Cult Of Luna step up to the plate once more

SANDRA MYHRBERG/CAMERA LUCIDA/PRESS

The Long Road North

METAL BLADE

Umeå’s post-metal voyagers keep seeking out the scenic routes

CULT OF LUNA have frequently presented listeners with a sense of physical space, often coupled with a sense of journey. This applies to both the music they make – long, winding compositions that are as much about the scenery as the destination – and the concepts behind it. After exploring Fritz Lang’s stark Metropolis and journeying into outer space with Julie Christmas the band have, in recent years, seemingly hunkered down and returned to earth, leaving behind the familiar post-metal grid for wilder climes where the pathways are treacherously overgrown.

The Long Road North continues this same trajectory, and the rugged life suits them. Opening with a seismic groan, Cold Burn serves as a furious statement of intent: a mix of shimmering guitars, glowering drones and propulsive drumming that brings to mind a krautrock Neurosis. Elsewhere, The Silver Arc sees its vast, rumbling riffs connected by a delicate latticework of subtler elements, while An Offering To The Wild begins with a solemn, near-ritual traipse before raising itself up into an ungodly pillar of flame. Similarly savage is the album’s title track, which makes you feel as though you’ve been caught in a meteor shower with just a cocktail umbrella for protection, its tumultuous climax among the band’s most skull-splittingly intense moments.