel to it. "Thirtyfour" and "Dim" are mostly instrumental songs, save for their ending, where vocals explode during passages of reflection and melancholy. Thomas Hedlund's drumming on "Thirtyfour" lends it an almost funeral doom metal vibe, with sparse yet powerfully nuanced rhythms, while his unusual percussion blends nicely with the electronic sampling placed neatly underneath. A song with shifting dynamics, it contains both super-heavy sections with growling bass and guitar and softer, more fragile textures. "Dim" is arguably the most spacey number on the album, again marked by unforgettable drumming, and a largely electronic backdrop. Yet everything is so perfectly balanced that this is perhaps the most organic song on the platter, with its open sound and creative mixing. Rydberg's vocals arrive exactly during the song's most climactic phase, making it one of their most amazing songs to date.

Never heard Cult of Luna before and don't know where to begin? Start with Somewhere Along the Highway. Up until a month ago, I'd have laughed if someone said they are going to top Salvation, but it seems this band has no limits. Very highly recommended.

Introspection, and isolation are words that come to mind when I am listening to Cult of Luna's "Somewhere Along the Highway". This band has been labeled as sludge doom and "post-metal", a genre-du-jour that of late has been used to describe bands such as Neurosis, Isis, The Red Sparrows and Pelican. In fact, some places even state that the genre was created by Neurosis, with the others following their lead. Cult of Luna has often and unfairly been dubbed imitators. This album surely illustrates that this band are an entity to be noticed. They have created a dichotomy of glacial delicacy and brutal loneliness and loss.

I wonder often about the term "post-metal", since so many of the tracks on this album certainly sound like "metal" to me. There is no doubt that the churning guitars and pounding drums on tracks "Finland" and "Back to Chapel Town" are heavy enough to qualify as decidedly metal. Vocalist Klas Rydberg illustrates that he can roar with the best, as well as sing in a beautiful clean and soothing way.

The fourth track is a real treat, and displays Rydberg's beautiful low and mellow clean vocal style. "And With her Came the Birds" is an icy doom ballad that creeps along at a funereal pace. Slow and sparse reverb-laden guitar chords are played to support banjo (yes, banjo) arpeggios while Rydberg chants the seriously unsettling lyrics:

"Dead man with pitchfork arms tells me all that he knows.
Leave me here for the crows.
In the fall she came back, and with her the birds."

Minimal and disturbing, this song has to be the most unique single "song" I have heard all year. This song alone would have reserved a spot on my list. It is followed appropriately with the wonderfully gloomy "Thirtyfour", a song that decidedly proclaims this band's doom metal roots.

A convenient term when describing an album of this sort is "atmospheric". Overused, even by me, this term certainly applies to the songwriting found here. Much of the last two songs "Dim" and "Dark City, Dead Man" is instrumental. Cult of Luna takes the high road, so to speak, by not including a trendy "noise" or "drone" track. All of the songs on this album, albeit hypnotic in places, are melodic and carefully composed. Abandoning political and social themes, this album contains subject matter that is much more personal and introspective. The lyrics throughout tell a story of the archetypical search for the ideal other, longing, lost love, and loss of identity. The heartbreaking denouement "Dark City, Dead Man" could almost be used as a movie soundtrack in parts. It is epic, sprawling and moody with an ending that will leave you on the floor.

I cannot finish this review without mentioning the production. This album was recorded and mixed in a barn in the middle of nowhere. I am amazed at how perfect the natural reverb of this place complimented the music as written. The result is stunning.

Like the younger brother of the football hero, straight-A, chick magnet high school senior, Somewhere Along the Highway (SWATH) can't win no matter what it does. As good as it is, this album will forever suffer the comparisons to Cult of Luna's monumental album, "Salvation." And for me, it comes up slightly lacking in that comparison.

That's not to say that SWATH is a bad album. In fact, it's fantastic - easily my favorite of the year so far. How can you hate any metal album that uses a banjo? In typical Cult of Luna fashion, they have come through with an amazingly focused piece of work. Post-rock meanderings or musical over-embellishments are not to be found here.

Although it's a strange thing to say considering how heavy this album is, I consider it to be the most mellow album Cult of Luna have done thus far. From a band that layers and builds its music so well, SWATH is surprisingly sparse at times. Overall, Cult of Luna show a slight, but noticeable, evolution towards the more complex here. The electronic sounds seem to be more prevalent, and they try their hand (and more or less succeed) at pulling off a monster 15 minute track. But fear not, for the old Cult of Luna is still in here. On the amazing track "Back to Chapel Town," they pull out that old sludgy, chugging baseline that I don't think I could ever get tired of. This track is worth the price of admission by itself.

SWATH could be called a more ambitious album than Salvation, but I don't think that it works quite as well. Salvation was a monumental step forward for Cult of Luna, and is an album I completely fell in love with. So yes, I have a little bias. SWATH is a great album, and should easily remain my #1 or #2 pick of the year, but if I had to take one Cult of Luna album with me to the desert island, it would be Salvation.

Oh, and would bonehead "editors" please stop calling Cult of Luna "apocalyptic?" I mean is there a lazier, more meaningless term out there to describe a band? I can empathize - this is extremely difficult music to pigeonhole, hence the constant cross references in reviews to other bands, but in the end, that's why I love Cult of Luna so much.

I always felt that 'Salvation', although a great record in its own right, seemed to be the product of a slightly rash musical decision. I never quite understood why nearly ALL distortion and extremity had to be eschewed. Cult Of Luna's first two albums are sprawling masterpieces of caustic doom-core, and although one can empathise with their feeling that a third album in that vein would be a misstep, the noiseless, spaced-out 'Salvation' was perhaps an OVERstep. I like bands to be brave, but the songs themselves didn't quite stand up to the likes of 'Sleep' and 'Arrival' from their earlier efforts.

It was with some caution that I picked up 'Somewhere Along The Highway', but to my delight it's actually a fantastic album. They haven't sacrificed their taste for the melodic, but it just seems to have been done much better than before. There's more substance here this time. The slow, atmospheric sections are warmer, more spare, more beautiful, and when it builds up to the heavy sections (and they are REALLY heavy) it seems to have more purpose. The riffs have not only become bigger and better, they've managed to get deeper as well - more dense and layered than ever before. The production on this one really is remarkable too, as it manages to recreate the more awe-inspiringly heavy parts of 'The Beyond' and float them seamlessly into 'Salvation's delicacy.

They've taken cues from post-rock, but the result is as resolutely Cult Of Luna as it's ever been. The closing monolith 'Dark City, Dead Man' is simply jaw-dropping. Buy 'Somewhere Along The Highway' if, like me, you're waiting anxiously for the next Isis and Neurosis albums, or you miss Breach, or if nothing else quite hits both soft and heavy bases at the same time.

Guys, this is IT. The classic Cult of Luna have always been threatening to make. I hesitate to use the word "mature", since these guys were pretty damn mature to begin with, but anyone can point to this as the logical conclusion to the end-time rumblings of The Beyond and Salvation. COL have walked into the Swedish forests and emerged with something damn near cosmic and unidentifiable. Sure, I could do without the Neurosis-like plod-a-thon "And With Her Came the Birds", but that bump in the road can be easily overlooked when it's surrounded by such thunderous material as "Finland" and "Back to Chapel Town". Seven tracks, and I don't think I can take seven more. Dark, mystic and expansive, this is what all art metal should aspire to be.

I've had this album for a while now and it is still as strong as it was on day one. Salvation was a good album but this one takes this band to a whole new level. This is the best album in recent memory and continues to get better with each listen. If you're a fan of Isis, Pelican, and Neurosis you will love this album. This album puts Cult of Luna beyond those three. I would be amazed if they are able to improve on this one.

The juxtaposition of delicate, reverberating guitars alongside emotion-fuelled raucous vocals isnt usually an option in a genre saturated with violently strewn metallic anthems. But Cult Of Luna deliver an experimentally atmospheric dosage of sheer musical multiplicity that displays the diversity of heavy metal. This band alter the tempo effortlessly, combining stomping drum beats that echo like the offloading of bulging rage on 'FInland', with the melodic and sensitive intros to 'Back To Chapel Town' and 'And With Her Came The Birds'. This album is certainly an eye-opener for all those who daren't give this genre a chance.

Words cannot even express the amazing musicianship and song-writing on this album. This is one of the most inspired pieces of music to come out this year and I cannot wait to hear what else is in store from this band!

I specifically asked MovieMars BEFORE I bought this CD from them, if it was the digipak that contains 2 the bonus songs. They replied and confirmed that it was indeed the digipak. Once I received the CD, it dissappointing to find that I had been lied to by MovieMars, it was not the digipak and did NOT contain the 2 bonus songs. So I had been swindled by them paying top dollar for the digipak and getting lied to. The regular CD is good however, I am just upset that crooks have taken advantage of me, lied to me, in affect stealling extra money from me for the digipak, which I really wanted. I contacted their customer service and was given an automated run around via email.