 Whores Christian Lembach: voice and guitar Casey Maxwell: bass Donnie Adkinson: drums Record Label: Amphetamine Reptile / Brutal Panda / Eolian Empire / eOne (C)2017 All rights reserved by metalmasterkingdom.com Photo: Rob Botten Cult Of Luna with Julie Christmas Johannes Persson - Guitars and Vocals Magnus Lindberg - Drums and Studio-Engineering Andreas Johansson - Bass Fredrik Kihlberg - Guitars and Vocals Kristian Karlsson - Keyboard and Vocals Thomas Hedlund - Drums and Percussion Record Label: Indie recordings (C)2017 All rights reserved by metalmasterkingdom.com Photo: Rob Botten | Written by: Marty Adem Photography: Rob Botten (C)2017 All rights reserved by metalmasterkingdom.com @ The Mod Club Toronto, ON Canada August 22, 2017 Click here for interview with Johannes Presson from Cult of Luna. What better way is there to follow up a solar eclipse than to witness the awe-inspiring album Mariner being performed by Cult Of Luna with Julie Christmas. This was, by far, one of the best performances of 2017 and demonstrated that technical proficiency, along with artistry and unbridled creativity, can create a powerful and inspiring performance certain to captivate everyone. First up was Dälek, a New Jersey experimental hip-hop band who were loud and dynamic, distinguishing themselves from the other performers of the evening. They opened to a mixed crowd, many of who did not know what to make of the musical group. It was an odd, but interesting choice in opener, but it didn’t really do much to set up the atmosphere for the performance that was to come. The second act of the night was Whores, an Atlanta band known for their sludgy riffs and hard rock sound, even bordering on heavy doom at times. These guys were a sure crowd pleaser, whose songs with resolving endings seemed to satisfy most. While their tunes tend to play it safe and stay on the more typical side of underground music, they excited the crowd and finished with a head-bang worthy ending that whetted people’s appetites for the main show of the night. When told that Cult Of Luna was going to perform the entirety of Mariner on this tour, I was beyond excited to experience this phenomenon live and up close. Listening to this music at home on a speaker system, it was clear to that this music could only be fully enjoyed and appreciated if one was completely immersed in it as a fully body experience. The concept of the album is space exploration and venturing out into the depths of the unknown, and COL expertly guided us between solar systems to the end most point of the universe and beyond that night. Julie Christmas herself was a sight to behold, with her bright red hair, cut with girlish bangs and dark black paint smeared across the top half of her face. She wore a dress with strips of fabric/flexible material, which she ripped off and twisted around her arm and body as she moved around on stage, eventually throwing them one by one into the crowd. She also had strings of lights attached to her outfit and wrapped around one arm, which cast her in an eerie illumination for the entirety of the show. Her vocal range is renowned for ranging from high pitched girly cries to full on banshee shrieks; these were matched with head banging and full body shakes, a dynamic element that can often be lacking to COL’s onstage presence. Her vocals, which often floated above the ambient drone or atmosphere of each piece, were beautifully paired with Johannes Persson’s lower growls. Hearing her together with the band, one wonders “Why didn’t this happen earlier?” and “Why aren’t they their own band already?” Christmas adds so much depth and variety to both COL’s sound and stage presence, it is difficult to think of them as being a band without her. In fact, the one piece from the album near the middle of the set which does not feature Christmas’ vocals felt lacking and dull. Other beautiful and notable aspects of the show included the usage of light, which must have been expertly determined beforehand and which were both intricate and immaculately timed. Colors were used like brushstrokes and flourishes to highlight the textures of each piece, and the technician made a dextrous use of the variety of types of light available in order to achieve a feeling of traveling through space and through time. Particularly memorable was the final song of the set, “Cygnus,” which ends with a repetitive vocal and guitar line from both Christmas and Persson. On the album, this song’s ending feels lacking as it fades out steadily into nothing, whereas live, in combination with the flickering of lights that change from deep red to white, the voices and the instruments build to a breaking point. One can feel the penetration past the membrane of the universe when the music stopped and was left to fade as the crowd swelled into cheering and clapping. |
A truly breath-taking performance, this is a show that will be remembered by many. Considering that this North American tour was so short, we were privileged to be among the cities chosen to witness this cosmic and transcendent art-piece. I know that many (including myself) were moved beyond and out of themselves, perhaps connecting a little bit further and a little bit deeper with what it means to be a part of this symbiotic universe.
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