Produced by Cult of Luna
Released: 2004
Categorising Cult of Luna as metal or hardcore is as incorrect as doing the same to Neurosis or Isis, the two bands this Swedish act is closest to musically and creatively. Like them, Cult of Luna don’t so much play music as manipulate sounds, creating vast atmospheric noisescapes with minimalist vocals and, despite having seven members on this album, very sparse instrumentation.
When the riffing finally does come in, often after a minutes-long build up of white noise, effects and ambience, it comes as crushing waves of sludge that quickly subside once more into further extended breaks of mesmerising tribal drumming or sonic manipulation.
Salvation is absorbing and hypnotic as Cult of Luna slowly unfurl the various moods of their music, some of which is so stripped back instrumentally it makes previous albums sound downright cluttered. ‘Adrift’ and ‘White Cell’ recall earlier works, but it’s clear that the band had turned a corner in its sound and direction. Opening track ‘Echoes’ drifts gradually into the consciousness long before you’re actually aware of it, rises to a grand crescendo and eases away again over a barely noticed 12 minutes, segueing into the mesmerising ‘Vague Illusions’ so effectively it’s difficult to tell where one ends and the next begins, and the story is much the same for the entire album.
For want of something to label it, this type of thing is usually called post-hardcore, but on Salvation Cult of Luna is almost post-music, of a scope and brilliance few could hope to match.
- Echoes
- Vague Illusions
- Leave Me Here
- Waiting for You
- Adrift
- White Cell
- Crossing Over
- Into the Beyond
Rating: 90%
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