Celestia – Frigidiis Apotheosia: Abstinencia Genesiis
Earlier Celestia releases have always shown a lot of promise, but never really carried through with anything overly remarkable to my ears. Take your standard, melodic, though core underground black metal persona musically and inject a touch of gothic flair through synth accompaniment and overall dark romanticism and you have an entity that is dabbling in a lot of ideas that have been often executed by others before them with a bit more success and vision. Perhaps this is too bleak of a picture I have painted, for there is always something on their releases that I have enjoyed, enough so to keep the titles I have, but I can’t help but noticed a forced sounding air to Celestia’s past exploration. That is until now. With “Frigidiis Apotheosia: Abstinencia Genesiis”, it seems that Noktu and crew have grown quite comfortable in their creative shoes and have eased up on the compositions to really let the more catchy and dark moments of their songs to breath. This is achieved by way of creating simple lines musically. The independent musical phrases are indeed simplistic, but still quite powerful on their own and all effectively congeal together into a very poignant and memorable body of work. Acoustic guitar lines and subtle keyboard harmonies exist within slow to mid-paced rhythms that benefit from a very tight guitar tone, only to be further darkened with the tormented screams of Noktu. I may know what direction each song is going, but I’m just happy to be along for the ride as very memorable riffs carry one along as if being tugged by a warm wave of water. It is this flow and sensible songwriting style that has really opened up the future of Celestia, for this French entity has established a very dark and moving atmosphere with “Frigidiis Apotheosia: Abstinencia Genesiis”. –Marty
PARAGON RECORDS
Worm Gear 