Photo credit: Chad Michael Ward (click for high res)
Swedish post-metal visionaries Cult of Luna have shared a towering new single “The Rift” along with UK and European tour plans for next year. The latest track to be taken from their forthcoming tenth studio album, ‘In the Shadow of Your Shadow’ which is due November 6th via the band’s own label RED CRK, the single proceeds the band’s headline set at Manchester’s Damnation Festival next month and follows an unforgettable headline set at ArcTanGent.
“The Rift” is an eight-minute journey from brooding tension to pummelling rage. Slowly gathering momentum, it erupts into a frantic, stormy assault, briefly simmering in suspense before a second colossal eruption. Tempestuous and utterly immersive.
Lyrically, “The Rift” explores the loneliness of the human experience and our urgent need to belong, examining the euphoria of finding refuge within a collective and the darker consequences of defining who is inside the circle and who is left outside.
Johannes Persson explains: “The Rift is about the loneliness of the human experience and the urgent need to belong, to seek refuge in the collective. There’s a kind of euphoria in knowing your peers’ mantras, in feeling chosen for a greater cause. Those shared beliefs tell you who you belong to. More importantly, they tell you who is excluded.”
In an era of echo chambers and hardened convictions, “The Rift” captures the widening distance between us: every idea amplified, every allegiance strengthened, until the divisions become almost impossible to cross.
Listen to “The Rift”: https://youtu.be/nS1_GngXtq0
Album links: https://orcd.co/intheshadowofyourshadowThere’s no limit to Cult of Luna’s creative vision. Inspired by artists from hardcore, sludge metal, folk, art-rock and beyond, the Swedish luminaries are revered as one of the heaviest and most restless bands in alternative music. Their new, 10th studio album, ‘In the Shadow of Your Shadow’, is another bold leap into the black: possibly the darkest release to bear their name, yet full of ideas that show they’re still peerless 25 years since debuting.
“Stagnation is the only thing that scares me,” states singer/guitarist/co-founder Johannes Persson. “I’ve said this in every interview I’ve done for the past 25 years: I don’t care whether or not people think we’re repeating ourselves. As long as we feel like we aren’t, we will continue to do this.”
A more-than-worthy addition to their dynamic canon, ‘In the Shadow of Your Shadow ‘is a 71-minute monolith: a stark rejection of trends, convention and pandering to one’s audience. Lyrically, it channels recent experiences of loss into a bleak set of songs. The album features guest appearances from Joe Duplantier, frontman of Grammy-winning extreme metal titans Gojira, and American folk icon David Eugene Edwards (16 Horsepower, Wovenhand), broadening Cult of Luna’s already expansive sonic palette.
Produced together with Daniel Berglund, ‘In the Shadow of Your Shadow’ is another evolutionary effort from a band who refuse to stand still. It’s devastating and diverse, and it cements their place as trailblazers.
“The Rift” follows the album title track “In The Shadow of Your Shadow“ and pervious slow-burning single “A Way Back“.Cult of Luna live dates (ticket links)
7 November – Manchester, UK – Damnation Festival
26 February – Lausanne, CH – Les Docks
27 February – Toulouse, FR – Le Bikini
28 February – Barcelona, ES – Razzmatazz
1 March – Lyon, FR – La Rayonne
3 March – Paris, FR – Le Trianon
4 March – Maastricht, NL – Muziekgieterij
5 March – Lille, FR – L’Aeronef
6 March – London, UK – O2 Forum Kentish Town
7 March – Brussels, BE – Ancienne Belgique
9 March – Strasbourg, FR – La Laiterie
10 March – Wiesbaden, DE – Schlachthof
11 March – Berlin, DE – Huxleys
12 March – Warsaw, PL – Progresja
13 March – Prague, CZ – Archa +
‘In the Shadow of Your Shadow’ track list:
1. In the Shadow of Your Shadow
2. Sadness Will Reign (feat. Joe Duplantier)
3. Landby
4. Breach
5. The Rift
6. A Way Back
7. One More Day (feat. David Eugene Edwards)
8. From Grey to Black
9. Burial
