The highly anticipated Cult Of Luna and Russian Circles European tour got underway in Copenhagen on the 17th March, and round two landed the following night in Berlin’s historic Huxley’s Neue Welt venue. And the pairing of the two Post-Metal innovators was a dream come true for those that know, when it was announced they would be touring together with both bands having released strong new albums in 2022, Cult Of Luna with The Long Road North (Metal Blade Records) and Russian Circles with Gnosis (Sargent House).
But getting the night started and warming the evening up nicely were Svalbard, the contemporary Uk Post-Hardcore / Metal band who have recently signed to Nuclear Blast Records, and have recently been locked deep in the studio working on their fourth album. Led by the duel vocals and guitars of Serena Cherry and Liam Phelan, the Bristol based four-piece ripped through a short sharp set including some of their more well known songs including ‘Disparity’ and ‘Revenge Porn’ (with Serena screaming “Fuuuuck Off!” at the top of her lungs). Before closing with the recently released new single ‘Eternal Spirits’, their tribute to fallen Rock-Stars.
The band seemed extremely pleased to have been invited on the tour, with Serena in particular playing with a huge grin on her face throughout and delivering plenty of patter in between songs. Clearly happy to be back in Berlin and seemingly humbled to be supporting two heavyweight icons of the scene, who she told the crowd had both been huge inspirations for their band. Svalbard perfectly set the mood and soaked up the positive reception from a crowd, that was swelling nicely throughout the room.
Next up came Russian Circles, and this is a band who simply let their fine music do the talking. It’s incredible just how much noise the three musicians are able to make between them, absolutely blowing the roof off of the iconic Berlin venue with a mesmerising and perfectly executed instrumental set, of the finest Post-Metal your ears are ever likely to hear. The Chicago based Power-Trio worked their way through a number of new cuts including ‘Betrayal’, ‘Conduit’ and ‘Gnosis’, whilst also dipping deep into their repertoire playing some classics including ‘Deficit’ and finalè ‘Mlàdek’.
Russian Circles had the audience mesmerised from start to finish, with each composition taking the crowd on a journey with their structure expertly building from moments of calm to utter distorted chaos. And with the perfectly entwined instruments of guitarist Mike Sullivan and bassist Brian Cook, multi-layering their sounds with various effects pedals and working in absolute unison with the furious drumming of Dave Turncrantz. The band left the stage to a raucous applause with the crowd clearly wanting more, and were on absolute fire from the first note to the last.
And so it came to Cult Of Luna to stylishly round off proceedings, opening with the thunderous escalating percussion of ‘Cold Burn’, which also opens their new record. And then also delivering a set leaning heavily on new material from A Long Road North, with tracks including ‘The Silver Arc’ and ‘Beyond I’, building to the furious climax of ‘Blood Upon Stone’. The Swedish band occasionally dipped a toe into their back catalogue, playing ‘Nightwalkers’ from A Dawn To Fear, ‘I: The Weapon’ from Vertikal and ‘Genesis’ from ‘The Beyond’.
Led by their ever enigmatic frontman Johannes Persson, who delivered his unique vocal screams with passion throughout. It’s always a highly engaging experience to observe the various band members work cohesively together, to create their grand and often epic brand of Post-Metal. Multi layering guitars with synths, thunderous bass and two drummers, the soundscapes they create together throughout the set are undeniably impressive. And this show unquestionably provided a stimulating combination of bands sharing the stage and complimenting each other well, each providing something a little bit different for the audience to sink their teeth into. And from here their impressive show rolls onward across mainland Europe, taking in cities such as Brussels, Paris, Vienna and Prague amongst many others, on what may well be looked back on as a legendary fourteen concert run. KZ
Words by : Abstrakt_Soul
kult-zilla.com 
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