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Cult Of Luna - Eviga Riket Book/AudioDVD

posted by: maurice on 19 March 2010

Own release

After their ‘Eternal Kingdom’ album Cult of Luna once again returns with the same theme, now released as a story with the addition of newly written music, mostly soundscapes. Eternal Kingdom dealt with the story of Holger Nilsson. He spent most of his days institutionalized undertaking psychiatric care. After a tragedy that took place in the village of Yttre Åkulla just north of Umeå, he was convicted of manslaughter on his wife whilst pleading not guilty. During the consequent time at Umedalen's Hospital he wrote down his version of what had happened.

He gave it the title ‘Eviga Riket’ (Swedish for ‘Eternal Kingdom’) and for the last album Cult of Luna picked some pieces out of Holger Nilsson’s story. The book/audiobook ‘Eviga Riket’ tells the complete story of Holger Nilsson according to how Cult of Luna had interpreted the diary they’ve found in their rehearsal room (that once was the mental institution where Nilsson was a prisoner). It has been released in Swedish and English and the first press of 1000 copies is already sold out.

The story starts with a stranger that knocks on Nilsson’s door who’s looking for a place to stay because of the terrible weather. Nilsson’s doesn’t let the stranger in because his wife is pregnant. Later on his wife is feverish and the baby is coming really soon. Nilsson decided to take his horse and cart to visit the doctor together with his wife. On the way to the doctor a wheel of his cart breaks. He’s laying down his wife at the side of the road and then the stranger suddenly appears. After a while he decides to go by horse alone to visit the doctor. When he comes back with the doctor the stranger is gone and his wife has given birth to a daughter, born dead.

From then on the tragic story starts and explains why Nilsson isn’t the murderer of his wife. We enter a completely imaginative world including owl men, tree men and other animals that Holger Nilsson has to fight together with a capercaillie (that proclaims itself as the king) and hares. The capercaillie tells about Ugín (that’s the stranger) has stolen the soul of Nilsson’s dead baby. Ugín used these souls to create bear people also called kumans. So now his daughter has turned into a bear woman. Ugín uses these animals for his army. Once in the eternal kingdom all animals lived in harmony but Ugín started a war.

I won’t tell more about the story because you should read it yourself. It’s a really unimaginable and touching story and the fantasy world of Holger Nilsson goes further than your own. The music written by Cult of Luna truly strengthens the story. Mostly soundscapes (similar to the interludes the band uses on their albums) are in between the chapters and they fit perfectly to the atmosphere of the reading material. It ends with the song “Nord” which can be seen as a regular Cult of Luna track, it emphasizes the empty feeling you have after the reading is done.

The book is released as a hardbound book together with paintings of Joris Vanpoucke that visualize the story. The English version story is transposed to an audio book by Anna Guthrie. The only question I have is if Cult of Luna really found a diary of a mental patient or just invented the complete story and concept by themselves. You can order a copy of the second press at cultofluna.com/ in a couple of weeks and judge for yourself what the truth is.

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Related bandprofile: Cult Of Luna

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Comments

Author	Message
iaatbYntiaY	Posted on 21.03.2010 (01:09) goto top
	Yooo wat een verhaal van die gast. Zieke geest. Of is het als bij Sling Blade?
Rookie	Posted on 21.03.2010 (02:40) goto top
	ik vroeg me bij eternal kingdom al af hoeveel van het verhaal van dat dagboek waar is, maar hoe het ook zit, erg tof concept. hoewel ik het boek lekker aan me voorbij laat gaan
still it sells	Posted on 22.03.2010 (15:00) goto top
	Grappig. Holger Nilsson als anagram voor Nils Holgersson. Een zieke geest zal het zeker geweest zijn.

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