Having come across this Swedish Post Metal act at a relatively early stage in their career (namely at the occasion of their second album, 2003's The Beyond, which I reviewed at the time), I have been able to witness this band's progression (after having reviewed the band's 5th album Somewhere Along The Highway, posted 22/04/2006 and still available for your scrutiny in this site's “Archive” section, I even went out to buy the band's compete back catalog, and later even got 2008's Eternal Kingdom, even though we at Concrete Web never were sent a copy of the album for review – the 2009 DVD Fire Was Born, was an item I did nót add to my collection) from mere Progressive Post-Hardcore Noise mongers, to the fine Atmospheric/ Ambient Post-Metal act that they are today.
After an hiatus of almost 5 years (as far as releases are concerned), C.O.L. released it's 7th album Vertikal in February of 2013, and album which was fittingly reviewed by colleague Cosmicmasseur (find it posted late January), an album which justifiably places the band on that same pedestal as the likes of Isis and Neurosis, for sure. In September of last, a companion EP entitled Vertikal II [comprised of 3 new songs and a remix of Vertikal's “Vicarious Redemption” by the renowned Justin Broadrick (whom compressed the essence of the originally 18:45 song into a mere 9:38!)] was released, and at around the same time the band realised that the version of Vertikal that was up on Spotify was merely the individual songs without their correct transitions. The band immediately set forth to upload the complete album, but in doing so the music turned out much harder than anticipated. Obviously, the guys could not just replace the songs with new files, and therefore decided to upload the complete Vertikal session in one file entitled Vertikal I & II, and including the bonus track which came with the EP...meaning you can now listen to the whole thing in one 108-minute session! Enjoy!
By the way, just a couple of weeks after having uploaded Vertikal I & II, the band announced that they're taking a small break, as 2013 had been a really busy year for them, and the guys were wanting to take some very needed time off. Just how long the break will be for, is unknown as of yet!