viernes, 20 de junio de 2008

Cult Of Luna - Eternal Kingdom (2008)



Fecha de lanzamiento: 16 de Junio del 2008
Sello: Earache Records

1.Owlwood07:40
2.Eternal Kingdom06:41
3.Ghost Trail11:50
4.The Lure (Interlude)02:34
5.Mire Deep05:11
6.The Great Migration06:32
7.Osterbotten02:20
8.Curse06:31
9.Ugín02:44
10.Following Betulas08:56

Duración 01:00:59

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Mirror 1


http://www.myspace.com/cultofluna

Y si una vez mas Cult Of Luna lo volvio a hacer, para los que llevabamos esperando desde el maravilloso e inigualable "Somewhere Along the Highway" los suecos nos volvieron a deleitar con un disco que hace honor a su gran reputación y los mantiene como uno de los grandes dentro de un género bastante saturado por las imitaciones...

personalmente luego de haberlo escuchado muchisimas veces lo veo más en la linea de "Salvation" que en la del anterior no tiene tanto momento volador y es un disco mas directo y pesado, eso si los momentos "paisajistas" que ya son marca registrada de la banda siguen estando como por ejemplo en el anteúltimo tema que es un instrumental que resume todo el concepto y lo que la banda quiere hacerle llegar al que la escucha, me sorprendio la utilizacion de lo que parece un instrumento de viento en el interludio "The Lure" y la genial "Following Betulas" un detalle que me encantó, los temas son todos impresionantes pero "Ghost Trail" y "Mire Deep" creo que se roban el disco que temazos los dos por favor...sin lugar a dudas el disco que más me gustó en lo que va del año

El concepto del disco esta basado en un escrito que los miembros de la banda encontraron en la sala donde ensayaban, aparentemente el edificio donde estaba la sala antiguamente había sido una institucion mental, dicho escrito era una historia que se llamaba "Tales From The Eternal Kingdom" y fue escrita por un paciente que estaba encerrado ahi por asesinar a su mujer...

Dejo una entrevista realizada al guitarrista Johaness Persson, donde explica con más detalle el concepto del disco...

"There’s a strange story behind the album and how we came up with the title. For the last couple of years we’ve been rehearsing in what is actually an old mental institution about 45 mins outside town - it was a mental institution in the 1920's - and when we cleaned out our rehearsal room we found all these boxes with junk in, that seemed like they had been forgotten for a long time.Everything from medical journals to paintings by patients and things the patients had done. And we also found a journal entitled “Tales from the Eternal Kingdom”, complete with pictures and poems and words, that a patient named Holger Nilsson had written at the time"

Johannes continues: "Holger Nilsson we since found out was a guy that was sentenced for his wife’s murder and was incarcerated for life. The notebook shows that it was a really interesting world he was living in – we’re not claiming to be psychiatrists or anything like that and able to make a good diagnosis of his mental state, but it’s clear to us that he was not living in our world. So basically the whole album “Eternal Kingdom” takes us through his disturbed world from his perspective and mind, as recounted in the journal"

"The whole story started off by him blaming her death on this gypsy-like man that he met on the road home to his village, Yttre Akulla."

"It seems like he drowned his wife in the creek just outside of Yttre Akulla. It was obviously a very tragic event. His wife was in labour having a baby, and he had to run to neighbouring village Bygeda to get a doctor. On the way to Bygeda he met this gypsy character, and he asked him to look after his wife whilst he ran to the village for a doctor – he was only away a short time, but when he returned to her, the baby was stillborn and his wife was in really bad shape, upset about losing the child, and she died in the creek shortly afterwards. The gypsy had disappeared."

"Holger believes she was killed by the Necken. In Old Swedish folk tales there is a creature called the Necken who it is believed was Satan. The Necken plays on his fiddle and lures women to their doom, like the sirens in Greek mythology tricking sailors to their death."

"During the night he sees a bright light in the forest and he starts walking towards it, sneaking through the bushes, all around the fire he sees these different animals and animal-hybrids – Kumans (half-man, half-bear). It later turns out that these are the 'evil' animals. They are dancing around faster and faster and faster, and in the middle of the ring he sees the gypsy - as they make eye contact, the gypsy transforms into an owl/man hybrid - this Owlman is known as Ugin, the Owl King. The Owl starts to scream, which causes the animals to give chase to Holger - so he runs away back to his house."

"The next morning there’s a knock at the door, and he’s very nervous but it’s one of the “good” animals. He gets taken to the good animals that are led by the Capercally. They have some secret information. The Capercally King tells him about this wood, this forest and the schism between the good and evil animals, and the Owl King Ugin that governs this whole evil land. The good animals had some information from a spy that will give them an advantage against the evil creatures. The good animals are not fighting creatures, but they get this information that they have a good chance to attack Ugin. So they all go and fight, but the information is false and they're surrounded and captured, so the story ends up that Holger gets sent to a dungeon in a mountain. Our interpretation is that this dungeon he’s sent to is his view of his incarceration."

Johannes handed in the journal which became civic property, and is expected to be displayed in the Osterbotten museum at some point.

Johannes reflects on the impact the find made on him: "When as a band, you unexpectedly find something like this it’s not a question of IF you’re going to do something about it. It’s an epiphany, it had to be the album concept, though it was very challenging to make the album's music re-tell the story in the journal– not just lyrics, but also the music to match such an intriguing idea and concept."