The show was been held in the small student-pub/club called Merleyn in Nijmegen. The only band that played that night was Cult Of Luna. Cult Of Luna entered the stage in a full and sweaty (not sold out) small club. The mood was set by just some dimmed blue lights on the stage and an eerie sounding moog intro. They started their set with the last song from the Eternal Kingdom album called ‘Following Betulas’. From the very first start the band gave it all. The sound was perfect. Atmospheric, loud and a crystal clear sound. Big thumbs up for the sound-engineer!

First three songs were sung by one of the guitar players. He did a great job. At first it seemed that Klas Rydberg their frontman/vocalist wasn’t there! It felt strange not to see their usual singer. The crowd was a really diverse audience with metalheads, punks and students (that kind of seem to be misplaced) that night. There was a great vibe and response coming out of the crowd. Fourth song was ‘Adrift’ from their Salvation album. Suddenly from out of nowhere Klas Rydberg came out of a dark corner and joined his band on stage and screamed his lungs out. Brilliant! You felt the excitement going on in the crowd. During the first songs, I saw a guy sitting down in a dark corner of the stage, but I assumed it was a roadie. It seemed to be Klas Rydberg all along.

The set became better and better from that point on. The set was filled with more heavy and up-tempo songs, than the last time I’ve seen them. I was thrilled that they finally played songs from the first album again. Absolute personal highlight for me was the song ‘The Revelation Embodied’ from their first album. The new songs from Eternal Kingdom seem to fit way better with the old songs, than the stuff from Somewhere Along The Highway. From the last album they played ‘Eternal Kingdom’, ‘Ghost Trail’ and a couple of more. They played for almost 1 and a half hour. No encore!  Awesome show from a band that played tight as hell. Cult Of Luna made their revenge on me and I’m glad they did.

After the show I had the chance to have some brief words with their singer Klas Rydberg. I asked why he joined the band just during the fourth song. It seemed he felt ill the whole day and almost decided not to sing that night. Luckily he did.