Cult Of Luna

Feel sorry for Cult of Luna. The Swedish dudes were playing this epic Neurosis/Isis style before horrible tags like "post-metal" (I don't want a world after metal!) and "metalgaze" (metal does not gaze!) existed. Now, you just want to punch a dude if he admits he listens to this stuff. What, is he wearing paisley too? A floral crown, perhaps? Man up! The rub is that Cult of Luna do the 13-minute-song thing so well on their sixth album (which is about four hours long) it's scary, adding in a healthy dose of experimental electronics (wait, don't run away just yet), while tunes like "Synchronicity" have a wonderful and oddball key/guitar interplay. "Mute Departure" proves that it is indeed a good idea to mix atmospheric wankery with melody and overwhelming, Armageddon-bringing sonics, while "In Awe Of" just crushes. It's a tough one: Isis called it a day and Neurosis will always rule. For these other post-metal (ugh!) bands that are good, it's almost like the good metalcore bands: you just sort of hope they reinvent themselves completely to get out of the genre, which, by no fault of their own, became overrun with so many boring acts you never, ever want to hear this stuff again. And it's too bad, because this is an amazing album.