Cult of Luna: In The Shadow Of Your Shadow [album review]

It's not exactly a stunningly original observation to say that much of the best heavy music of 2026 has been steeped in darkness. It's easy to understand why. The last couple years of human society have been incredibly challenging for most people, and music and art reflect the times in which they are created, intentionally or indirectly. As I write this, the world feels a little more hopeful, thanks to the American people's wholesale repudiation of our current regime in the midterm elections, but we still have a long road ahead of us. There will still be much darkness. Albums like In The Shadow Of Your Shadow, the new release from Cult of Luna, will still feel timely and necessary for years to come.  

Cult of Luna don't really do half measures, and In The Shadow of Your Shadow is another  substantial affair. It is nine tracks, about 71 minutes, and nearly unrelenting in its bleakness. I have found some previous Cult of Luna albums a little too pummeling - I seldom sit through all of A Dawn to Fear in one go these days, for example. While In The Shadow of Your Shadow is as heavy as neutron star, it also features many moments where the band spreads its experimental wings that are smartly dispersed across the album, which prevents it from ever feeling overwhelming.

In The Shadow Of Your Shadow does open with a heavy two-track punch: the title track kicks of the album in crushing fashion, reminding the listener that "Without me you are nothing." It is followed by "Sadness Will Reign," which features Gojira's Joe Duplantier alongside Cult of Luna lead vocalist Johannes Persson, a similarly brutal and misanthropic track, opening with the lines "All of you, frauds and liars / Grind your bones to dust / Harvest your hollow tears / Build an altar out of rust." One of the album's shortest tracks, "Sadness Will Reign" nevertheless makes times to slow down the assault and let some atmospherics come to the front before ending in primal release. Persson and Duplantier's mingled vocals are different enough yet complimentary that it brings some nice depth to the track before it comes crashing together in a wall of noise and a truly anguished final vocal rasp. 

"Landby" is a lovely and necessary instrumental reprieve in the largely unrelenting album, giving a little space between the two heavy-hitting opening tracks and the rest of the album. It is quiet and pretty, but adds a spooky whistling at the end that hints at the dusky, expansive tracks that follow. "Breach" begins a more midtempo affair, featuring one of album's most prominent keyboard melodies and a soaring, haunting guitar solo. But it true post metal fashion, it ultimately builds to a furious roar.  The lyrics to "Breach" read like something from one of "weird lit"/horror writer Brian Evenson's many short stories: "The decay is spreading / It rips through my skin / From the tips of my fingers, the disintegration begins / Here, on the inside / A mirror on the wall / The sore on my scalp is growing / Soon I'll be gone." 

The opening of "The Rift" feels a little meandering and formless, before suddenly kicking things up into a hardcore-inspired higher gear, settling back into an atmospheric groove, and once again hitting the gas to pour on more high-octane riffage. "The Way Back," one of the album's singles, recalls the band's collaboration with the late Mark Lanegan with its clean vocals and Americana guitars. Of course, this is a Cult of Luna song, so there is a layer of spacy keyboards and a quiet buzz of static over the simple, driving percussion. It's one of the catchiest moments, and while the song is about being literally and figuratively lost, the lyrics at least present the chance that there is a right way home: "My fears and doubts, send an echo through the night, as I carry on / Is there time, to make it out of here / In time I need to find, a way back," Persson sings. It's not a clearly hopeful moment, but it at least allows for the possibility of a happy ending. 

"One More Day" features the second of the album's two collaborations, bringing in David Eugene Edwards of gothic Americana bands Sixteen Horsepower and Wovenhand. Whenever Edwards is involved, it's logical to expect a song that trades in his familiar Old Testament country sonic territory, but his appearance leans heavily on the gothic side of his particular sound, mournfully delivering lines like "Is there nothing spared / only the hum / Only the weigh of the sacred." Rather than a Sixteen Horsepower Track, "One More Day" is more reminiscent of bands like Sisters of Mercy, thanks to Edwards' vocals being somewhat submerged in the mix and surrounded by sinister keyboards and chugging guitar. 

"From Grey to Black" is one of the most concise songs on the album, a relatively straightforward ripper at six and a half minutes. Of all the tracks on the album, I suspect this one will garner the least attention out of this new batch of songs not because is it is a weak track - it most certainly isn't - but because its sandwiched between the star-powered "One More Day" and the crushing, cinematic closer, "Burial." The final track is Cult of Luna at its best, building in intensity slowly over the course of its nearly 12 minute runtime to crushing catharsis. It ebbs and flows, allowing ethereal keyboards and soaring guitar solos to come to the front for quieter stretched before Persson's throat-shredding vocals come roaring back to tell a story of staggering loss: "In every child I see your eyes / Along trails with an unknown end / I follow you towards the tide / Why live with no purpose? / When death is certain / I came home for my burial."

In The Shadow Of Your Shadow is a strong album from an incredibly consistent band. I have some quibbles with the mix - in general, I wish the guitars were a little more prominent, as well as the drums at points. Even this is a minor complaint - in general, I like the warm, haunted mix, and the overall vibe of the album makes me think of walking alone early on a summer morning in a deserted Midwestern town just before the sunrise (Yes, I know Cult of Luna is from Sweden!). It's dark, but the light is starting to leak out from the horizon, the blackness starting to transition to grey. Maybe that's the hopefulness I'm feeling about things changing in the world. Or maybe, even on an album as dark as In The Shadow Of Your Shadow, there is always a little light that will shine through. 

Cult of Luna's In the Shadow of Your Shadow is out November 6 via RED CRK Recordings.