Cult of Luna / Julie Christmas - Mariner (2016) Reviews

I have no idea who Juie Christmas is, or what her work outside of this collaboration may sound like, but one thing is for sure, she has certainly brought an additional dimension to CoL's sound, without nudging it too far from what we have come to expect from the swedish atmo-sludge crew. I went into Mariner expecting it to be Cult of Luna with ethereal female vocals, presuming Julie Christmas to have come from a darkwave or gothic background similar to Chelsea Wolfe, but that isn't what she brings to the table at all. In fact, there is a quite a variation in her vocal styles, ranging from a quite twee-sounding, young girl-like voice to a snarling, sharp-edged sludgy shriek. I must admit that it is the more aggressive latter style which I found most appealing, such as she uses on "The Wreck of S.S. Needle" alongside a clean style that reminded me of SubRosa's Rebecca Vernon. I can see that Julie's vocals may be divisive among CoL fans and I feel that it may take me a few more listens to be completely at home with them myself, but she does help to revitalise a band that was getting maybe a little too comfortable in it's own skin.

Of course, this being Cult of Luna, the instrumentation is impeccable and the songs are multi-textured affairs, but they feel less reliant on the build-and-release trope that has become the main feature of atmospheric sludge in general and CoL in particular over the years. I think this may be down to the flexibility of Julie Christmas's vocals which bring wider textural variety to the vocal aspect of Mariner's sound and makes it less reliant on the building of instrumental tension and the subsequent payoff of it's release that the genre has stereotypically come to rely on. This fundamental aspect of Cult of Luna's sound isn't completely absent of course and is very much still in evidence in a song like "Approaching Transition" which, tellingly, Julie is less involved in and as such sounds more like the CoL we are all used to.

Whilst the album as a whole is a very solid and interesting affair, for me it is at it's best when JC is given free rein and utilises all the vocal tricks in her toolbox, with the closer "Cygnus" and the afrementioned, "The Wreck of S.S. Needle", being the two standouts as her vocals weave in and around the band's searing and soaring instrumentation in a quite sublime dance of musical dexterity and creativity. The songwriting on these two tracks is quite exceptional and feels extremely natural, as if the sounds these two entities have ended up producing are the only feasible outcome of their inevitable collaboration.

I must admit, before listening to Mariner, I thought that Cult of Luna no longer really had the ability to surprise me. Entertain and delight me, for sure, but to make me do a double-take and really sit up and take notice of a newly-heard release, no those days were gone. I was wrong for sure and I can't really explain why it has taken me so long to get around to checking this collaboration out, other than I already thought I knew what to expect. Well bigger fool me, because this is not at all that thing, but rather an invigorating and special slab of atmospheric sludge that stands up to scrutiny against all but the absolute best that the genre has to offer. Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks after all.

Cult of Luna has already been known as one of the most consistent bands of post-sludge with destructive and pensive walls of sound. In this album, they share their defining qualities with those of someone who has joined forces with them for a collaboration, Julie Christmas! Let me just say that her vocals are impressively diverse. Her vocals range from distinct singing to vicious shrieks to floating cries that she had been known for in her noise-rock/metal projects Made Out of Babies and Battle of Mice.

Mariner is a collaboration of both artists' sounds, as if two lone particles in the universe have met each other to create some kind of object. Cult of Luna's evolution of sound that would affect later releases is all thanks to Julie Christmas and her dash of variation.

The album commences with "A Greater Call", beginning with melodies drifting into a space environment, note by note, before the sludgy riffs explode like a big bang along with vocals from the Cult of Luna vocalists and Julie Christmas. "Chevron" is more equal-sounding in terms of involvement. In this song, Julie's vocals warps from girlish singing to coherent shouting, as if Avril Lavigne joined a post-sludge band. Yet there's plenty of space for Cult of Luna's illustrative grooves and luminous electronics.

"The Wreck of S.S. Needle" is where Cult of Luna has their typical sludgy riffs picking up where they left off from Vertikal. However, they're newly defined by Julie's eccentric vocal textures, in a feeling contrast of bliss and anxiety, something Cult of Luna had never ordinarily done before. The expansive "Approaching Transition" has limitless post-metal ingredients including timbre guitars, undulated bass, hypnotic rhythms, and beautiful cleans from the band's clean vocalist Fredrik Kihlberg, all blended together for a peaceful galactic atmosphere. It is slightly draggy for a 13-minute song, but soon the shouts from unclean vocalist Johannes Persson keep you awake in the second half.

Nailing this instrumentation-vocal balance, "Cygnus" is a 15-minute epic that you need and might just love. This is one of the most inspirational songs of recent times, from when I'm writing my review right now with my Beats headphones turned slightly up for a massive boost without deafening myself to look up to the stars and imagine what the rest of the universe is like at the very edge. Seriously, this is one of my current favorite songs, from the pleasantly killer first 6 minutes (with a f***ing awesome solo in the middle) to the 3-minute ambient interlude to the intense last 6 minutes, with the drummer building intense tension throughout the song. D*mn, just D*MN, that 6-minute final part is one of the most brutally insane and greatest moments in post-metal and probably all of metal and music. Before we get to that, let me just say Julie Christmas is beyond g****mn amazing! Her unique vocals helped turned this long track into an epic. Those vocals have stunned me and left me on the brink of emotional tears. The music itself is so unreal and flawless, but she does a grand job helping out. Like I said, what makes this track the best and most epic of the album is that 6-minute ending. The final part starts with a F***ING BRUTAL minute of Christmas screaming at the top of her lungs. Then neurogenesis happens; we transcend across the solar system then beyond the galaxy and the universe itself with magnificently emotional vocals in the foreground over the underlying Twinkle Twinkle Little Star-like background vocal loop. She's a goddess of the post-metal universe! I love this amazing song so much, it might've surpassed much of the band's material. That whole song is EPIC!!! An album ending like no other...except for a bonus track in the vinyl version, "Beyond the Redshift", a 12-minute space-ambient instrumental epilogue. At that point, you have fully stopped after no longer seeing the universe far out of reach, leaving you stranded in the infinite void of darkness, and you slowly disappear as all your particles fade away.

Mariner is one of those albums that requires multiple spins to fully absorb what it truly contains. This Cult of Luna-Julie Christmas collaboration album is a vibrant achievement, and her fresh stellar vocals have progressed through melody and emotional intensity. You did well, Christmas!

Favorites: "Chevron", "The Wreck of S.S. Needle", "Cygnus", "Beyond the Redshift" (bonus track)