COLTo celebrate the 10-year anniversary of ‘Somewhere Along the Highway’, Swedish powerhouse Cult of Luna are taking it on the road and, for the first time ever, will be playing the album in its entirety. This is great news for long time fans of the band, although maybe not so much for purists who believe ‘The Beyond’ and/or ‘Salvation’ was the band’s best work. However, 12/13-year anniversary just doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it? London is the band’s third stop off on an 11-date European tour and tonight they play to a sold out crowd at the Islington Assembly Hall.

Opening act, Moloken, hail from Umeå, the same Swedish city as our headliners and, having been invited along by them, are a permanent fixture on this tour. They marry together atmospheric post rock with elements of hardcore and sludge, so their sound is not entirely unlike that of Cult of Luna’s. Despite an early start time of 7.15pm and a modest sized crowd, they play with gusto; they’re packing non-traditional song structures, ambient interludes, and crunchy prog riffs. It’s enough to get a few heads nodding, but it’s still too early on in the evening for anyone to be as enthused as the band clearly are.

Bossk, having already wowed crowds in both Glasgow and Manchester the previous two nights, show no signs of slowing their momentum. Tracks from latest opus ‘Audio Noir’ receive an electrifying reception, as they have their first London outing since the record’s release. The band is named after the Star Wars bounty hunter character Bossk. The Name means “Devour His Prey” in Dosh; the language Bossk speaks. This is worth noting because the band look set to decimate the now burgeoning crowd with hypnotic ambience, which builds into crashing sludge passages. The vocals don’t make an appearance until the very end of their set, but this makes for a truly heavy climax to an already mesmerising performance.

Teasing fans into their performance, Cult of Luna don’t play their hand straight away; powering through a blistering two-hour set, they save ‘Somewhere Along the Highway’ for the latter half. Awash in strobes and smoke, they open with ‘Vertikal I’ and ‘Vertikal II’ numbers, ‘The Sweep’ and ‘Light Chaser’ before throwing things back to their beginnings with ‘Owlwood’ and ‘Echoes’. ‘I: The Weapon’ and ‘Waiting For You’ close out the first hour of the show and they pummel forward showing no signs of stopping. Cult of Luna are a genuine tour de force to watch live and it’s refreshing to hear them making good use of their back catalogue – although tonight’s set list doesn’t go back any earlier than ‘Salvation’, it’s obvious they are pooling from their best material. Cult of Luna are a band that have to be seen live to be believed; their sounds translate perfectly from record to stage without any noticeable differences in quality or clarity. The only thing that changes is the intensity; they play with such animalistic ferocity and passion that it’s difficult not to get lost in the performance. And this is definitely the case tonight, watching the audience lose their minds as the band strum out the first chords of ‘Marching to the Heartbeats’. It’s difficult to imagine that this record was written a decade ago, as songs such as ‘Finland’ and ‘Thirtyfour’ still sound as massive as when they were first released.

(Review by Angela Davey)