The Long Road North

2022 release. For more than two decades, Sweden's Cult of Luna have forged a sound that has grown incomparable to that of others. As soon as listeners hit play, they are in familiar yet refreshingly new Cult of Luna territory, the pulsating rhythms of "Cold Burn" pummeling, and Persson's savage roar tearing through the layers of guitar. As is the case with every album from the band in recent years, there is a lot of shifting of dynamics and sonic density, and perhaps more so than usual on The Long Road North. "It's a big sounding album. I would almost describe it as cinematic. As always, when we choose songs for an album, we put in a lot of effort to get the dynamic right. In some aspects, it has been one of the easiest albums to write, but in other ways, it's definitely been the hardest, with big changes very close to the master delivery. The ebbs and flows need to be right, and when some songs are on the heavier spectrum, they need to be balanced out with something more soft without making the drop too big." The tracks "Beyond I" and "Beyond II" particularly stand out, stripping things back and bringing in outside artists to help them realize their vision.