Cult of Luna
In the Shadow of Your Shadow
RED CRK
Cult of Luna are among the great modern practitioners when it comes to music that’s titanic in musical and thematic scope, both in terms of full-length releases and individual songs—a band that operates according to their own spatiotemporal rules. The Swedish post-metalers craft music of such weight and mass that it moves like an iceberg calving, while their records have encompassed bold thematic concepts like space exploration (2016’s Mariner), a mental patient’s diary (2008’s Eternal Kingdom), and Metropolis-inspired futuristic cities (2013’s Vertikal).
In short, the six-piece never half-asses a record. Their work is meticulously thought-through. What makes it so fantastic is that, despite this description, it palpably courses with relentless, broiling feeling, practically shaking at the seams like some overheating machine or a sinkhole collapsing deep in the Scandi woods. Their 10th full-length In the Shadow of Your Shadow is among their darkest, hardest-hitting statements. Similar in mood and palette to this year’s gnarly Russian Circles album, these nine tracks are painted in the same rich, deep black, white, and gray hues of the album’s cover art. The mood here is storm-like: an intense journey across roiling inner seas. Vocalist/guitarist Johannes Pearson has described the loose thematic focus as exploring personal darkness, how humans quell demons that one day will inevitably return.
This jet-black focus is not wholly accurate in terms of the In the Shadow of Your Shadow listening experience, though. Cult of Luna’s music is too beautiful, too surgingly transcendent to ever wholly feel like you’re being embraced by the darkness. Sure, the two opening tracks are misanthropic monsters. “Sadness Will Reign” (which features Gojira’s Joe Duplantier) is among Cult of Luna’s most doom-laden bangers, while the title track is a true beast—awe-inspiring and terrifying like a Lovecraftian leviathan. But the really spectacular stuff happens when the band tries on more unorthodox fits. The lengthy, windswept “Breach” is intensely linear, a compelling, atmospheric journey. The most extraordinary track is closer “Burial.” Rife with gorgeous textural touches and a closing passage that’ll have your soul pushing out of your chest, it’s one of the band’s finest tracks to date.
The whole 71-minute experience is so gripping and tension-laden, it almost resembles the Shepard tone illusion; constantly rising without reaching an end. Cult of Luna’s latest epic is a state of continual ascension, trying to break free from this scorched earth and head up into the ashen clouds, searching for—and sometimes finding—shafts of rapturous light.
