“Collaborations between artists are usually a tantalizing prospect. In recent years we’ve had a handful of high-quality collaborations: Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas, Thou and Emma Ruth Rundle, and Spectral Lore and Mare Cognitum the cream of the recent crop. Collaborations can be tricky, especially in the age of the supervirus and restricted travel. Communication of ideas is vital. A collaboration can either sound like a blissful mesh of an artist’s best traits or a haphazard collision of distant sound. Ben Price, the sole member of doom/sludge project At The Graves, has buried himself in a casket with the sludge/black/death/you-name-it three piece Myopic. A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread is their first collaborative full-length.” Blood, sweat, graves, and bad eyesight.
Julie Christmas
Cult of Luna – A Dawn to Fear Review
“This summer saw a couple of top-notch releases from instrumental post-metal vets Russian Circles and Pelican. Both albums were worthy entries in the genre, but we should consider them appetizers, or warm-up acts, because one of the heavy hitters just walked in, and they have something to say.” Drink this Kool-Aid.
BIG|BRAVE – Ardor Review
“Ardor, the third full-length by Montrealers BIG|BRAVE opens with a sustained, unending riff. As it reverberates eerily, it suggests that the trio picked up right where they left off with their sophomore release Au De La, veering even further into fields of textures and sparse instrumentation. Their signature sound is a combination of elements from multiple genres and idioms, from post-rock to drone, shaped into an experimental, caustic, and often hermetic concoction.” Bliss in the abyss.
Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas – Mariner [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]
“For me, the most compelling collaboration of 2016 was the transatlantic partnership of post-metal stalwarts Cult of Luna and post-hardcore siren Julie Christmas. Both acts on their own provoke ample curiosity — Cult of Luna for their orchestral post-metal machinations, and Christmas for her insanely talented and schizophrenic vocal acrobatics — but put them together and you have a recipe for something amazing.” It’s a post-Christmas miracle!