- Country: Sweden
- Style: Post-metal / Sludge metal
- Label: Metal Blade Records
- Release date: 11 February 2022
The Long Road North might be the most patient record Cult of Luna have made. Nine tracks, most of them long, and almost none of that time feels wasted.
“Cold Burn” opens in full force, a slow avalanche of downtuned guitars and hoarse roaring, before “The Silver Arc” pulls everything back into long, glowing stretches of synth and clean guitar. That push and pull is the whole album in miniature. The title track and “Blood Upon Stone” build for minutes on end and pay off properly when the drums finally lock in, while “An Offering to the Wild” is twelve-plus minutes of tension that never quite lets go.
The guests are used with real restraint. Mariam Wallentin’s voice carries the short, haunting “Beyond I”, Colin Stetson’s saxophones turn the closing “Beyond II” into something closer to a funeral hymn than a post-metal finale, and Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz of Phoenix chip in without anyone noticing a pop band in the room.
It is heavy in the way snowdrifts are heavy. Slow, cold, impossible to push against. Give it one uninterrupted sitting.
Best tracks:
Cold Burn
The Silver Arc
An Offering to the Wild
The Long Road North
Beyond II
Author’s rating: 9.2/10
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