Cult of Luna Share Eight-Minute Single ‘The Rift’ Ahead of New Album
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Editorial Dept.
Cult of Luna have released “The Rift,” an eight-minute preview of their forthcoming 10th studio album, In the Shadow of Your Shadow. The track moves between restrained passages and sudden bursts of speed, drawing on both the Swedish band’s atmospheric side and its hardcore roots. The album is due November 6 via RED CRK Recordings.
In the Shadow of Your Shadow will arrive November 6 via RED CRK Recordings, with “The Rift” serving as the latest preview of the nine-track album, according to a press release from Cult of Luna’s team. The record also features Gojira’s Joe Duplantier on “Sadness Will Reign” and David Eugene Edwards on “One More Day.”
“‘The Rift’ is about the loneliness of the human experience and the urgent need to belong, to seek refuge in the collective. There’s a kind of euphoria in knowing your peers’ mantras, in feeling chosen for a greater cause. Those shared beliefs tell you who you belong to. More importantly, they tell you who is excluded.
These are interesting times we live in, for sure. Truth has become a matter of conviction, and the wheel of history turns for another round. The noose is tightening and we have no one to blame. We tied it ourselves.”
“The Rift” follows Cult of Luna’s stunning, slow-burning “A Way Back“ and the album’s visceral title track and lead single, which earned support from Metal Injection, Brooklyn Vegan, Kerrang!, New Noise Magazine, The PRP, Lambgoat, The Line of Best Fit, and many more.
Pre-Order In the Shadow of Your Shadow:
There’s no limit to Cult of Luna’s creative vision. Inspired by hardcore, sludge metal, folk, art-rock and beyond, the Swedish luminaries are revered as one of the heaviest and most restless bands in alternative music. In the Shadow of Your Shadow is another bold leap into the black: possibly the darkest release to bear their name, and full of ideas that show they remain peerless 25 years into their career.
Hailing from Umeå, Sweden–home to fellow legendary innovators Meshuggah and Refused–Cult of Luna built an ardent fanbase with their albums Cult Of Luna (2001) and The Beyond (2003), before Salvation (2004) catapulted them to global acclaim. The raw and vast Somewhere Along the Highway (2006) won Sweden’s prestigious P3 Gold Award for Best Rock/Metal Album of the Year, and inspired the band to fully embrace their metal side for 2008’s crushing Eternal Kingdom.
Each subsequent release added new shades to their sound: Vertikal (2013) took influence from industrial cityscapes; the Julie Christmas team-up Mariner (2016) was a space-metal rocket ride that got nominated for a Swedish Grammis Award; A Dawn to Fear (2019) was their longest standalone album to date; and The Long Road North (2022) featured contributions from musician/actor Mariam Wallentin as well as the critically acclaimed musician/composer Colin Stetson (Hereditary OST).
A more-than-worthy addition to their dynamic canon, In the Shadow of Your Shadow–co-produced by Daniel Berglund, mixed by Magnus Lindberg, and featuring Joe Duplantier of Gojira on the standout track “Sadness Will Reign”–is a 71-minute monolith: a stark rejection of trends, convention, and pandering to one’s audience that channels recent experiences of loss into a bleak set of songs. In the Shadow of Your Shadow is brimming with Cult of Luna’s signature ferocity, but also finds the band broadening their own horizons.
“Stagnation is the only thing that scares me,” states singer/guitarist/co-founder Johannes Persson. “I’ve said this in every interview I’ve done for the past 25 years: I don’t care whether or not people think we’re repeating ourselves. As long as we feel like we aren’t, we will continue to do this.” In the Shadow of Your Shadow is another evolutionary effort from a band who refuse to stand still. It’s devastating and diverse, and it cements their place as trailblazers.
In the Shadow of Your Shadow Tracklist
- In the Shadow of Your Shadow
- Sadness Will Reign (feat. Joe Duplantier)
- Landby
- Breach
- The Rift
- A Way Back
- One More Day (feat. David Eugene Edwards)
- From Grey to Black
- Burial
Cult of Luna Live Dates
11/07/26 – Manchester, UK – Damnation Festival
02/26/27 – Lausanne, CH – Les Docks · TICKETS
02/27/27 – Toulouse, FR – Le Bikini · TICKETS
02/28/27 – Barcelona, ES – Razzmatazz · TICKETS
03/01/27 – Lyon, FR – La Rayonne · TICKETS
03/03/27 – Paris, FR – Le Trianon · TICKETS
03/04/27 – Maastricht, NL – Muziekgieterij · TICKETS
03/05/27 – Lille, FR – L’Aeronef · TICKETS
03/06/27 – London, UK – O2 Forum Kentish Town · TICKETS
03/07/27 – Brussels, BE – Ancienne Belgique · TICKETS
03/09/27 – Strasbourg, FR – La Laiterie · TICKETS
03/10/27 – Wiesbaden, DE – Schlachthof · TICKETS
03/11/27 – Berlin, DE – Huxleys · TICKETS
03/12/27 – Warsaw, PL – Progresja · TICKETS
03/13/27 – Prague, CZ – Archa + · TICKETS
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