CULT OF LUNA - Vertikal

Most of the times when I discover a band that was founded years ago I tell myself what an idiot I was to let such great music pass me by for so long. And things were no different with the Swedish band Cult of Luna, a band that I discovered when it was officially announced that their tour would go through Romania. Whenever I heard the name Cult of Luna, I was under the impression that it was some whiny gothic doom metal, maybe with a very sad female voice, a genre that I find to be the metallic version of funeral songs, because both make me slit my veins. Much to my surprise, things are quite different. What this band plays couldn’t be any farther from what I believed: they just make you want to live forever. And if you get this feeling from the album, imagine listening to it live.

The seven Swedes play post metal with progressive influences and elements of stoner doom in places - something that is hard to explain in words, especially to people who haven’t heard the band’s music. Plus, I find it hard to think of a band that might have left a decisive influence on Cult of Luna, so I’ll leave that to you, perhaps you are luckier.

Vertikal consists of nine songs (including an intro two intermezzos), and my favourites are Vicarious Redemption and Synchronicity. We also have one song that not only rises above all Cult of Luna songs so far, but is literally one of the best song in the history of all songs in the world. And this is, of course In Awe of, a song so surprising that I identified three moments when you think it will suddenly end and then a saving passage appears just when you least expect it. About bad songs, well, there are none, even though I’ve tried to find some flaw to show you... to no avail. So, nothing to worry about here.

So, if there is now a band hoping to have an “Album of the Year”, they’d better postpone their release by six months, because Cult of Luna have already staked their claim on the first place with this amazing album.

Fantotzii Nota: 9.5