Cult of Luna - Vertikal

Cult of Luna - I: The Weapon

 Runs For: 9:23

First proper track for Vertikal. A lot of people are rating this one highly, and since I can't pick a favourite off this album yet, this will do for now.

Either the band has really stepped it up a notch in the last year, or the lack of truly great atmospheric sludge metal albums bore a deep tunnel of longing and despair in my heart which couldn’t be filled. Perhaps both.

Downfall of Gaia came close, but fell short of the mark with tracks that were only half interesting. Black Sheep Wall’s new release wasn’t even a shadow of their near perfect (although very close to being a bit too close to tacky) first album. Outside of that, a lot of what is listed as sludge or atmospheric sludge sometimes either doesn’t truly fit the bill or becomes too inconsistent with its track listing – there are only a few good tracks on an otherwise dull album. I’ve been prowling through a frozen wasteland, cold and insane in the hunt for my next meal, a full, fleshy album that I can pick down to the bones and keep me fed until I have to hunt again. This album might be it.

The sludge segments are really, really good here. Very airy, brooding at times and incredibly well produced. The guitar outside of this also incorporates more traditional high work than the other albums rather than just the airy progressions from before. It’s more ‘rock’ than prog metal in parts, and makes the album seem more fleshed out without making it sound tacky, surprisingly. There’s a heightened use of electronic effects too that I think works in the album’s favour, but it’s really caught me off guard. The electronic segments are actually pretty good, better than what I’d expect for a metal band. It’s used to create interesting soundscapes, and this is something that the band has done before but never THIS good. It’s always been pretty subtle wherein now, it’s powerful and obvious. The fact that it can be both of these things while actually contributing to the album is something I find absolutely fantastic.

I think the one thing that I don’t like about the album lies in my belief that the vocal style really needs to catch up with the music. It’s not necessarily bad, but the music has evolved over the past two albums into a faster format, and the vocals should be creating extra tension through shortened growls or change of tone at least, rather than the monotonous yell we get for the most part. To be fair though, other heavyweights in the genre have the awful habit of completely forgetting that it is possible to manipulate your voice in this way, and so changes in vocal style in a lot of sludge bands are avoided unfortunately.


I think the weird thing here is that the album picks up from Eternal Kingdom, takes that style and makes it far more polished. I wanted to like Eternal Kingdom but there was one or two things about a few songs that I just didn’t like – there seemed to be a lack of continuity. They threw in a lot of good segments but they didn’t bridge well. Along with this is that it had to live in the shadow of Somewhere Along The Highway, which is a truly great sludge album. At any rate though, Vertikal is packed with well meshing sludge segments which constantly surpass expectations through clever progressions and a near perfect and perhaps ground-breaking use of effects. This may well be their most polished album yet, perhaps even their best.

Just a final note for first time listeners, Cult Of Luna are definitely a band which has to grow on you. When I first heard them, I hated them. It took me a bit to come around to them, but they are one of the best atmospheric sludge bands you can find. Start with Somewhere Along The Highway if you can and listen to it from start to finish. It’s pretty much what the cornerstone for atmospheric sludge should be.

Here's a link to the full album on Youtube.