Cult Of Luna
Eternal Kingdom

THE REVIEW

A day like this. Heavy drops of water batter the glass surfaces of the windows and lash them. Everywhere, only silence is broken by the sometimes rhythmic and harmonious dance of the bad weather that descends from the overcast sky and crashes to the ground, exhausting every strength and every beautiful memory. Delicate and subdued, but if you find yourself in the middle, scraping and putrid. Here it is.

Here we talk about Cult of Luna and their latest work "Eternal Kingdom". Here we talk about an endless interlude in the gray that is about to turn into the darkest of darkness, illuminated by nothing and with so much, really a lot, of repressed anger.
Their music is a fascinating blend of blurred, barely perceptible sensations, and rule-free minimalism which, however, at many moments surrenders to an orgy of sounds that cut into the flesh and make it bleed, like a sharp claw. Distortions, abrupt breaks, simple and catchy guitar riffs and long passages at will, crown an album that, if you listen closely, for some reason, you can't quite understand, it captures you and offers no escape. Maybe it's because Cult of Luna is a mature band where every member knows exactly where they want to head, or maybe because their genre, always a step into the avant-garde not too far and a step into the seventies Doom has always fascinated me, the fact is that the elements to appreciate such a work are many and multifaceted.

This "Eternal Kingdom" is certainly not a miracle of originality. Nothing you hear can be said to be "unique," but its strength certainly doesn’t lie in what Cult of Luna represents, but rather in what they express, and in the excellently haunting manner in which they do so. No musical genre definition was more fitting for this group: "Sludge." Tons of mud that dirties everything it permeates, submerging it.
Psychedelia, Post-Rock, Seventies, Post-Core, are words that mean nothing when you listen to such a strong and well-blended union of sounds. For instance, in "Ghost Trial", where a muted background slowly climbs upwards wrapping itself in its ascent, representing a direct proportional relationship between, on one hand, the anger that boils in the stomach and gradually intensifies, and the sense of discomfort experienced while listening to the track. Then, finally, a monolithic, very slow break closes every door and every hope that the discomforting atmosphere remains just a memory.

The beauty of this album is that, indeed, the sound effects are not that refined, not so perfect as in certain Doom areas, where keyboards and synths are rampant to set a desolate and confined picture. Cult of Luna excel in their intent, which is to create apprehension and anxiety, also, and especially because their raw sonic minimalism, closely related to a Southern Rock that is now hardly remembered, leaves one stunned and astonished. In songs like "The Lure", you can even hear a trumpet echoing lowly, and right after, in "Mire Deep", however, truncated and effected sounds give way to guitar riffs that want to be furious, but instead remain on the same tone as before, breaking nothing of what has been created until then.

I do not know and I really don't believe this album will ever be remembered in the annals of Metal and Doom. Surely there will be bands of the same genre or similar that have done and will do better. I just say that, as for me, songs like "Eternal Kingdom" and "The Great Migration" gave me the impression of a gray, sick, and distant nebula that gradually approached and then struck me, clinging to my skin, making it cold and sweaty under my clothes. A catharsis, a sonic nemesis where the impulse to flee becomes stronger and more unbearable, but until you have immersed yourself totally in the alchemical boiling cauldron of Cult of Luna's sounds, you will never be able to free yourself from the anxious estrangement into which you have plunged.

Pay attention, they might not please you too much and then you will be tied to this album. Here there are no deep and chaotic instrumental sections. Everything is subdued and depressed. This collection of songs makes you appreciate silence, because perhaps it would axiomatically represent a way out of the shapeless and dimensionless place from which Cult of Luna hails and where they wish to relegate you.

Dreamlike. Nothing more to say.