Wow, okay. I didn't know I had a cult until a few months ago, and they actually make really good music. W Cult! I remember making a post about a track on this album, but I think it's time for the whole thing, don't you think?
Where to start. I found this album when I was looking for prog metal albums with female vocalists for the sake of voice training purposes, and what I found was quite the gem. I had never listened to "post-metal" or Cult of Luna before, Mariner was quite the departure from my djent. I really enjoyed it on the first listen through though, and it's now one of my favorite albums. Julie's vocals are great, I was not expecting what she would do on this album but it really makes this album. I actually don't know the band members for this band, but whoever does the deeper screams is also really good, and the two of them sound really well with each other. The instrumentals are also great, and in a way they create a feeling of immersion with patterns and powerful riffs. The riffs will often take their time, letting you take the whole thing in before its gone, and I love that about this album. Everything just works well together! Also, there's no singles today, I guess you could listen to Chevron or Cygnus but this album is best experienced in its entirety.
That's going to be all for today's rec. Let me know if you enjoy/enjoyed this album or not, and feel free to give me some recs as well. I'll be back tomorrow 
I haven't listened to any other albums from my cult, is Mariner just that much better?
I find it much more enjoyable due to mix of repetitive hypnotic lyrics, nice duet at cygnus end, and more meandering, sort of searching sound. Put it that way, I could instantly clock this album in the mix of 20 prog metal songs (mainly due to rarity of female singers tbh, but sound and theme are also semi unique).
The others are like whatever, good metal (tm).
*Incidentally, if someone has like male screaming in duet with woman singing normally, gib
there is something nicely primal in that combo, probably high frequencies doing harmonizing or whatever they do
Hypnotic is a great way to describe it, and I completely agree with everything you've said! It really is unfortunate how rare it is to find a female vocalist though...