Cult
of Luna & Julie Christmas – Mariner
(Indie
Recordings, 2016)
Buy
the album here
Cult
of Luna have changed so many members since their self-titled debut
album in 2001 that I barely took notice when Julie Christmas was
announced as guest vocalist on latest album Mariner.
“Just
another band member,” I thought, “won't make much of a
difference.” But the performance of the former Battle of Mice and
Made Out Of Babies vocalist is the very thing that makes this album
Cult of Luna's most memorable and atmospheric. Salvation,
Somewhere
Along The Highway,
Eternal
Kingdom,
and Vertikal
are all incredible albums that blend huge post metal soundscapes,
gentle passages of introspection, and powerful hardcore vocals, but
it wasn't until Julie Christmas that the band could boast such
insidious hooks and honest passion. They had created an air of plaid
shirt pretension that Christmas' vocals have cut right through. In
doing so she has opened up this album to the angry intensity of
earlier work like The
Beyond
while giving it an identity all its own.
The eerie,
horror-film-child quality of her clean singing voice is reminiscent
of Aimee Echo of Human Waste Project (who?), but Christmas' insane
screaming range and vocal control set her apart as one of the elite vocalists in metal. In almost every song of this album
Christmas infects the listener with an addictive hook or an
empowering and cathartic scream that burrows in to the brain like a
Ceti Eel. Her and Johannes Persson's vocals wind in and out of each
other, sometimes battling for space, but more often providing the
perfect contrast or complement. In the opening track “A Greater
Call”, a floating opening passage gives way to the tribal drumming
of Thomas Hedlund which drives the song headlong in to the brutal
scream of Persson backed by Christmas' delicate melody:
We are not conquerors
We float with the tide
The combination is
perfect: the anger and frustration with modern society and city
living that has informed much of Cult of Luna's work is balanced by
the gentle passivity of Christmas' vocal and the openness to
exploration without preconceptions or judgement that the lyrics
suggest. The band have stated that Mariner represents a final
thematic extension of their albums from Eternal Kingdom onwards:
each album exploring a different part of life on earth, before
Mariner takes us in to space. “A Greater Call” feels more
like a transcendence than space travel with its steady build of
interplaying keys and guitar, and the repetition of the vocal lines
quoted above. “Chevron”, however, has more of the energy that
space exploration would require. The heavy bass line throughout the
song feels like propulsion pushing this journey in to deeper
territory where, halfway through the song, it explodes with a riff
that carries cosmic heaviness. The intensity is pushed even further
with “The Wreck of S.S. Needle” where Christmas' full range is
evident, and Cult of Luna's cascading guitars are made stratospheric
with samples and keys that create an almost impenetrable wall of
sound. Christmas' screams in the chorus are the most engaging vocals
I have heard in the last year, but it's the repeated request to “Put
me down where I can see you run” that will stick in your mind for
days after hearing the song.
It's an incredible song
that deserves the ambient space “Approaching Transition”
provides. It's the only moment of this journey in to outer space
that allows for rest, and has more in common with the patient
wonderings of Somewhere Along The Highway than the intensity
of more recent work like Vertikal and Vertikal II. It
forms the perfect respite for the album's final passage: a fifteen
minute epic built around tightly circling lead guitar work,
Christmas' gentle storytelling, and riffs reminiscent of both
Salvation and Eternal Kingdom. While “Cygnus”
doesn't have the raw aggression or passion of “The Wreck...” it
is a fitting end to an album about exploration, both physical and
artistic. The final six minutes of “Cygnus” are the epitome of
post metal: to some unbearable repetition, to others the most
inspirational, transformative, and electrifying culmination of music
that asks for your patience but rewards you with journeys to places
you never thought you could go. Whether or not Cult of Luna and
Julie Christmas work together again, this album represents where
heavy music can go, and how good it can be, when bands are willing to
put songwriting and experimentation ahead of expectations.
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