### Cult Of Luna: Vertikal

#### 05/02/13 || jaimeviejo

In case you are allergic, Cult of Luna’s first album in four years is a concept album based on the visual imagery of Fritz Lang’s cult classic Metropolis. An interesting and adventurous idea that is borderline pretentious, I could never imagine how someone can make an album evoking images from a movie so complex. These doubts are not really based on my personal suspicion but on the fact that Cult of Luna, while enjoyable, is not the most innovative bunch. All their albums have been built on crescendos and brutal grooves, sounding like the bastard sons of Neurosis but without the delicacy of their masters.

I just needed ten minutes to see that the band’s evolution has stepped up notably with this release. After the atmospheric and futuristic intro, the band gets back to business with one of the best tracks, “I: The Weapon” but with some surprises along the way. This evolution, that crept in during their last album “Eternal Kingdom”, comes to life in “Vertikal” and reintroduces their heavy signature sound with a complex array of well-thought-out melodic arrangements.

The longest number, an almost twenty-minute epic “Vicarious Redemption”, is an astonishing crescendo that sounds misplaced as the third song but that leads to the second and best part of the album with tracks like the Neurosis inspired “Synchronicity” or “In Awe of”. The three instrumentals pieces are interesting too and showcase the talents of the band as creators of eerie electronic textures.

Cult of Luna, while primitive in their delivery have always shown an appetite for evocative and epic melodic passages, and that comes in full force here in “Vertikal”. I’m not saying that this album is easy listening. We are talking Cult of Luna here folks, but it is probably the least metal of their albums. The inclusion of different instruments, production choices, and non-metal arrangements give the recording a feeling of complexity never heard before in any of their previous releases. Clean voices, synths, and tribal drum beats are cleverly used to increase the dramatic effect of their compositions, like in “Mute Departure”, one of the best compositions of the band to date.

Choosing the best Cult of Luna album is like choosing your favorite Neurosis album, a difficult task that can only create arguments between listeners. Instead, each one of us has an album that stands out more than others for some reason, and I’m sure “Vertikal” is going to resonate in the hearts of many fans as the most versatile and experimental album of the band to date and as another triumph in their monolithic discography.

- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Indie Recordings
- Website: Cult Of Luna Facebook
- Band
- Klas Rydberg: vocals
- Erik Olofsson: guitars
- Fredrik Kihlberg: guitars, vocals
- Johannes Persson: guitars, vocals
- Andreas Johansson: bass
- Anders Teglund: keyboards, electronics
- Magnus Lindberg: drums
- Thomas Hedlund: drums, percussion

- Tracklist
- 01. The One
- 02. I: The Weapon
- 03. Vicarious Redemption
- 04. The Sweep
- 05. Synchronicity
- 06. Mute Departure
- 07. Disharmonia
- 08. In Awe of
- 09. Passing Through