CULT OF LUNA – Somewhere Along The Highway

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9.0

• Bands:
  CULT OF LUNA
• Duration: 01:04:40
• Available from: 05/17/2006
• Label:

• Earache

Cult Of Luna are now considered a giant of the post-metal and post-rock scene, but in 2006, when they were composing “Somewhere Along The Highway”, their status was not yet such. The genre had already seen the publication of several cornerstones, such as “Oceanic” and “Panopticon” by Isis, “It's Me God” by Breach (the only testimony of the time coming from Europe, and even from Sweden itself) and – above all – the four Neurosis releases from “Souls At Zero” to “A Sun That Never Sets”. Yet, expectations for this album had soared: the Umeå band came from the already excellent “Salvation”, and many were sure of a further evolution, even if the result will probably go beyond expectations.
Like many other bands dedicated to these sounds, it is worth remembering that Cult Of Luna was born from the ashes of a hardcore band, Eclipse, in 1999: the creators of the new project were the singer Klas Rydberg, who remained in the lineup until 2012, and Johannes Persson, still guitarist and vocalist of the group. The self-titled debut was a record that we could classify under the heading sludge metal, while in the subsequent “The Beyond” and in the aforementioned “Salvation” interesting innovations could be glimpsed, in the form of forays into post-rock and post-metal.
“Somewhere Along The Highway” decisively takes this path, with a softening of the sounds and the incorporation of rarefied and psychedelic atmospheres; compared to its predecessors, the ingredients have not changed, but the dosage has varied, with hypnotic and bewitching parts taking over the electric outbursts. The effect is surprising: music that rests on an unstable balance, full of a kind of hysterical calm, always on the verge of exploding, a river that flows inexorably and very slowly overwhelms everything in its path. Banally, we could take inspiration from the title and talk about a journey, whether concrete or abstract, along a road that crosses our perception and our senses, without a precise destination but with the sole purpose of telling what happens during the journey; the theme explored is often that of solitude, addressed with metaphors and profound sensitivity from a lyrical point of view, while, musically, a team consisting of eight elements allows for unlimited expressive freedom, as well as the possibility of experimenting with solutions such as two drums, three guitars or overlapping voices.
The introduction is entrusted to “Marching To The Heartbeats”, with an initial distortion that dissolves into fragile piano notes, while Rydberg recites a few painful and declaiming verses. With the almost eleven minutes of the following “Finland” we already enter the heart of the album: tribal drums accompanied by energetic riffs surround desperate screams, to then get lost in a sweet acoustic interlude and start again with tense and threatening guitars, in a crescendo of epicness that takes your breath away; an emotional and evocative piece, so much so that it is still, years later, one of the fixed points in the Swedes' live performances. “Back To Chapel Town” is dark, violent, with an inconsistent rhythm, made up of surges and slowdowns, but always characterized by a strong heaviness, until, suddenly, the fury calms down and a dreamy ending appears , something that could belong to the more dreamlike side of Mogwai. These quiet atmospheres continue with “And With Her Came The Birds”, surprising for how it moves between blues and country, you can even see a banjo, with a voice that exudes a sense of abandonment, but seems to come from a more deserted and sunny country. than from a cold northern land. The long electric arpeggio of “Thirtyfour” brings us back to reality: a martial pace, with the usual, unpredictable alternation of vehement assaults and melodic openings, leads us through a dense and full-bodied state of hallucination, with rare moments of light. “Dim” is instrumental for a long part of its duration, with the guitars that seem to repeat a few different chords from each other only for the intensity, before an unexpected closure, with a vocal explosion and some techno-style digressions. But it is with “Dark City, Dead Man” that we reach unattainable peaks, in one of the most representative songs in the entire history of post-metal: a quarter of an hour full of electrifying sonic ups and downs, seasoned with a psychedelia that transports us into another dimension, with a cinematic impact that leaves you astounded.
“Somewhere Along The Highway” is an essential album for the evolution of its genre, an album which, despite being a snapshot of the moment in which it was made and of the point of view of whoever wrote it, is still relevant today, as well as a source of inspiration for dozens of bands. It is difficult to establish whether this is the creative peak of Cult Of Luna, who in their varied discography have undertaken unexpected paths and can boast other works of an excellent level, but these seven songs cannot be ignored if you want to understand what happened in followed.