Celestia
A Cave Full Of Bats
[Drakkar]
Supposedly the head honcho of Drakkar is either one of the two members of this
French troupe, and after thoroughly enjoying the work of Avantgarde’s boss
with MonumentuM and being quite the Drakkar groupie, I was incredibly
anxious about picking this album up.
The keyword here is melodic. Celestia is perhaps the most melodic band in the French underground, and I don’t mean melodic in a Temple of Baal, Count Nosferatu or even Kristallnacht manner, Celestia’s sense of melody is closer to Seth, if we were to compare them to a French band. The guitars are tuned to a quasi-Swedish tone (very high indeed) and craft some very riff-oriented tracks, of which depressive, repetitive melodies form a large proportion. The bass also seems to be tuned to an inhumanly high sound, amplified in a very clean manner and played almost as a second guitar, harmonizing with the lead melodies. In many respects Celestia can be compared with Algaion (General Enmity) , in that the guitar department consists entirely of sparkling clean quick-pick melodies and guitar-bass counterpoint harmonizing. Very little distortion is used, and it sounds as though its often the built-in amp distortion that is creeping out of your speakers.
Like Algaion’s General Enmity, there are slightly fuzzy thrash sections here and there, and keyboards, although listed within the sleeve as being one of the instruments employed in the album, is virtually non-existent and used only in an extremely sparse manner. Rhythms are most often brooding and slow to more mid-paced sections, complementing the general melancholic nature of the riffage on show. Ultimately though, the production here is a little more primitive than Algaion, and this helps Celestia retain its cult underground identity and thus prove to be a plus point for the world’s most vocal BLACK metal community. I think the best material from each of Celestia’s demos have been collected here (4 tracks in all) so a further purchase of the demos isn’t necessary if I’m not wrong. Quality stuff indeed, and a safe buy for people who can appreciate some melody in their black metal stew.
[7]
© 2000 equimanthorn
The keyword here is melodic. Celestia is perhaps the most melodic band in the French underground, and I don’t mean melodic in a Temple of Baal, Count Nosferatu or even Kristallnacht manner, Celestia’s sense of melody is closer to Seth, if we were to compare them to a French band. The guitars are tuned to a quasi-Swedish tone (very high indeed) and craft some very riff-oriented tracks, of which depressive, repetitive melodies form a large proportion. The bass also seems to be tuned to an inhumanly high sound, amplified in a very clean manner and played almost as a second guitar, harmonizing with the lead melodies. In many respects Celestia can be compared with Algaion (General Enmity) , in that the guitar department consists entirely of sparkling clean quick-pick melodies and guitar-bass counterpoint harmonizing. Very little distortion is used, and it sounds as though its often the built-in amp distortion that is creeping out of your speakers.
Like Algaion’s General Enmity, there are slightly fuzzy thrash sections here and there, and keyboards, although listed within the sleeve as being one of the instruments employed in the album, is virtually non-existent and used only in an extremely sparse manner. Rhythms are most often brooding and slow to more mid-paced sections, complementing the general melancholic nature of the riffage on show. Ultimately though, the production here is a little more primitive than Algaion, and this helps Celestia retain its cult underground identity and thus prove to be a plus point for the world’s most vocal BLACK metal community. I think the best material from each of Celestia’s demos have been collected here (4 tracks in all) so a further purchase of the demos isn’t necessary if I’m not wrong. Quality stuff indeed, and a safe buy for people who can appreciate some melody in their black metal stew.
[7]
© 2000 equimanthorn