Glad to see someone else is as astounded by this record as I am, especially since I wasn't a massive fan of Author & Punisher before this. I knew of him, I knew what his shtick was, but his music never really gripped me in the same way Krüller I've been mulling around ideas for a review of my own and after seeing you echo most of my own thoughts I'm stoked to see what I can write up for this one. Easily one of the most surprising albums from an artist I can think of.
This is actually a spot-on analysis at the end of the day. Cult of Luna have been consistently good for so long that eventually the winning formula is going to become stale in its own way. A Dawn To Fear was the album that pushed CoL into one of my top bands, so I've been loving The Long Road North because while it gave me exactly what I was expecting, it's also exactly what I wanted. I think that Somewhere Along The Highway is a step down in quality for them personally, so their newer material has resonated with me much harder than people who regard their older stuff (or Mariner for that matter) as their best. I'll probably still end up writing a review saying mostly the same stuff as I would for A Dawn To Fear, as the two albums are admittedly extremely similar, but I definitely agree with the disappointment sentiment. While I wanted more than what The Long Road North is, I'm still absolutely loving what we got.
You know that an album is incredible when it's deeply open-ended and personal but somehow conveys exactly the same emotions to very different people. Great review Sonny, completely on the mark.
As someone who didn't really grow up with BTBAM, this Colors I vs Colors II discussion has been seriously interesting this year. If anything I was really harsh on Colors I when I finally checked it out a few years ago, since I've found that I enjoy the more modern production style and songwriting of Progressive Metal versus BTBAM's initial brand of it. In that sense Colors II resonated with me way more and I've found myself going back to it with higher and higher praise the longer I sit with it and, although it did make me revisit Colors I and bump up my score, it seems like I'm in the minority in considering Colors II to be an overall stronger album. I wanna do a review myself but I'll have to see what happens, since it's going to take a ton of thought to parse through the sheer density of both albums.
Seeing your review and posts about this one made me give it another sincere chance and I'm really glad I did. For some reason Where Fear and Weapons Meet didn't jive with me in the same way as The Blind Leading the Blind did, but the relisten today did wonders. While I still don't think this tops their previous release, this one is a strong addition to their discography with "...And a Cross Now Marks His Place" and "The Green Fields Of France" being two of their strongest tracks to date.
I'm glad that I'm not the only one that had a really rough time with this one. From the moment I turned it on I knew I was in for a really long hour, but man this one is just not good. I was able to latch onto a few moments here and there but the rest is just a mess of attempted soundscapes and horrible sounding vocals that attempts to create shocking or strange imagery to no avail.
I've wanted to go back to this album for a while now but just can't find the motivation due to pretty similar issues that you're explaining here. I'm sure people are loving this for its modern technicality but it had zero draw for me whatsoever. Glad you were able to put something down to paper because I don't think I could have even if I wanted to.
I definitely slept on this record, only giving it one listen and a passing 4. After coming back to it, the insanely slow buildup in the title track is absolutely sublime, I can see why you hold this one in such high regard.
I'm really glad this album has been making waves, I kind of regret not posting about it in more places, but I'm still looking forward to reviewing this one and Toda História before the end of the year. Like you said, it was incredibly fresh sounding and the warm, more tropical take on Black Metal does carry over to Toda História as well, so hopefully you dig that one as much as this one. They're both equally great in my opinion, it's been hard to separate them from each other in my year end list.
Fen is absolutely one of Atmospheric Black Metal bands that deserve more attention than they get and even though I agree with you that The Dead Light is a bit lackluster compared to Winter, it's a great addition to their discography to showcase a slight change in the direction of their sound. I'm always down for bands that go towards the more progressive side of things, so we'll see where this takes them. I need to give this album a few more chances, I think it's one that could grow on me.
Glad to see someone else is as astounded by this record as I am, especially since I wasn't a massive fan of Author & Punisher before this. I knew of him, I knew what his shtick was, but his music never really gripped me in the same way Krüller I've been mulling around ideas for a review of my own and after seeing you echo most of my own thoughts I'm stoked to see what I can write up for this one. Easily one of the most surprising albums from an artist I can think of.
As someone who didn't really grow up with BTBAM, this Colors I vs Colors II discussion has been seriously interesting this year. If anything I was really harsh on Colors I when I finally checked it out a few years ago, since I've found that I enjoy the more modern production style and songwriting of Progressive Metal versus BTBAM's initial brand of it. In that sense Colors II resonated with me way more and I've found myself going back to it with higher and higher praise the longer I sit with it and, although it did make me revisit Colors I and bump up my score, it seems like I'm in the minority in considering Colors II to be an overall stronger album. I wanna do a review myself but I'll have to see what happens, since it's going to take a ton of thought to parse through the sheer density of both albums.
Seeing your review and posts about this one made me give it another sincere chance and I'm really glad I did. For some reason Where Fear and Weapons Meet didn't jive with me in the same way as The Blind Leading the Blind did, but the relisten today did wonders. While I still don't think this tops their previous release, this one is a strong addition to their discography with "...And a Cross Now Marks His Place" and "The Green Fields Of France" being two of their strongest tracks to date.
I've wanted to go back to this album for a while now but just can't find the motivation due to pretty similar issues that you're explaining here. I'm sure people are loving this for its modern technicality but it had zero draw for me whatsoever. Glad you were able to put something down to paper because I don't think I could have even if I wanted to.
I definitely slept on this record, only giving it one listen and a passing 4. After coming back to it, the insanely slow buildup in the title track is absolutely sublime, I can see why you hold this one in such high regard.
I didn't know that I needed the mental image of Popeye in Cvlt Black Metal makeup, but here we are I guess.
Fen is absolutely one of Atmospheric Black Metal bands that deserve more attention than they get and even though I agree with you that The Dead Light is a bit lackluster compared to Winter, it's a great addition to their discography to showcase a slight change in the direction of their sound. I'm always down for bands that go towards the more progressive side of things, so we'll see where this takes them. I need to give this album a few more chances, I think it's one that could grow on me.