Cult of Luna - A Dawn of Fear

So far, we got a lot of awesome new music in 2019. But there are two albums that were especially eagerly awaited by fans. One is the long-awaited fifth album by Tool, Fear Inoculum, which is still surrounded by controversy regarding the outrageous pricing of the physical release, as well as long threads of discussion with anyone who dares to say the album isn’t the absolute best (cause if you don’t think so, you just didn’t understand it! How dare you say Maynard Keenan has lost it? He’s god!).

The second album wasn’t 13 years in the making, but it did take Cult of Luna 6 years to record their seventh album, A Dawn To Fear. However, when putting this record on, you can hear that the band has grown significantly in the last 6 years. Sure, they didn’t reinvent the wheel. But on A Dawn to Fear, the Swedes incorporate just enough post-metal, shoegaze, and even some hints of black metal to create a soundscape full of melancholy, but always with a silver lining approaching. Unlike for the preceding album, Cult of Luna only used analogue instrumentation on their latest release. By omitting electronic keyboards and other synthesized sounds, the band created a more organic, deeper sound. Paired with Persson’s and Kihlberg’s singing, the new songs are powerful and straight-forward – even the mammoth of a song that is “Lights on the Hill”, which is 15 minutes long, but powerful through and through.

Often, long songs seem to have boring passages, fillers or seem to drag. But once again, Cult of Luna managed to create songs that are enjoyable even if you’re not a gearhead who enjoys music solely based on the complexity of the composition. The songs are multilayered, yet accessible. So even if you think Tool are too proggy or too over-produced, you’ll get access to the more progressive side of post-metal with this album. Ultimately, if I had to decide between Tool or Cult of Luna for my album of 2019, I’d go for A Dawn to Fear.