Band:	Cult Of Luna
Album:	Somewhere Along The Highway
Style:	Post-metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	April 24, 2006
A review by:	Herzebeth

01. Marching To The Heartbeats
02. Finland
03. Back To Chapel Town
04. And With Her Came The Birds
05. Thirtyfour
06. Dim
07. Dark City, Dead Man

It's always really difficult to write a review regarding an artsy album full of mystique and intricate concepts; it happened to me when I reviewed The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw by Pelican and it happens to me quite often when I write experimental or post-rock evaluations. Somehow it was different with Cult Of Luna, the images and words came to me while I was hearing this album in the most bizarre way you could ever think of. So I'll just start rephrasing all those things traveling in my head right now.

You have a minimalist and quite suspenseful layout; the booklet shows nothing but a surrealistic desert on one side and a forlorn landscape in the other. This is actually perfect for the music you are about to hear; actually, try hearing this album in the dark with nothing but those images in your head?damn my friend, not even weed will get you this high I promise. Fortunately the production helps a lot, every instrument sounds really loud and greatly clear; even though it's a little raw, the audio feature only magnifies the thrill of the music.

So now that I've explained the surface of the album I'll go deeper with the music; Cult Of Luna plays what we all know as Post-Metal or "Sludge" to some people. This album fortunately shows a different side of this band, a rougher side actually, so the music becomes more intense and even dark at times (just check "With Her Came The Birds"). The whole album creates a shivering feeling wrapped with a gloomy atmosphere which will keep you interested to the very end; musically this band is just amazing, there are 8 guys arranging the music for crying out loud.

Yes, this is great music; this is an intense album from a powerful band, but the good question is, haven't we all heard this before? Bands like Pelican, Constants, Neurosis, Generation Of Vipers and Isis surround my mind saying "Hey!, We've done that before"; fortunately we, the ones who know the scene, understand why all those bands are different from each other; they have varied concepts, structures and to be honest their music is quite dissimilar generally speaking. That's exactly why people never say that Explosions In The Sky sounds like Mogwai or such bands.

This being said I'll write about the turn-offs of this album; it's sad to say that it has low re-playable values, unfortunately the fact that the best songs come in the end ( "Dim" and "Dark City Dead Man") will instantly make you skip the first half the next time this CD meets your stereo. I think Cult of Luna tried to add the old Explosions In The Sky kind of progression, where the album starts kind of soft and it ends in the most hostile way possible, but sadly they failed at this feature.

All in all this is a fairly good effort and I recommend you to try it, you have nothing to lose with a band like this believe me.

Best Tracks: "Dark City Dead Man", "Dim"