Back when I was living in Alaska as a kid, I listened to a lot of metal, mostly Metallica and Megadeth (geez, what was I thinking with the Megadeth?). But when I moved back to Seattle, I became a certifiable hip hop kid, a b-boy, a disciple of the beat and it took until my late 20's for me to get back into metal. ISIS really was the band that drew me back in and the emphasis on minimal vocals (at least discernible ones) and drawn out instrumental parts really appealed to my post-hip hop electronica aesthetic. It was still a rhythmically driven type of music, and the melodies were much less imposed upon by virtuoso guitar solos.

My taste for Cult of Luna stems from the ISIS vein, which includes mostly Hydrahead acts, such as Zozobra, but also my earlier exposure to bands like Slint and Shipping News. The high point of my relationship with the moon rockers from Sweden was 2006’s Somewhere Along the Highway, which will forever be my measuring stick for the success or failure of their other releases.

By that measuring stick, Eternal Kingdom falls just short of Highway’s brilliance in dynamism, songwriting and cohesiveness from track to track and as a whole album. The less unified feel may, however, be a decisive move to emulate their inspiration for this album. Apparently this is a “concept album based around the diaries they found in their rehearsal space of a mental patient imprisoned for the murder of his wife.” If that is the case, then I can forgive them for ditching that tight feel of a single piece of work made into smaller pieces that Highway had.

Forgiven or not, this record just leaves me listless and unable to focus on it. I have given it  many thorough listens. All of them have been pain free, but felt compulsory, as if I were still trying to find the ‘x’ on the treasure map to Eternal Kingdom. The quality in production values are still solidly in place, though I am not sure anybody will be able to resolve the contrast in sonic needs between a classic screamer and his crushingly loud band (sorry dude, sometimes, you just gotta let the band play and shut up with all the hollerin’ because nobody knows what the hell you’re saying anyways!!). On the plus side, the drums are mixed in big and beefy, which I always love, check “Mire Deep” and “Osterbotten” to see what I’m talking about.

Their sound and aesthetic are still readily identifiable…they are not subject to getting lost in the dirt pile of thousands of metal bands vying for air time. Eternal Kingdom is brimming with driving moments, like the brutal, crushing last three minutes of “Ghost Trail.” What saddens me, though, is that those driving moments are fleeting and are scurried away with less fluidity and continuity than on Somewhere Along the Highway. “The Great Migration” is by far my favorite track, with its stuttering herd of drums and swooping guitar overdubs leading into a full on march of mammoth proportions (pun intended).