25 Best Metal Albums Of The Decade

Recruiting former Battle of Mice/Made out of Babies vocalist Julie Christmas for 2016's Mariner was such a triumph for Cult of Luna that it was almost disappointing that she didn't return for A Dawn to Fear three years later, despite that album's obvious quality. Her soaring wail introduced a new level of melodicism to the band's core sound, lending their atmospheric post-metal an almost otherworldly quality at times.

That extra dimensional is what makes Mariner one of the decade's best albums. Cult of Luna had already nailed their established take on sludge with acclaimed releases like Somewhere Along the Highway, Vertikal, and Salvation. They'd never been a band to coast on formulae, of course, but the album-to-album progression leapt forward here. Christmas' presence brought tones the band has rarely explored before, a stronger balance between louder and quieter moments, and an emotional dexterity impossible without such an elastic voice in the mix.

Hypnotic, heady, and heavy, Mariner is a sci-fi post-metal masterpiece and one of the most engaging collaborative pieces on genre history. Its grandeur and sheer sonic richness shall be celebrated for decades more.