There are truly a few bands that never lose the descriptive element in their sound art. Cult Of Luna, with time, have been refining more and more the trait until becoming some real masters in that strange world across post-rock, psychedelia and alternative-metal that is defined post hardcore. “Eternal Kingdom” marks a partial return to the asperities of the early times, without leaving apart the recent psychedelic changes, the love for the shade and light effects. Cult Of Luna appear renewed though maintaining trust in their matrix: they bring along some new elements in the arrangement of the songs, show a technical writing growth and know how to exploit all of their characters in the best way, in primis the cleverness in managing dynamics, as well as the class in the sounds. The voice of Klas Rydberg is always desperate and in “Ghost Trail”, the best song in there, his neurotic scream overcomes the sad river that starts flowing after the starting steps. In the instrumental “The Lure” we encounter some desolating trumpets as well as in the funeral-like “Following Betulas”, the sulphureous opening post-doom “Owlwood” turns into a severe gelid acoustic guitar. The winks to the past are more evident in the earthquaking descents towards the nucleus of the Earth of “Mire Deep” and in the powerful walls of “The Great Migration”;”Curse”, at the bottom of the tracklist, shows the proverbial games of empty and full the Swedish fivepiece is so clever in giving life to. Only the very nice title-track maintains some strong tie with the post rock revisitations of “Somewhere Along The Highway”, though maintaining a strong muscularity. The light effects of the great “Salvation” (the turning point in their career) are more controlled, but it’s undeniable Cult Of Luna are sublimating their art more and more in a crescendo of maturity and cleverness that, if on one side ties them to the post-Neurosis generation, on the other projects them in the gotha of the great post-metal bands. Not a little thing for people like them, unfairly often considered as some simple clones or little more.

Marco Giarratana