Celestiial

Celestiial are an unusual beast. Their latest release, "Where Life Springs Eternal", is a fascinating mix of heavy, droning funeral doom guitars, tortured vocals, and glacial percussion. Somehow they’ve managed to take the usually oppressive and choking tools of the funeral doom metal trade to evoke an almost soothing animistic atmosphere of forests and streams and mist on the air. It’s a strange and impressive achievement. It took me quite a few listens to get the point of this release. At first I felt the compositions were dry and unimaginative. The guitars are hazed in delay and fade which gives them a dreamy, airy feeling, very unusual for doom, but I thought that perhaps the music was just using this production tool as a gimmick to hide a limited creative vision. Likewise the many samples of water, wildlife, and forests. Celestiial embraces the inspiration flowing from his surroundings and injects them into an inspired and uniquely challenging/spiritual expression. This album features the talents of Tim Glen (percussion) and Jason Walton (bass) from Agalloch. "Where Life Springs Eternal" is a vibrant exploration of beauty from within and its reflection upon the waters streaming from the woodlands. Buy here or here.

there's something in the water