Phonebook Eater 8/10

Tides Of Distortion, Waves Of Emotion.

The first two albums from Cult Of Luna were interesting and promising, but missing of sophistication, maturity, and overall replay value. Many Metal bands start with releases of this sort, even the great bands. Cult Of Luna as a matter of fact might just be one of these bands; in 2004, only a year after their sophomore album, “Salvation” hits the metal community like a thunderbolt.

Like many Sludge Metal bands, the Swedish decided to fill their music with shades of Post-Rock and mixing them with their basic Sludge roots, resulting in a music that has been labeled by some Post-Metal, with acts such as Isis and Neurosis being principal pioneers. Cult Of Luna’s music now is distinct and unique, despite not being particularly innovating. The length of the songs has stretched, the recording is clean and generous to details, but not clean enough to ruin the body-crushing riffs that domain most of this album. The songwriting here is the massive improvement, as songs such as the opening track “Echoes” clearly proves, an eleven minute monster that for the first five minutes beautifully builds up to an eventual climax. It’s a perfect summary of what the remaining hour of the album has to offer, which is a complex pattern of Post-Rockish crescendos and bursts of crunchy riffage, occasionally veiled by bold electronic sounds to further enrich the music.

Other noteworthy songs include the towering, eleven-minute, rhythm-heavy “Vague Illusions”, The long build ups of “Waiting For You” and “Crossing Over”, and the shorter, to-the-point catchy and heavy songs like “White Cell” and “Leave Me Here”. Then there’s “Into the Beyond”, the final settlement, one of the best moments Cult Of Luna has ever accomplished, full of ups and downs and emotional swings.

“Salvation” doesn’t deny its influences from bands like Isis, but its sound is fresh enough and its level of musicianship is high enough for it to be generally considered to be one of the most successful, complex, and elaborate Sludge Metal albums ever released. Also, the fact that Cult Of Luna still today have other great things to say makes them one of the best Sludge Metal acts.

Warthur At first I wasn't so sure about this album, but it turned out to be what I think of as an "instant grower" - when I started listening to it for the first time I wasn't so impressed, but even in the middle of that first listen I started hearing more and more that I liked until by the end I was very enthusiastic about it. A capable and competent piece of post-metal with expertly judged compositions combining tormented, outraged death metal and mellower post-rock segments, Salvation is one of those rare 73 minute albums which feel much, much shorter than they actually are - simply put, absolutely nothing here outstays its welcome.

KeohaneWaltz I haven't listened to previous albums by Cult of Luna, but I am really impressed with this release, specially taking in count that “Panopticon” debuted the very same year as this one. At first listen it may seem as this band uses the classic build up formula mastered by post-rock titans like Mogwai or Godspeed, but as we listen further into the album we can sense a real desire of exploration, and it shows the potential of the genre. Yes, maybe this album is not as good as “Somewhere Along the Highway” but it’s a clear example of what many bands of post-metal really want to accomplish but can't because they stick to the formula.

Doomster Yet another reason why Sweden is my personal favorite metal country.

Alot of people say Cult of Luna's following effort, "Somewhere Along The Highway" is the band's best album, however, I personally disagree. Don't get me wrong, I love SATH with all my heart, but I will always have a soft spot for CoL's preceeding release, "Salvation". "Salvation" is arguably where this Swedish post-metal/atmospheric sludge metal act first showed the world their true genius. The band's first two albums, the self-titled debut and "The Beyond", were the most, raw, agressive, and visceral outputs by the band.

On "Salvation", however, things have changed up a bit. Like Dirge from France, and Isis and Neurosis from California (who are all also post metal bands), the band has arguably incorporated less metal elements as their music evolved. "Salvation" is one such case of this with Cult of Luna.

While it is true that there are mostly softer, cleaner elements on this album, that's not to say that "Salvation" isn't a metal album. There are plenty of heavy moments here. For example, a song would start off as soft, and then completely explode in your face, usually taking a large chunk of time to do so, adding false buildups to shake things up. Some songs, though, are heavy right off the bat, like the song song "Adrift" (which has one of the greatest riffs ever, I may add) which stays mostly heavy during it's entire duration. Another song worthy of mention is "Waiting For You", which has one of the most unfuckingbelievably righteous build ups I have ever heard in a metal song, before evolving into some hypnotic heavy riffage, some vocals...and then the song ends.

This is my favorite album by Cult of Luna. Sure, there sound isn't for everyone, but I personally think this is their best outing yet. Highlights include: "Adrift", "Waiting For You" (my personal favorite CoL song ever) and "Vague Illusions". If you are a fan of Isis, Neurosis, Pelican, Dirge, etc., pick it up.