Lmst

Listening to ‘The Long Road North’ by Cult Of Luna.

Really solid album IMO.

Been a little while since I listened to one of my favourite albums… ‘Mariner’ by Cult Of Luna and Julie Christmas.

#CultOfLuna #JulieChristmas #PostMetal #Metal

By Thus Spoke

Feversea is a perfect name for a post-metal band. It manages to evoke the genre’s typical moodiness and atmosphere, which, like the sea, can range from tranquil mystique to rage and channeled either through fretful drama or a kind of layered intensity that could faithfully be said to resemble a fever dream. But there’s more to Oslo’s Feversea than their name having a pleasing ring. Their debut Man Under Erasure carries the burden of making an impact in the veritable ocean of groups taking their cue from stalwarts like Cult of Luna and Russian Circles.1 Their claims of multi-genre influence, and black metal in particular, along with their Norwegian origin, immediately brought to mind experimental metal legends Dødheimsgard, although that’s arguably an unfair comparison. Having a voice in the scene can be a challenge, but I’m pleased to report that it’s one Feversea meet gallantly.

While containing nothing so unexpected as to approach avant-garde, Man Under Erasure is full of little surprises—good ones at that. Of all the ways I expected the album to begin, the titular opening—with its relatively upbeat electronic melody and soft, spoken-sung vocals—did not appear. From there, Feversea shift between poignancy and pugnacity, and punctuate their sombre pessimism with mellow optimism. Reverberant leads and unshowy, haunting cleans are more often than not turned eerie by their accompanying sludgy riffs and aggressive percussion, making those truly stripped-back portions feel even more still. Gloomy moods are enhanced or traded for fury with blurred, even dissonant tremolo, d-beating or blastbeating pace, and throaty screams. The tone is consistently somewhat brooding, but Feversea avoid treading into an introspective dreaminess with this turbulence between post-metal ethereality and hardcore and blackened fury, their atmosphere maintaining a bite with sinister melodic turns and vocal switches to vicious roars.

Across Man Under Erasure, Feversea showcase an impressive talent for creative songwriting. The particular fusion of sludge, hardcore, black metal, and electronica that they employ makes for dynamic and engaging pieces. When atmospheric, their presence is tangible (“New Creatures Replace Our Names,” “Invocation,” “Until it Goes Away”), and when more energetic, they possess a refreshingly unconventional spirit (“Decider,” “Kindred Spirit”). The faint shadows of the aforementioned Dødheimsgard are actually audible in spinning synth lines and playfully lurching blackened guitar scattered in fleeting moments across the album (“Murmur Within the Skull of God,” “Sunkindling,” “Kindred Spirit”). While it’s all good, there are passages in particular that hit upon some glorious interplay of styles; sometimes a powerfully stirring surge of emotion wrapped in layers of tremolo and electronica (“Invocation,” “Kindred Spirit”), sometimes a deceptively simple and undeniably catchy sludge-post, sludge-black, or electronica-post refrain (“New Creatures…,” “Decider,” title track). Feversea do both calm and lively with like ease and make the transitions between them sound easy.

The multifaceted nature of their sound avoids feeling fickle—for the most part—and instead sounds quite smooth. This is in large part thanks to the stellar work of the individual musicians who comprise Feversea—for most of whom this is their first and only band. Though everyone deserves credit, I have to give extra kudos to vocalist Ada Lønne Emberland, who performs both harsh and clean leads and is absolutely killing it with subtly emotive singing and razor-sharp screams. Melodies retain memorability and songs a satisfying crunch and flavour through punchy, audible riffs and a refreshingly crisp production that allows one to hear the space created between the chugs, soft “ahh-ahh-ahh”s, shaking percussion, and warm synth. If I had to nitpick, I would suggest cutting down some of the longer tracks, to improve their impact that is weakened by repetition, or the inclusion of just one too many ideas (“Decider,” “Until it Goes Away,” “Kindred Spirit”2).

Feversea nonetheless come out on top with a unique and engaging record that pays only the small price of feeling a touch unfocused. Man Under Erasure isn’t just impressive for a debut, it’s impressive in its own right with its smart blend of styles and fluent execution. A pleasure to listen to. Post-metal fans ought to keep their eye on Feversea, for the inevitable masterwork to come.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 11 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Dark Essence Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: May 23rd, 2025

#2025 #35 #CultOfLuna #DarkEssenceRecords #Dödheimsgard #ElectronicMetal #Feversea #ManUnderErasure #May25 #NorwegianMetal #PostBlackMetal #PostMetal #Review #Reviews #SludgeMetal

Cult of Luna kommt 2025 für zwei exklusive Shows nach Deutschland! Der einzigartige Sound der schwedischen Post Metal Band wird dich mit auf eine beeindruckende Reise nehmen. Sei dabei, wenn sie Bremen rocken! Verpass nicht die Gelegenheit, diese Legenden live zu erleben.

#CultOfLuna #PostMetal #LiveMusic

Mehr Infos hier: https://www.szenenight.de/cityflash-bremen/cult-of-luna-plant-exklusive-konzerte-in-deutschland-2025-13863.html

Mit fettem Sound ins Wochenende

#Musik #Music #CultOfLuna

https://youtu.be/0alDMvVk4jY

Cult of Luna
12.08.2025 Bremen / Modernes

Heaven Shall Burn
29.06.2025 Bremen / Modernes

#Bremen #CultOfLuna #HeavenShallBurn #Modernes #SteelFeed

2. #CultOfLuna: Long Road North

https://song.link/t/202095266

Cult of Luna
11.08.2025 Osnabrück / Botschaft

#Botschaft #CultOfLuna #Osnabruck #SteelFeed

Tell me you're into post-metal without telling me you're into post-metal. #postmetal #metal #Dvne #CultofLuna #doommetal #sludgemetal #progmetal

Cult Of Luna, The Great Old Ones und Caronte
28.03.2025 Berlin / ORWOHaus

#Berlin #CultOfLuna #ORWOHaus #SteelFeed

Cult Of Luna, The Great Old Ones und Caronte
09.04.2025 München / Backstage

#Backstage #CultOfLuna #Munchen #SteelFeed

Cult Of Luna, The Great Old Ones und Caronte
03.04.2025 Essen / Turock

#CultOfLuna #Essen #Turock #SteelFeed

Le jeudi c’est démarrage en musique. Vu que je suis seul à la maison ce jour là, j’en profite pour faire résonner la chaîne. Et aujourd’hui, ni plus ni moins que cet album essentiel à mes yeux. Tellement que j’ai désormais la créature de la pochette tatouée sur le dos. #sludge #postmetal #cultofluna #eternalkingdom

À Terre – Embrasser La Nuit Review

By Thus Spoke

There’s nothing wrong with sticking to an established genre template, but it’s interesting when a band opts to mix things up. Bordeaux’s À Terre could be said to go a step further, claiming the musical DNA of their debut Embrasser La Nuit was guided by the provocative question, “Is making Cult Of Luna or Converge really that original these days?” As a sludge/post-metal ensemble, the group’s self-awareness about their debt to the big names, leads them, in Embrasser La Nuit, to sprinkle in a handful of other influences, mainly from the French rap and hip-hop scene.1 But the real question isn’t whether or not what À Terre have created makes for a novel take on post-metal or sludge. Instead, it’s a question of whether or not what they have created is good, regardless of its callbacks or imitations.

There is certainly an air of uniqueness about Embrasser La Nuit. A trap-beat-led, post-metal version of rap (“Tous Morts,”) is not something you hear often. But À Terre don’t settle into any one distinctive style so much as flick between them, and not unnaturally. Classic sludgy trudges marry well with the hardcore stompiness that rears its head on multiple occasions (“Paris sous les Tombes,” “L’Appel de la Nuit”). The post-metal leanings lend themselves by default to the passages of ambience (“ÂCÂB,” “Presque Morts,” “Nous Sommes la Nuit”), which itself pairs as easily with rap-style delivery as harsher rasps. Flashes of greatness come in the form of a cascading pattern of synths smartly woven into an escalating build (“ÂCÂB”), or an alarm-bell riff playing to the tune of a -core/sludge mash-up (“Paris sous la Tombes”). À Terre play their interpretations of these blended genres well, but as as the elements continue to brush shoulders with one another within songs, the energies give way to indistinctness. And there grows an uncomfortable sense that it all amounts to another less-than-memorable iteration of a subgenre’s core sound.

À Terre can write sludge and post-metal. They know how to craft some battering riff-rhythm patterns (“Paris sous les Tombes,” “Nous Sommes La Nuit”), throwing in some group, and layered vocals for that satisfying touch of aggression. Their atmospheric tendencies are also appropriately sombre, and chilling, particularly as they tend towards the stripped-back-to-slow build style that marks some of the best of post-metal’s traits (“ÂCÂB,” “Prophétie”). In reminding the listener of greats like Amenra, Cult of Luna, Isis, and more, passages—and by extension, tracks—gain familiarity and the halo of quality shines on them. Yet, when I hear the pained, atonal screams over minor synths and the tides of gritty chugging (“Prophétie,” “L’Appel de la Nuit”), it’s like hearing Amenra with 90% of the emotion stripped away. The gradual increases in tension and intensity that rise and fall (“ÂCÂB,” “Presque Morts”) are not unaffecting, but their impact is greatly softened by À Terre’s tendency to force, rush, or otherwise fail to properly capitalise on them. They are at best simply inserted, if still decent (“Prophétie”) and at worst, totally undeveloped (“Paris sous les Tombes,” “Presque Morts”). Likewise, the bite of the surrounding sludge feels relatively toothless thanks to the fact that the impatience that characterises the hardcore stylings infects even the stiller moments: off-the-cuff edginess bringing angsty riffage too soon, and ambience breaking sludge far too frequently and abruptly. What results are compositions lacking in conviction, possessing none of the rawness or introspection that they ought to, combining to form something awkwardly bland.

Embrasser La Nuit thus makes for a surprisingly uneventful listening experience; surprising, because everything is technically good, and yet somehow anaemic. The glimmers of brilliance are good only insofar as they are imitations, while the exceptions to the established formula in the form of ‘experimentation’ (“Tous Morts,” and, at a stretch, a more synth-heavy approach in spots across the record) are vastly too brief to create any meaningful intrigue or spice. Leaving individual tastes aside, this kind of music should never be boring, and in fairness, calling Embrasser La Nuit boring would be overly simplistic; it’s too uneven for that. There are stretches of atmospheric musing (“Prophétie”) and snappy boisterousness (“Paris sous les Tombes”) that are, in isolation, good. Their collection nonetheless leaves more than a little to be desired.

À Terre speak to the concept of originality, but ultimately, their debut does not suffer because it lacks it. It suffers because À Terre’s homages to genre mainstays fail to elicit the profoundly affecting responses in their audience that their incarnation demands. The music is a surface-level representation of its inspirations, with only glimpses of depth. With relatively little raw humanity, despite its literal components, and a lukewarm commitment to the true presence of its pugnacity and its magnitude, Embrasser La Nuit makes only the barest of impacts.

Rating: Disappointing
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: wav
Label: Self-Release
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: January 24th, 2025

#20 #2025 #ÀTerre #Amenra #CultOfLuna #EmbrasserLaNuit #FrenchMetal #Isis #Jan25 #PostMetal #Review #Reviews #SelfReleases #SludgeMetal

Beneath a Steel Sky – Cleave Review

By sentynel

Including “for fans of” is pretty common when marketing a band. But is it actually a good idea? Promo text that reads “for fans of [the biggest bands in this genre]” is the worst offender—why wouldn’t I just listen to those bands? I’d rather hear what makes this band stand out. But listing more interesting little-known bands only helps if the audience have heard of them. Anyway, this is post-metal band Beneath a Steel Sky, and they’re for fans of Isis, Cult of Luna, Cave In, Russian Circles, Mogwai… and the rather more obscure Aereogramme.

Beneath a Steel Sky play a less genre-faithful take on post-metal than I had therefore been given to expect. Cleave is spacier and dreamier than the comparisons to Isis and Cult of Luna might suggest, to the extent that in places it reminds me of stoner/psychedelic bands like Dead Meadow (“Vanguard”). There’s lots of reverb-soaked clean vocals, synth washes and floaty guitars (“The Sky Above the Port Was the Colour of Television, Tuned to a Dead Channel,” “Quetzalcoatlus,” …). The Mogwai comparison hints at this, but unlike Mogwai, they are not boring. Like Aereogramme and Mogwai, they are Scottish, and there’s a definite spacey/stonery Scottish post-* scene they fit into. Likewise, in places, in song construction and style, they also remind me of fellow Scots Dvne—for example, the mixed down clean vocals in “The Sky…”, or the clean/harsh vocal duets in a few places (e.g. “Vanguard”). This twist on the post-metal formula works well for them.

There’s some great songwriting on Cleave. There are some really pretty melodies woven into the dreamy atmospheric sections (“Vanguard,” “Quetzalcoatlus”). They make good use of their six (!) musicians with some complex multi-part sections (“Cyclical Dunt”). “The Infinite Silence That Follows the Absolute Truth” does a very Mike Oldfield-like job of layering onto a simple repeated motif for most of the song’s build. Of course, this is post-metal, so the big metal crescendo after all the build-up is a staple. While they never really stray from the genre template, they do it well. The big riff and soaring melody line on “Quetzalcoatlus” is a highlight, and closing track “The Becoming” is absolutely gorgeous.

One quirk of the production is that whoever did the mixing is a really big fan of the pan slider. Nearly every song has sections with instruments panned nearly all the way to one side or the other. I don’t hate the effect in general, but it’s a bit overused, and the couple of songs that start with fully panned guitars (“Everyone You’ve Ever Known,” “The Infinite Silence…,” “The Becoming”) keep making me think my headphones have broken. There’s also a fade-out ending on “Vanguard” which comes across as a bit of a cop-out. Gimmicks aside, the production does a good job of balancing a lot of parts and maintaining the dreamy feel, although as usual, it didn’t need to be a DR6.

There’s not a huge amount of new ground being broken Beneath [this] Steel Sky, but they successfully bring their own identity to a crowded genre nonetheless. The spacy, somewhat psychedelic take on post-metal both differentiates them and makes Cleave a surprisingly warm listen despite the usual bleakness of post-metal. The songwriting is consistently strong, and with a tidy 40-minute runtime and a great ending, it’s a very satisfying listen.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Ripcord Records
Websites: beneathasteelsky1.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/beneathasteelskyband
Releases Worldwide: January 24th, 2025

#2025 #35 #Aereogramme #BeneathASteelSky #BritishMetal #CaveIn #Cleave #CultOfLuna #DeadMeadow #Dvne #Isis #Jan25 #MikeOldfield #Mogwai #PostRock #PostMetal #Review #Reviews #RipcordRecords #RussianCircles