Cult of Luna

Cult of Luna is an atmospheric sludge/doom metal/post-metal/post-hardcore band formed in 1998 in Umeå, Sweden by guitarist/vocalist Johannes Persson and vocalist Klas Rydberg, after the Swedish hardcore band Eclipse broke up. It began as a traditional sludge band and has slowly integrated greater degrees of post-rock into its sound. After some member hunting and rehearsals CoL had its first line-up consisting of: Klas Rydberg, Johannes Persson, Magnus Lindberg, Erik Olofsson and Fredrik Renstrom. After a short period of time, Fredrik had to leave due to some personal difficulties.

When practice started to pay off, CoL recorded a two-track demo in January 1999. After some more rehearsals, the band felt that to fully live out their dream of sound experimenting, an additional member was needed to handle the electronics. Since Magnus had both knowledge and equipment, he was an obvious choice. Given that Magnus had handled the drums earlier they needed a new drummer, who they found in the mutual friend Marco Hilden. A new bass player was also found, named Axel Stattin. Another mutual friend helped CoL release their first record. Tim Bertilsson, head of Trust No One Recordings released a 7" split vinyl with his own band Switchblade.

Watching a concert at the Trastock Festival, year 2000, UK label Rage of Achilles got in contact with CoL. Pretty soon after that it was agreed that RoA was to release CoL's debut full-length album (entitled Cult of Luna). Release date was September 14th 2001. In these days Hydra Head Records had also shown interest in CoL, and this co-operation resulted in a two-track 7" colored vinyl (also entitled Cult of Luna) on HHR, released March 24th 2002. These two songs were recorded at the same time as the self-titled full-length on RoA. Immediately after the release of the first album, news of the band's mammoth sound worked its way into cult circles and the band received rave reviews. Discerning listeners instantly appreciated the band's unique approach, trading light and dark to create music that hit the heart and the head in equal measures.

After the success of the first album, Earache Records contacted CoL and wanted to sign a record deal. After some negotiations CoL finally signed the contract. Immediately after that CoL entered Tonteknik Recording studios, in July 2002, to record their second album The Beyond. After the recording session Andreas Johansson joined in on bass, due to the departure of Axel Stattin. The Beyond was released February 10th 2003, to critical acclaim. CoL proved that they were now ready to bring their soundscapes to a much wider audience. After the release of The Beyond, CoL toured Sweden with The Haunted and the UK with Isis. After this the line up changed, drummer Marco Hilden was replaced by Thomas Hedlund and an additional keyboard player, Anders Teglund, was added as a permanent fixture. Magnus took care of the percussion and additional guitar parts.

At this point touring became a lot more frequent. Late summer 2003 CoL ventured into Europe with US hardcore sensations Poison the Well, to amazing press reactions. In December the same year CoL returned to the UK for a tour with art noise merchants The Dillinger Escape Plan. The early part of 2004 was mostly dedicated to writing songs for their follow up to The Beyond. They found the time to play a few long awaited shows in Sweden and Finland, before entering Tonteknik Recording studios once again in April 2004.

The recording of Salvation was done in three different sessions, thus enabling the band to take some rest and think about possible changes that needed to be done. Finally, in late July 2004 the album was complete. Salvation was released October 4th 2004 in Europe and Oct 19th in the US. This album marked a new era in the history of CoL, both visually and sonically. At the same time as Salvation was hitting the stores, CoL embarked on a Europe/UK headline tour, which also included Scandinavian dates. This tour introduced a new member, Fredrik Kihlberg, who joined in on percussion and clean vocals.

2005 was perhaps the most interesting year so far in the history of CoL. It started with a six week European tour, partly with American hardcore act Bleeding Through and partly by their own. This tour also saw a change in the live line-up. As Thomas couldn't participate due to being busy playing with other bands, Magnus took over the live drumming. When the band came home they had the time to rest for about a month before departing to the US for the first tour over there. CoL supported the mighty Mastodon on the first leg of the tour, and headlined eight shows (supported by Breather Resist) on the latter part. The reception of the American audience was stunningly good for a first ever tour in the US. After the US-tour CoL did some Scandinavian and European festival shows before starting to work on the 4th full-length album Somewhere Along the Highway.

In November 2005 CoL began the recording of Somewhere Along the Highway. The first session was located in an old octagon barn ten minutes west of Umea. The vibe out there was perfect and seven days were spent there recording basic tracks. After some more sessions in the studio environment, Magnus mixed the last song in January 2006. Somewhere Along the Highway was released April 24th 2006 on Earache Records, followed by a European/UK headline tour.

The band's fifth album, Eternal Kingdom, was released in 2008. The band initially claimed that it was based on the diary of a mental patient that they had discovered in an abandoned mental facility they were using as rehearsal space. This was later revealed to be a hoax when the band released the book version of the alleged diary as Eviga riket in 2010 and literary reviewers were unable to corroborate the story. The band then revealed that they had made up the story to make a point about the lack of integrity in music journalism.

The band's sixth album, Vertikal, was released in 2013. Later the same year, a companion EP entitled Vertikal II was released. The band's seventh album, Mariner, was released in 2016. It is a collaboration with renowned post-metal vocalist Julie Christmas. Their eighth record entitled A Dawn to Fear was released in 2019. 2021 saw the release of an EP entitled The Raging River. Their latest and ninth record entitled The Long Road North was released in 2022.

Each Cult of Luna record has managed to sound sufficiently different from each other yet they can still be recognised as unmistakably being their own. Since the very beginning, the band has been characterised by their album lengths as well as lengthy songs. Over the years, they managed to live past just being in the shadows of Neurosis and Isis and carved out a niche for themselves in what was to become known as atmospheric sludge and post-metal.

Their heaviest and more traditional sludge/doom metal oriented record was the self-titled debut. It is particularly very aggressive in nature, there were no clean vocals at this time. The record was dominated by Klas' hardcore-styled guttural vocals. The album also featured some sparse electronics but they did not disrupt the flow or were that prominent as in their later records, they only served the purpose of creating atmosphere rather than being active parts of the songs. The instrumentation was mostly unrelenting crushing doom metal; slow, heavy and kept mostly straightforward with some respiring moments here and there.

The Beyond was still aggressive and heavy and continues down the same path as the debut although with more progressive sensibilities. It also marks the point in which one can start identifying hints to their later sound and subsequent evolution. It had more quiet moments and was all around more balanced than the debut besides being very riff oriented. There were no clean vocals yet.

Salvation was their definitive turning point as it saw them anting up the post-rock influences to a higher degree although still keeping things metal. They began applying more and more post-rock logic to their songwriting and song structures. It can be described as the perfect balance between post-rock sensibilities and sludge's heaviness/aggression, it is pure and realised post-metal. It is also the point in which keyboards/electronics began to be featured more prominently and the first album with clean vocals.

Somewhere Along the Highway was their breakthrough record and the one that made them become underground metal stars. It was very much a continuation of the Salvation path but with even more prominent electronics/keyboards. It also still managed to sound very organic, energetic, heavy and earthy as well as melancholic and pensive; all common characterists of post-metal. It is probably the record closest to their musical vision at the time, the record that sees them as a well established and most realised band, they had nothing to prove to anyone or themselves at this point.

Eternal Kingdom was the last record with Klas as a vocalist as he left the band soon after for still unknown reasons and gave up on music entirely, he is not currently part of any active projects. His sharp lyricism drove the band throughout many a records and a number of years. His absence was felt on Vertikal as Johannes took over vocals duties and lyricism. He has since developed a vocal delivery very similar in nature to Klas' and fleshed out his lyricism as well. But considering Eternal Kingdom's sound, it is a good swansong for Klas. Still lengthy but with more songs than usual, some shorter. It has this triumphant presence with even some horns featured and has for some reason less electronics than Somewhere Along the Highway.

Vertikal could probably most accurately be described as 'mechanical', both in its imagery as well as its overall sound. As previously mentioned, it was Johannes' debut as a vocalist/lyricist. Sometimes even bordering in industrial Godflesh-esque territory, It was mostly driven by electronics/keyboards during many of its most memorable passages and features their longest song to date 'Vicarious Redemption', an 18 minutes beast. Before their 2016 collaboration record, it was probably their most divisive album to date as the lyrics and very prominent electronics did not sit well with some people. Although it has since found a niche of its own as a Cult of Luna record. The companion EP only contains a 'proper' post-metal song and several ambient/electronic numbers, one of them being a remix by JK Broadrick.

Mariner was their collaboration record with Julie Christmas and as such, anything involving her is bound to be polarising by nature, being a clear case of 'love it or hate it' record for many people. Albeit it could be seen as a continuation of the Vertikal sound.

2019's A Dawn to Fear had an unexpected sound for some people, as not many of them expected the band to abandon the Vertikal sound and regress somewhat to previous styles. It is closer in nature to Somewhere Along the Highway plus some prominent dissonant influences and still featuring electronic/keyboards melodies. It is also their longest record to date and displayed a fully realised Johannes regarding his vocal delivery and lyricism. 2021's EP The Raging River was very much a continuation of the A Dawn to Fear sound and style with minor variations here and there, for example a song featuring Mark Lanegan. It was their first record released on their new independent label, Red Creek.

With the 2022 record The Long Road North (also on Red Creek), they continued expanding upon the A Dawn to Fear style but with a more bombastic and grand sound, with epic leads in parts, keeping their usual lengthy approach and the new found dissonant perspective.

Discography:

2000 - Cult of Luna / Switchblade (split with Switchblade)
2001 - Cult of Luna
2001 - Cult of Luna EP (EP)
2003 - The Beyond
2004 - Salvation
2006 - Bodies / Recluse (single)
2006 - Somewhere Along the Highway
2008 - Eternal Kingdom
2009 - Fire Was Born (video)
2010 - Eviga riket (book/DVD)
2010 - Live at the Scala
2013 - Vertikal
2013 - Vertikal II (EP)
2014 - Eternal Music (vinyl-only release of the songs from Eviga riket)
2015 - Råångest (split with The Old Wind)
2016 - Mariner (collaboration with Julie Christmas)
2017 - Live at La Gaîté Lyrique: Paris
2017 - Years in a Day (Box-set of live performances)
2019 - A Dawn to Fear
2021 - The Raging River (EP)
2022 - The Long Road North