Since the turn of the 2000s, Sweden’s Cult of Luna have ranked among the major architects of post-metal, that art of long build-ups and cathartic surges inherited from Neurosis. The Long Road North confirms their command of an aesthetic they did much to define: that of slowness, breadth and patiently constructed tension.
The critics, out in force (an 83 average across nine reviews), hail a record of remarkable coherence, where each track unfolds like a landscape. The band dig into their favoured themes — isolation, cold, the march across hostile expanses — with a gravity that never tips into pathos.
Musically, everything is a matter of dynamics. Massive guitars alternate with atmospheric passages punctuated by keyboards and brass, the screamed voice becomes the vector of a contained urgency, the drums hammer out a near-telluric pulse. Cult of Luna know how to draw out the wait, to delay the release, until the explosion, when it comes, sweeps everything away.
One might object that the band scarcely deviate from a proven formula, and that the listener familiar with their world will find little surprise here. The length, too, demands endurance. But few outfits can sustain such intensity over the long haul.
Verdict: 8/10. A broad, demanding record, confirming Cult of Luna at the summit of a cinematic, uncompromising post-metal.
