Thoroughly impressed by Cult Of Luna’s show this summer at the Pukkelpop festival, I was stoked going into “Vertikal II”. This 4-song EP is the band’s follow-up to “Vertikal”, released earlier this year. That album showed a different side of Cult Of Luna, one that prominently featured electronics mixed in with their particular brand of post-metal.

To keep things short: “Vertikal” good, “Vertikal II” bad.

“Oro” is a menacing intro that drags on for what seems like forever. And as epic as “Vicarious Redemption” was on “Vertikal”, so sleep-inducing is the remix we get at the end of this EP. “Light Chaser” is off to a good start and then evolves into something I like to label ‘boring as fuck’. The only decent track on here is “Shun The Mask”… eleven minutes of the band exploring all different aspects of their dynamic sound. That’s 1 out of 4 songs… the only thing epic about this EP is the fail.