Culture: Cult Of Luna @ Irving Plaza, New York City

(Drivebycuriosity) - The moon has a strong influence on a lot of people. Some believe that the lunar cycle impacts the behavior of humans and animals. Ancient mythologies and religions worshiped gods and goddesses associated with the moon - a cult of Luna.

The name of a popular Swedish heavy metal band refers to this cult (wikipedia  cultofluna ).  Yesterday I had the luck to attend a concert of "Cult of Luna" at Irving Plaza in New York City. This is their first U.S. tour in 8 years.

This concert was the most intense rock experience I`ve had since I watched a Pink Floyd concert (with founding member Syd Barrett) in London`s Ufo Club  decades ago. This band, consisting of 4 guitars, 1 keyboard and drums, produced very massive and thick but also filigree bodies of sound. Their catchy song lines were clearly structured (you can find samples on YouTube like this youtube). Balladic pieces got amplified to fierce explosions which burned sometimes like nuclear fire. The powerful voice of Johannes Persson, the band`s vocalist, substantiated the strength of the music significantly.

The concert experience benefitted a lot from a perfectly coordinated light show which translated the music into a heavy metal opera. The stage was kept in a thick artificial fog and illuminated in changing colors according to the song. Strobe lights which were coordinated with the drum staccatos created an intense hallucinatory atmosphere. All components - songs,  choreography and light show - fitted perfectly together boosting the intensity of the concert. There were moments I felt like I was witnessing the rebirth of God. The psychedelic metal show was like Richard Wagner on the pure & clear crystal meth in Breaking Bad.

According to the "Highlander Principle" - there can be only one - the other bands of the concert event couldn´t come close to matching the Cult of Luna experience. Katatonia, the other Swedish headliner of the event, served a solid & powerful hard rock but their gig was an emotional setback after the Cult of Luna event. The warm up bands "Intronaut" and "Tesseract" , who also delivered solid metal, were in a different universe.

The tour with all 4 bands will continue in the coming days, for instance Toronto Sep 27, Chicago Oct 2, Los Angeles Oct 6 & San Francisco Oct 07 (facebook).

I hope that I can repeat this experience sometime. Thank you so much "Cult of Luna". You were awesome!