Somewhere Along the Highway

I always find it super fascinating when people talk about their favorite artists or albums. It’s a beautiful thing to hear just how much it means to them personally. ‘Somewhere Along the Highway’ represents just that for me. Without a doubt it’s one of, if not my favorite release(s) of all time. There’s just something really special about it. Magical even. It totally transcends being just a bunch of songs on an album for me. Even to this day it still leaves me feeling in awe whenever I listen to it, which is fairly regular. There’s a real organic feeling to it like they've never had before. The fact that it was recorded in a barn out in the country almost certainly helped add to this. Even aesthetically things just feel more natural/rural and less futuristic/urban. This is especially apparent in the album's artwork, and even the music video for the track ‘Back to Chapel Town’.

Right from the get-go with the first track ‘Marching to the Heartbeats’ there’s almost a sense of rebirth with their sound. It works as more of an intro, but is so much more than that. It sets the tone up for the album perfectly. We also get to hear the almost spoken-word-like clean vocals of new member Fredrik Kihlberg, who would go on to play a big part in not just this album, but every album that followed.

The first proper track ‘Finland’ (which bleeds over perfectly from ‘Marching..’) starts off in pure CoL fashion, with big lumbering riffs and powerful drumming. It then quickly dissolves into a mournful post-rock section that is unlike anything the band has attempted before. Think of something by the likes of Mogwai or Sigur Rós and you’d be close. The remainder of the song sways and builds from heavy to light effortlessly. This isn’t new for the band or style, but my god it has never sounded this good before. What they started on ‘Salvation’ in terms of breaking away from being just another Isis or Neurosis clone has been fully realized in this song alone.

The track ‘And With Her Came the Birds’ is where things get really interesting, though. It’s unlike anything the band has written before. It has full clean sung vocals, again by Mr Kihlberg, and even features some banjo playing, which really enhances the mood I think the band is trying to convey with the song. Acting as an almost post-rock ballad of sorts, it not only works, but completely opens the album up and in my eyes encapsulates the essence of everything the band was trying to achieve with the record. A beautiful moment for sure.

While there is a more chill presence at times, the guys definitely didn’t forget to bring their heavier side as well. This is especially evident on the colossal ‘Thirtyfour’. Its riffs really latch their claws into your skin, but at the same time have a real emotional weight to them. A big part of this is in the interjection of the electronics/keyboards, which is just pure bliss to the ears. ‘Back to Chapel Town’ might just be the heaviest number on the record though. It's an absolutely crushing moment when those lumbering riffs return at the back end of the track to finish the listener off for good.

The second to last, and mostly instrumental track ‘Dim’ almost acts as a calm before the storm sort of moment for the eventual beast of an album closer that is ‘Dark City Dead Man’. At almost 16 minutes, it’s the longest track on the album, but doesn’t feel like it whatsoever. The ebb and flow of that final 10 minutes is pure perfection. It’s a real coup de grace moment. A celebration if you will, and the perfect way to cap off an already wonderful listening experience.

The human spine is one of the perfect examples of unintelligent design. We humans are just glorified primates, who, in their stupidity, decided to walk upright, instead of crouching or running on all fours, or doing the awesome knuckle-walk of the gorillas. And primates are just specialized mammals, so we were supposed to look like a shrew or a dog or a cat, and keep our spines more or less level. And further down the line, the mammals are just a splinter group of reptiles and amphibians, which know how to take it easy in horizontal ways; velociraptors and other cool things are excused, they are extinct. And, in the really big picture, we are just modified fish, and the spine was originally meant to help us swim by wiggling some sort of a tail left and right... not to be forced upright and used to oppose the relentless attack of gravity on the pitiful thoraxes and the ridiculously oversized heads our genes give us. Which sucks, because while tails are cool, not using byouancy to support your physical self is not.

But whatever the evolutionary origin of the problem was, in case of Napero in November 2009, it resulted in his fifth -and so far the last- sudden bout of extreme back pain, and three days in foetal position watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy extended versions twice, and crawling on all fours to brew coffee, change the DVD, or, worst of all, to take a leak. In that situation, with a ferocious lumbago, a toilet seat looks like a damn Mount Everest when you think about the desperate prospect of managing to haul your urinating gear high enough to actually hit it. And it ain't fun. No, sir. It's... hell.

But all things come to an end, and after three days of agony, the mixture of two brands of muscle relaxants and the forced walks around the living room did their job, and our anti-hero was back on his two legs, as the idiotic evolutionary branch he dwells on dictates. And it was time to get back to work. Unfortunately, that work was supposed to take place in Kuopio, exactly 407 km away, at 8 am on the following morning, and it was 8 pm. But since the combination of a hard-working personality with the typical intelligence of an idiot is the most fearsome combination, he climbed into his trusty old seaweed-green Skoda, and started the supposedly four and a half hour drive towards the rural city in the heart of Savo, famed for its tasty kalakukko rye-bread-fish-and-pork combo, and the brand of people whose words can and should never be taken seriously. And then the blizzard started...

And that's where we finally arrive at the album this rant is supposed to review, Cult of Luna's superb Somewhere Along the Highway. Because that was the CD left in the rust box's player on the preceding Friday, and it kept playing on repeat for the whole trip, which was to take more than seven hours.

Somewhere Along the Highway is a rather serious piece of art, and while the most fitting genre tag it has ever been given is probably something along the lines of "progressive/atmospheric post-sludge", and it perhaps stretches both the classification and the definition of metal to, and beyond, the breaking point, it also works like a charm, especially if the listener has the time and patience to listen to it and let himself be immersed into its soothing but ominous soundscape. And that's something a medicated and numb driver trudging along a snowy highway at 60 km/h in the middle of a night darker than the inside of a butthole on a Christmas Eve has the perfect opportunity to do.

Because the album is all about the atmosphere. And by the power of the remaining traces of mind-melding Sirdalud in cholesterol-clogged arteries, it has an atmosphere unlike almost anything else! The album has a downtoned, almost melancholic feel throughout its 64 minutes, but yet, underneath the softly treading and mildly distorted earthly tone of giving up, there's an artesian well of veiled aggression and depression. On "And with Her Came the Birds" the whole emotion turns to almost ambient whispering with a banjo (!) attached, and it still carries the same message and field of feelings as everything else, only to turn back into its distorted, stretched self on "Thirtyfour". There's a whole bunch of ways Somewhere Along the Highway works its magic, but the gray atmosphere keeps muffling the outside world, shutting everything else out if the audience is tuned to its deeper pulse. The dry, coarse, screeching vocal style so familiar from the rest of the sludge in the universe does not, oddly, make the scene of emotion shatter, but supports it throughout the ride.

The pace is slowish, and the music is rather bass-heavy. The guitars aim for a wall of sound, but it resembles an advancing front of fog rather than a foreboding stone wall of a castle. The quick stings by the lead guitar etch into the mind like acid, and sometimes the squeals and half-baked riffs are the main item remaining in the mind ten minutes later. And still, the barren songs manage work like oiled machines. The undistorted guitars convey new meanings to the same themes, and the simplistic drumming keeps the whole together. The result is hypnotic.

What's more, while there is little in the way of wacky time signatures or noodling on the fretboard, the album is truly progressive in the most meaningful way there is. The songs start from one point and progress to another, somewhere else but still on the same plane. And what's more, the whole album is a journey of progression, a highway from one point of no particular interest to another pretty much like it. It feels like a drive through the night, with a passing scenery that turns into an enjoyable blur of glimpses of neon lights and scenery with snow and forests when recalled later; the songs blend into a single, consistent whole, and remembering the path any single one of them takes as an individual is a feat for the true masters of concentration. Somewhere Along the Highway is not a collection of songs, like so many albums tend to be, it's a single piece of art, and demands attention and patience to be heard all the way through, many times in a row. It needs immersion, opening up, and letting the album be the guide. And maybe, just maybe, the act of listening to this is a skill that needs to be developed, and that might be a journey in itself.

How to listen to this? How indeed? How to get to the bottom of this masterpiece and understand it?

For a random individual, it took seven hours on a road, tired beyond what's legal behind the wheel in Finland, with the relaxant drugs of the day before still keeping the waters in the mind both muddy and peaceful. It took an extended drive through heavy snowing winter weather, at less than half the speed limit, through silent, dark, heavy, friendly spruce forests, in almost complete darkness beyond the pitiful illumination of half-frozen headlights, the bottom of the car caressing the top of the powdery snow all the way. It took the tired mind's slow imagination, with the stamp-sized snowflakes fluttering by and creating an illusion of a sci-fi movie's warp drive bending the space and stretching the stars into lines instead of points of light... It took a moment that stretched into several hours of spontaneous meditation somewhere along the highway, and the perfect melding of the moment with the music, in silence, yet audible, alone in the dark. It might be impossible to explain to anyone else, but there are moments when the music and the moment meet and meld into an experience way beyond their sum, and that was one of them.

Yes, feel the pain of the faulty evolution in your spine, numb your mind for a couple of days with pain, boredom, and chemistry, and then embark on a journey while keeping your conscious self occupied with something like staying alive on an icy road, and let Somewhere Along the Highway stealthily charm you. It might sound like harmless background music for something, but it's a sneaky beast, and knows how to take over your mind. Or find another door to let it in into the fundamental layers of your brain's reptilian parts. It's all about the bleak yet powerful soundscape seeded with emotion, and it's worth walking through. Or, well, driving.

And the award for most evolved Cult Of Luna record goes to? That’s right! ‘Somewhere Along The Highway’. The first few attempts at perfection were just short, in my humble opinion, but this effort is as close to perfection as the Swedish act have ever managed to achieve, both past and present. Perhaps it’s the closest record to perfection they are ever likely to achieve as a band, hence the decreased opinion of the latest effort, ‘Eternal Kingdom’ which wasn’t bad, by any means, it just wasn’t ‘Somewhere Along The Highway’. There are several reasons as to why the average rating for this record stands at a staggering 98% from 4 reviews and to be honest, it‘s justified. One may wonder whether the hype of this record will eventually lead to the downfall of it’s overall opinion in the eyes of the public, but since it’s arrival on to our scenes, the work behind this particular effort still doesn’t go unnoticed and the hype hasn’t managed to bring on it’s fall from grace which could have been seen as imminent. The contributing factors as to why this record has lasted as a top contender to best record of not only 2006 but also from a band of this multi-cultural nature, in terms of genre hybrids, will be discussed in this review.

‘Salvation’, in particular, managed to draw upon a sound which bridged the gap between the more aggressive Cult Of Luna sound, which was dominated by one of the layered guitars and the snapping snare attacks which generate a lot of angst, and the more charismatic sound in the form of the subtle works of the bass and second guitar, which produced mainly clean riffs of a stunning nature. The only noticeable difference between this effort and the last is the fact that the sound that was achieved on ‘Salvation’ is now bigger, brighter and more action packed with material for audiences of all varieties. The major positive is the fact that this record can and does appeal to fans of varying genres and sub-genres because it has a seemingly unlimited source of tricks up it’s sleeve. From the bone crunching guitars, to the subtle influence of the bass in solidifying the soundscapes, there are elements of this record which can and do appeal to fans of all metal genres and even those whom don’t particularly like metal all that much. I’ve heard of country fans who like Cult Of Luna which, with their Neurosis influenced sound, is a massive plaudit. Lyrically, Cult Of Luna are as tight as ever, which ‘Dim’ in particular seems to suggest also.

“From the skyline dark clouds move in. They shroud me with her cold cover.
Eyes like daggers puncture the skin. Isolated in a room with no others.
Where do I turn when all hope is lost? Where do I find forgiveness?
My search for salvation has begun. To find a place where our hearts beat as one.”

To me, the simple factor of limiting themselves to less songs than usual has enhanced the performance of each member on the record. The fact that there are only 7 songs, in comparison to the self-titled records 10, makes a huge difference. The song writing has, of course, steadily improved as Cult Of Luna have matured into their enormous sound. Due to the aforementioned fact of having less songs to focus on, the efforts of the bands members has vastly improved, making each individual song on the record much more noteworthy than most that have gone before it. Take songs like ‘Back To Chapel Town’ with it’s emotively inspired layered guitars which produce distinctive feelings of pain, regret and sadness. The collective emotions flow like a river into the hearts of the audience and causes an emotional rising from within, increasing the appeal of the songs in an individual sense. In some ways, Cult Of Luna remind me of the way in which Isis can so effortlessly change the emotions of the listener, swinging from the aggressive side of the spectrum by using fast and impacting double bass which leans towards the roots of the band, to the more melancholic sound that rises from the ashes like a phoenix due to the use of stunningly high pitched riffs and a bass section which underlines the dark and brooding nature of the record. As well as this, the usual keyboard/programming affect on the soundscapes is to be felt as this element of Cult Of Luna offers something different to the mixture, something entrancing.

Whichever way this Swedish band choose to portray their lyrical themes, which are just as strong as ever, they do it in such a way that it seems more affective than the last effort. Vocally, I’ve never been too impressed with Cult Of Luna, but the vocals are what one would expect them to be due to the very nature of the genres they choose to hybrid. The sludge influence is distinctive in terms of the production, which can be thick at times due to the increased influence of the bass on the ground work of the record. The sludge influence also dictates how the vocals are to be used and, in terms of sludge vocals in general, these which are provided by Cult Of Luna are at least consistent although not as accessible or mood altering as clean vocals tend to be. The aggressive impact that Cult Of Luna has is altered in a positive sense by the vocals at least, which is seemingly what the job of the vocals is. Considering the vocals have become more and more sparse over the years, this shows a willingness in Cult Of Luna, as well as the endless capabilities, and an increased sense of what sounds better to the listener to omit certain aspects of the music which might detract from specific moods. For example, ‘Dim’, when the slower, more progressionist style of Cult Of Luna comes to the foreground with tight cymbal work and fantastic layered guitars, the vocals would merely serve to get in the way of this luxurious sound, but seeming as the vocals don’t come into play at this time, this indicates an improved sense of song structures. One must mention the impact of the bass in ‘Dim’, which is some of the best work I’ve seen on bass in my metal lifetime. Along with the catchy drum patterns, this song stands up as one of the best Cult Of Luna songs so far Immense.

Lethargic. Melancholic. Foreboding.

All three of these qualities shine through on Somewhere Along The Highway, and none of them are at all negative. This is not a happy CD. It's not energetic, either. Cult of Luna's latest release holds something unique, charming and fascinating.

The vocals are not for everybody. Even fans of ultra-raw basement black metal might be discouraged. I'm still of the opinion that the sound is an acquired taste, and that the sludgy vocals fit the music perfectly. The songs are slow, progressive and free of standard verse-chorus structure. Every instrument is important. The drums are superb; a unique rhythm underlines each track. Similarly, the guitars are repetitive in the best way: The same bars seem to recur endlessly at times, but the shifting drums and keyboards behind them complement it nicely.

The very first track on this album, Marching to the Heartbeats, breaks from the rest of the album's formula. Drumless, and with clean vocals, it's quiet, melodic and by Cult of Luna's usual standards, very short at just over three minutes. It's a perfect opener and sets the mood excellently for the rest of the album. Other songs are standard fare for the band - The trademark vocals and structure are present throughout, with the exception of And With Her Came The Birds, another quiet piece with deep, emotional singing and subtle percussion.

Bleak and emotional, Somewhere Along The Highway is a very well-executed blend of songwriting skill and atmospheric buildup.

Standout tracks: Marching to the Heartbeats, Back to Chapel Town, Dim

It appears they've done it - Cult of Luna has created metal that is actually suitable to play whilst kicking back on a lounge chair on a summer day. Or some other, stress-free activity. I originally got this as a promo from Earache, and knew I had to have the actual album. Usually, it being a promo wouldn't bother me too much, but on that copy some British dude kept saying, "You're listening to Cult of Luna, Somewhere Along the Highway" every few seconds. Needless to say, that makes the disc impossible to enjoy. After the fourth time he droned on about what I was listening to, I wanted to snap the disc in half and jab the pieces into his eyes.

It was hard to have the music broken up by this anti-piracy device because Cult of Luna have really created music that flows beautifully, and is really quite capivating at times. This is my first experience with the band, but their back catalogue cannot be far behind. While I usually like my metal violent and evil, "Somewhere Along the Highway" is just about the opposite yet still can be defined as METAL.

There are harsh vocals, the clean vocals are not fruity but instead sound detached and are drenched in distortion, the guitars go from heavy to pretty acoustic sections, keyboards highlight the riffs, I think they even bust out something that sounds like a mandolin or a banjo on "With Her Came the Birds." There is a definite "post-rock" meets sludge and progressive metal feeling to the proceedings that brings to mind Isis and Neurosis. Cult of Luna have managed to upstage most I've heard from their genre-mates, though (besides "Enemy of the Sun," that album kills) by making a disc you can listen to over and over, without getting put off by unnecessary discordance or drawn-out passages.

And one thing to highlight - your girlfriend will like it. Or at least mine does, and requests that we crank it up on a regular basis. Can't ask for much more than that, really, unless your girlfriend loves Incantation or something and needs no convincing to play some downtuned music.

So for you, for your girlfriend, for Cult of Luna, for Wayne Gretsky - pick it up.

I thought Cult of Luna's album Salvation couldn't be topped. When I got into Salvation, I was convinced for a long time that it was one of the pinnacles of the genre they play. Atmospheric, sludgy progressive... metal. This style is becoming more and more prominent in the metal scene these days, with Neurosis having spear headed it nearly ten years ago, and ISIS taking up the helm later on. Cult of Luna not only is able to keep up on adding their own style to this genre, they are able to perform it admirably.

Somewhere Along The Highway is no different. While it took me several weeks to fully digest, once I got it, I really got it. It sank in deep, like a movie you feel compelled to watch when a specific mood you feel needs to be accentuated. It sank in to my head and body like those rare albums do where it almost feels as if it is a part of you in some inexplicable way. As if you possibly could create something similar in another time and place.

This album is a very lonely album, portraying a mood of 'Saudade' thanks to the spacious soundscapes of exactly what the title hints at. While it is not without plenty of dense riffs, plodding bass and its share of screaming, it always manages to leave plenty of beautiful open air between moments of pure chaos. The two "bridge" sections in the song "Thirtyfour" has probably one of the most addicting and infectious percussion beats I've ever heard. Intertwined with this beat are very subtle vocals ringing out a melody which bring the two chaotic parts these bridge sections separate back together flawlessly.

The building crescendo on "Dim" is fairly reminiscent of a track from their previous album entitled "Waiting For You". What seems to start out mellow builds and compounds atop of its self until the momentum of the song is so dense, the only option for it ultimately is to come to a crashing end. Not only is this arguably the climax of the album, but if it isn't, it sets up the scope for the last few minutes of the album.

The use of synthesizer not only in this album, but by this band is so crucial to their overall atmosphere and the moods they attempt to convey. It tends to subtly layer a melody underneath several chugging guitars, which may even be mistaken for guitar its self. But on the biggest crescendos, it seems almost necessary.

However the synthesizer is not the only instrument responsible for some of the sounds in this album that almost sometimes go un-noticed. Other subtleties you may notice are that of the cabaça, samples of rhythmic hand clapping, tambourine, ebow and various uses of guitar feedback.

Probably what is the most mechanic track of the album would be the second one, "Finland". When I use the word mechanic, I would refer to this song as one that sounds almost like a steam engine pounding away at its pistons, giving the necessary momentum to get an album of this magnitude off the ground. While the first track "Marching to the Heartbeats" does the task of introducing the album, it gives more of a foundational feeling for the shape of things to come. However, until track two a new listener may not really know what they're knee deep in, for the remaining hour.

Melancholic and beautiful, this album paints a lonely and abandoned feeling which is unlike any other I've felt from an album. It sinks in with every swell of guitar distortion, cymbal crash, or agonized wail of vocals. With this album, Cult of Luna proves to me that they're on top of their game, and only getting better with age.

Lonely, expansive, no end in site. This is what it feels like to be somewhere along the highway.

And I thought Salvation was the last word on these guys! It seemed to me that Cult of Luna had really stretched their formula to it's limits with their previous album, but hear they are with a fresh take on their trademark sound, making their stuff way more epic, way more dynamic, just plain better.

One of the first thing you'll notice upon playing this album is how much looser, how much rawer it is then Salvation. The drums are still very tight, but the mechanical feel that was in their previous works is for the most part gone. It sounds like the whole thing was played live. There's a much bigger post-rock influence in this album then there has ever been before, which really works to their advantage.

After a fairly kick ass intro, the 10 minute marathon that is FInland begins, and you realise you're in for a good, if exhausting time. The whole thing is fairly different from anything else these guys have done, much more organic. The heavy bits and clean bits weave in and out, and there's a definite Isis feel in the way the song twists and turns. While the heavy bits aren't as massive as the ones on "The Beyond", they are probably more draining, with the raw, unpolished production and distortion drenched emotion combining to give you an overwhelming experience. The production plays a pretty big role here, make no mistake. There hasn't been this much passion in a CoL record since their debut.

A few songs go out on a limb a bit. "And with her came the Birds" (excellent song title) is a pretty cool ballad, with some nice sounding guitars, and some good clean vocals (which is great, as the monotonous vocals on Salvation got annoying quickly). Thirtyfour is another marathon length, typical CoL song, and it's pretty awesome, but really it's just preparation for the last two songs, which are the best CoL have ever done by a long, long way.

Dim is pretty epic. Basically, it's like most CoL songs, just much better.. Better riffs then usual, amazing clean parts, and some great screamed vocals. The last minute or so is odd though. It's some bizarre, crappy accordion vs electronic kick.. thing, and that's why this album gets marked down a point. The final song, however, is the best song CoL have ever done. It's a transcendent epic that a most bands would kill to write. It's extremely long too, almost 16 minutes, which is surely a good thing as for the most part, long songs rock. The song ("Dark City Dead Man") ebbs and flows for a while with some particularly cool riffs and textures. Then around the ten minute mark, it picks right up, with a slow, devastating riff repeating while other instruments weave in and out of the mix. It's a stunning slab of music, and an awesome way to end this album.

So to end this review, let me just say this generally an awesome album. It's heavy, unpolished, with great lyrics. It's probably the most accessible album these guys have ever done, so if you're new to CoL, you should pick this album first. To sum up.. Highly Recommended!