Description
LABEL: METAL BLADE RECORDS
VINYL RELEASE DATE: 2/11/2022
ALBUM RELEASE DATE: 2/11/2022
VARIANT: OPAQUE WHITE VINYL 2LP
For more than two decades, Sweden's Cult Of Luna have forged a sound that has grown incomparable to that of others. Ambitious, epic, visceral, and drenched in emotion, they frequently craft songs that clock in at over eight minutes but make every single moment count. With 2019's A Dawn To Fear, they delivered a career highpoint, and on 2021's The Raging River EP, they continued on the journey started with that record, one that concludes with The Long Road North, which stands as one of their most dynamic and beautiful works to-date.
"I think one of the reasons why we have been able to be so productive the last couple of years is that we have been consistently writing from the heart. We have let our instincts guide us, and I think it's getting clearer where we are heading," says vocalist/guitarist Johannes Persson, who has been one of the primary driving forces behind the band since their inception. "Another key aspect of how we were able to speed up the process is that I have moved back to Umeå after fifteen years in Stockholm. It made it very easy to meet up and work together instead of writing everything in a few but very long sessions."
The title of the album has deep meaning to the front-man, tying into its predecessors. "'The Long Road North' is a title that symbolizes the mental journey I went through a few years ago. The lyric to the song was one of the first that I wrote when we started writing again after 'Mariner' (2016). The process that I've gone through has been challenging, but I've stayed true to the answers I found, so I'm in a completely different place now than I was then. If 'A Dawn To Fear' and 'The Raging River' were born from making sense of some sort of emotional chaos, 'The Long Road North' is an analogy for finding a way out of it and taking the first step towards where I want to be. Even though I'm not in that place anymore and the journey is ongoing, I feel that the title is a milestone that needs to be passed before we continue."
TRACKLIST
Side A:
1. Cold Burn
2. The Silver Arc
3. Beyond I
Side B:
4. An Offering to the Wild
5. Into the Night
Side C:
6. Full Moon
7. The Long Road North
Side D:
8. Blood Upon Stone
9. Beyond II