Cult of Luna

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Background information
Origin	Umeå, Sweden
Genre(s)	Post-metal Doom metal Sludge metal Post-rock
Years active	1999 – present
Label(s)	Earache Records
Associated acts	Khoma
Website	cultofluna.com
Members
Thomas Hedlund Andreas Johansson Fredrik Kihlberg Magnus Líndberg Erik Olòfsson Johannes Persson Klas Rydberg Anders Teglund
Former members
Marco Hildén Axel Stattin

Cult of Luna is a Swedish progressive doom/post-metal band. Hailing from Umeå in Sweden, home of such acts as Refused and Meshuggah, they formed from the remnants of a Umeå hardcore band called Eclipse in 1999. They slowly garnered critical appreciation and underground popularity with early releases Cult of Luna (2001) and The Beyond (2003); however, it is 2004's Salvation that can be considered their 'breakthrough' release. By cutting down on the somewhat esoteric use of aggression so indicative of doom, it appealed to a new group of fans. Its calmer sound has earned it favourable reviews in the mainstream music press, a reputation built upon for the release of Somewhere Along the Highway in 2006, another largely well-received album.

In August 2006, the band released a remake of "Marching to the Heartbeats" from Somewhere Along the Highway entitled "Heartbeats" solely on the internet community MySpace. The song was available for download for a few days and was later removed. The point was to see if the song would be kept alive by file sharing, and was also apparently a statement against the conservative music industry, says drummer Anders Teglund in an interview.^[1]

[edit] Sound

Its sound has progressed from early material being heavily doom metal influenced to one much less aggressive and more concerned with orchestration. Fans and critics have termed this sound post-metal. The band is considered to be at the forefront of the genre, along with contemporary proponents Isis.

Its songs are often long, slow, repetitive and crushing, heavy sections of distorted guitars often interspersed with orchestral interludes and extended, post-rock-esque forays. The group shuns conventional song structures, opting for a sound that evolves throughout a song, sometimes toward a climactic crescendo, instead of a verse-chorus-verse pattern. That style, incorporating sections of "light and dark" into their music, has led to comparisons with contemporaries such as Isis (with whom they have toured), Callisto and Pelican, as well as the significantly older Neurosis. Singer Klas Rydberg, however, has stated that decidedly non-metal Radiohead are an influence.^[2]

[edit] Themes

This symbol can be seen in early album artwork, as well as in the video for "Back to Chapel Town".

The most notable running motif in Cult of Luna's music is a preoccupation with the dangers of globalisation and political propaganda. This ties to the fact that three of the four band members are vegetarians;^[3] animal rights are a central factor in hardcore music. These concerns are not always addressed directly through the music; instead they are sometimes represented by vocal samples. For instance, on The Beyond, they use recordings of Noam Chomsky's "Propaganda and control of the public mind". On "Inside Fort Meade", from The Beyond, the only lyrics are a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin: "If we surrender our liberty in the name of security we shall have neither".^[4] This is another hint at the somewhat anarchic sentiments of the band. Earlier material, specifically the self-titled debut Cult of Luna states its purpose in somewhat darker terms: "The Revelation Embodied" includes lyrics "A time lost to the sick crowd of a new demonic realm/Oceans of blood have drowned all humanity[...]A time when the curse is alive/The horsemen have arrived".^[5] Another vitriolic political statement is made on "Circle", in a reference to the Sabra and Shatila massacre, with lyrics reading "Sabra and Shatila rises and retaliates/An invitation that raises the dead/I have seen their fate".^[4] This reference displays anti-racist tendencies, to an almost militant extent. As the band progressed, the imagery they employed became less overt, and less "doom metal". In some ways, the albums showed a shift from anger with modern society as in Cult of Luna, to disgust with the ruling parties in The Beyond and Salvation. The video for single "Leave Me Here" is concerned with propaganda and tacit governmental control over the individual. Similar concerns are addressed in contemporaries Isis' Panopticon, centered on the theme of Big Brother-like government surveillance. Early material made Christian references; to the devil, Faust^[6] and the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Over the course of following albums, these seem to have disappeared.

Somewhere Along the Highway is slightly different from the previous releases in its thematic basis. It focuses on personal matters, specifically male loneliness,^[7] instead of macroscopic concerns addressed in previous albums.

[edit] Discography

• Cult of Luna (2001)
• Cult of Luna (EP) (2002)
• The Beyond (2003)
• Salvation (2004)
• Somewhere Along the Highway (2006)

They also released a demo before being signed to Earache, as well as a limited edition (1000 prints) two-track 7" just before the release of Somewhere Along the Highway. It features covers of "Bodies" by The Smashing Pumpkins and "Recluse" by Unbroken.

[edit] Videography

• "The Watchtower" (video edit 3:55) from The Beyond (2003). Directed by Pete Bridgewater. [1]
• "Leave Me Here" (video edit 4:27) from Salvation (2005). Directed by Anders Forsman and Linus Johansson. [2]
• "Back to Chapel Town" (video edit 4:30) from Somewhere Along the Highway (2006). Directed by Johannes Persson. [3]

[edit] Members

• Thomas Hedlund – drums, percussion
• Andreas Johansson – bass guitar
• Fredrik Kihlberg – guitars, vocals
• Magnus Líndberg – drums, sound engineering
• Erik Olòfsson – guitars
• Johannes Persson – guitars, vocals
• Klas Rydberg – vocals
• Anders Teglund – keyboards, samples

[edit] Previous members

• Marco Hildén – drums; appeared on Cult of Luna and The Beyond
• Axel Stattin – bass guitar; appeared on Cult of Luna

Thomas Hedlund, Fredrik Kihlberg and Johannes Persson are also involved in Khoma.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Cult of Luna at MySpace
• Cult of Luna at MusicBrainz
• Cult of Luna at Last.fm
• Somewhere Along the Highway can be previewed here
• Video Exclusive with Cult of Luna's Johannes on peta2