A Long-Term Investment for Those Who Seek Beauty in Darkness - A Review of Cult of Luna's The Long Road North

Roughly a year after the release of masterful extended play The Raging River, Swedish sextet Cult of Luna offers a full length effort with nine songs and a generous running time of sixty-nine minutes. The band's style is often described as atmospheric sludge and experimetal post-metal but I would also add death-doom to properly categorize the band.

The group's sound revolves around slow, sinister and repetitive guitar riffs, adventurous, stoic and thunderous rhythm section and passionate melodic death metal vocals. Songs like the blistering opener ''Cold Burn'' will take you an epic journey into the abyss as its ten minutes unfold like a nightmarish soundtrack you won't awake from. ''The Silver Arc'' is roughly two minutes shorer but even more intense with relentless screaming, pitiless riffs and energetic rhythm section.

The band however also knows when to slow down and offer some calmer interludes that evoke gloomy, haunting and mysterious emotions. ''Beyond (I)'' offers simplistic musicianship somewhere between post-metal with hints of neofolk that create a wonderful backdrop for guest singer Mariam Wallentin who manages to unfold her ageless, natural and vibrant vocals splendidly. The closing counterpart ''Beyond (II)'' coud come from an ambient, dream pop and dark jazz soundtrack in the key of Angelo Badalamenti's greatest works and Nine Inch Nails' most experimental releases. Haunting lyricon sounds, nervous saxophone hints and soothing flute passages unite in a meandering, mystifying and scary result that evokes the unique sounds of space.

The Swedish sextet might however best unfold its rich potential in the record's longest tunes. ''An Offering to the Wild'' clocks in at almost thirteen minutes and takes its time to meander from dark ambient sounds over neofolk sections intertwined with decent darkwave passages to swaggering doom metal sections and explosive melodic death metal sections that gradually lose themselves in hypnotizing chaos. ''Blood upon Stone'' is roughly a minute shorter but just as intense. It combines mellow melodies with brooding rhythm section before the guitar play takes a more desperate, destructive and somber turn as it's complemented by grim, harsh and nightmarish vocals. The song intensifies in energy and pace before a gloomy, slow and unstable instrumental middle section makes you feel the calm before the storm. The song indeed picks up its initial pace and even pushes the boundaries further with accelerated drum patterns, nihilistic guitar riffs and relentless vocals that sound almost more animalistic than human. This rendition sounds intense, pure and timeless.

Cult of Luna's The Long Road North can't be fully grasped after one or two spins and might not unfold its full potential as background music or compressed version on your cell phone.This record needs time to grow and is best enjoyed with a sophisticated sound system while the listener is focusing on the album's hidden details behind the wall of wild insanity. This record is a long-term investment for patient listeners who are willing to find beauty in darkness. This record almost has a therapeutical dimension as it takes you on an adventurous voyage into the darkest abyss. While critics and fans might consider this album very good at first contact, it has the potential to grow over a longer period of time and make it onto quite a few lists for album of the year.

On a closing sidenote, let me suggest you to purchase this record's limited Japanese version that includes the entire The Raging River extended play featuring five exclusive tunes with a total running time of thirty-nine minutes. These five songs have a more immediate impact and atmospherically, creatively and stylistically complement the full length effiort splendidly. In total, you will get one hundred eight minutes of magical music that has the potential to leave a lasting impression upon you.

Final Rating: 85%