Celestiial - Where Life Springs Eternal
Full-length, Bindrune Recordings, February 27th, 2010
I have been waiting to hear this album for quite some time now. I enjoyed the previous full-length from Celestiial 'Desolate North' a great deal, aside from a few flaws in its presentation. Well four years and a few new band members later, we finally are presented with 'Where Life Springs Eternal'. Celestiial has definitely expanded on the ideas it was originally presenting; slow, absolutely crushing funeral doom wrapped in dense, atmospheric field recordings. The sound is quite vast and sounds as though they are performing in the middle of a forest or upon a cliff alongside a waterfall. Loads of echo and reverb coat the instrumentation, making it sound eerily distant and cavernous.
Celestiial succeed where a great deal of funeral doom bands fail. The atmosphere is believable and incredibly encompassing. You simply do not listen to this album, it sucks you in and transports you to an endless void, until the voyage comes to a somber end. Its almost like witnessing tectonic plates shift right before you. The vocals are strangled and howled in an atypical manner, more akin to black metal or hardcore, than the usual death growl of most doom metal.
The guitar, bass, synth, drums and vocals all bounce and shimmer off of each other, making the album sound truly alive, as opposed to just playing music. The field recordings help a great deal in creating this atmosphere as well; birds chirping, water cascading and wind rumbling. These sounds all help in making this album incredibly enveloping. There are a few shorter tracks interspersed within the album, which incorporate a plucked harp and these tracks have a distinctly Celtic folk inspired sound to them. This really compliments the drone and dirge of the longer, more metal tracks. All in all, this album is very thought-out and impeccably well-performed.
This is funeral doom for people who normally cannot stand the genre. Celestiial really breathe life into a stagnant and at times, boring genre. Do yourself a favor and pick this album up as soon as possible!
Reviewed by E. - 8.5/10
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